European Civilization vis-à-vis Others

By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Europe saw its civilization as

incomparable because of spiritual/religious and racial superiority, gradually
overtaken by an emphasis on scientific and technological supremacy. One is also
civilized in accordance with the level of one’s material and economic strength.
The West’s primacy in this regard was made manifest in its imperialistic reach
to the far corners of the globe.
Yet European civilization, by virtue of its expansionism, and of its core values
of science and trade, needed to know about “others.” Thus, as we have seen, it
deciphered the Rosetta Stone and resurrected ancient Egyptian civilization. It
challenged other contenders to civilization, such as Japan, China, and Thailand.
European civilization was curious about others out of both self-interest and a
dedication to knowledge for its own sake.
European civilization was also racked by self-doubt. Joseph Conrad peered into
the “heart of darkness” in an Africa where barbarism overwhelms the rationality
of Western man. Sigmund Freud had descended into the underground caverns of
the mind, showing how thin the veneer of civilization covering man’s vaunted
rationality is. And thus Europe’s superiority.
Europe became “open” to others. Coupled to its feelings of insecurity and a
belief in pluralism supported by anthropology and sociology, Europe was now
prepared to talk with others.
In practice, of course, European civilization had been imposing itself and its
terms on all others.
Would dialogue bring about a new global civilization?

D.Salameh
 Arab Civilization and Its Modernity
The Arabic word for civilization as given in the Oxford Arabic Dictionary is either
madaniyya, which comes from madina, or city, and thus equates civilization with the
polis; or hadara, which conveys the idea of sedentariness versus nomadism; or
tammadun, which also comes from madina and conveys a sense of refinement and
cultivation, along with urbanity. There is also the term umrân, used by Ibn Khaldun.
The beginnings of Arab civilization are linked to the coming of Muhammad as the
Prophet of Islam. In the seventh century a.d., his revelation sparked the shift from
nomadic tribesmen to urbanites as the core of Arab society, not all at once but certainly
over time and as basically conceived. This is evident in Muhammad’s move into Yathrib,
a city north of Mecca, and his change of its name to Medina, which “means city and
from which the term civilization [tammadun] is derived.” From the beginning the
Prophet aimed at a universal religion with a universal message, the carrier of a new
civilization. This civilization was embodied in an empire.
The spread of Islam was extraordinarily rapid and far-reaching. By the twelfth century, it
stretched, as indicated, over a large portion of the known world and threatened Europe. It
was rich and cultivated, far advanced over its neighbors to the north, possessing the
classics of the Greeks as well as its own opulent literature.
Islam in the twelfth century, in its assertion of superiority, was the counterpart of Europe
in the nineteenth century, with religion rather than race as the defining feature. It saw
itself as citified, polished, and refined, made up of two parts: an explicit world vision, in
this case mainly expressed in religious terms, and an empire, represented by a coherent
political, military, and economic system. The contest with European civilization was for
a long time in the favor of the Arabs. As late as the seventeenth century, Islam was
pounding at the gates of Vienna. Thereafter, the tide turned. (116-119)
D.Salameh
 Globalization
Like the notion of civilization, globalization is diffuse and highly contested. The
combination of civilization and globalization is awesome.
Globalization is a process or set of processes that transcends existing boundaries of
states and societies. It has taken place in many guises, such as the plagues and
migrations studied by scholars in world history, and at many moments in the past. We
can say that Homo sapiens has been engaged in a sort of globalization during its entire
existence as a hunter-gatherer species wandering across the world.
However, the globalization of our focus primarily involves what has been occurring
since the second half of the twentieth century. For many scholars, it is mainly an
economic process. It has made major impact on us in many ways. First, in terms of
space: satellites in outer space that link the peoples of the earth in an unprecedented
fashion. Satellites have made for an enormous compression of space and time
(naturally with earlier steps leading to it), and, with the computer, have contributed to
an information revolution. This development, in turn, is linked to cultural
developments whose consequences are not yet clear, a profound change in
consciousness, rooted in material and institutional transformations.
Second, nuclear threats in the form of either weapons or utility plants, showing how
the territorial state can no longer adequately protect its citizens from either military or
ecologically related “invasions.”
Third, environmental problems that refuse to conform to lines drawn on a map.
Fourth, multinational corporations that increasingly dominate our economic lives.
Other factors can be noted, ranging from human rights to world music. (125-127)

D.Salameh
 Global Civilization

Religion has become a generic category since the Enlightenment, in which there is a “single essence common to all
religions.” So what is the substitute? A global civilization and local cultures. Such a civilization can be said to have a
common basis in science and technology, which, whatever their local coloring, have universalistic qualities. There is no
center, or territory in the traditional sense, in this sci-tech civilization. As a result of the information technology
revolution, we live in a networked society, which implies living in a virtual space. This does not mean doing away with
local place. Or with bonds other than to humanity at large: tribal, regional, and national ties will persist. The global is
only an additional bond, made possible by globalization.
Sci-tech as the basis for a global civilization—may be regarded with great suspicion and rejected by others. This is part
of a centuries-long debate over modernity and mechanization. Einstein was skeptical about the technology to which
science was applied. In the shadow of World War I, he remarked that “our entire much-praised technological progress
and civilization generally [emphasis added], could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.”
politicians were more dismissive. In the words of Mahathir bin Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia,
while promoting the technological development of his country, does not like the values associated with the process,
“Everything will continue to be cooked in the West. And what is from the West is universal; other values and cultures
are superfluous and unnecessary. Thus the globalized world will be totally uniform.”
An important issue will be the question of identity. Is a global identity required for a global civilization, on the model of
a national identity for a nation-state? The elements making for global identity would be a common language: English,
music, math, food?
Everything so far is controversial and a matter of a possible future as much as a present reality. Globalization is a
process still in “process.” (127-136)

D.Salameh