496 words about Globalization, Individualism, and "counter cosmopolitans"

The change Appiah is referring to is the natural change, i feel, or the way history and life has progressed before the advent of our western information culture. The change Appiah is referring to is the one of ideas and culture, for example the way the way the people of Kumasi would get their Kente cloths was through trade with the Europeans, produced by Asians. Coupled with the choices of globalization, such as access to information, access to news about the world and the individuals society at large, the individual is impacted in a way that they are free to make a choice, and at the same time almost ‘forced’ into a position where they have to communicate with others from different places in the world, taking us back to Appiahs example of the Kente cloth.

The way in which the people of Kumasi would get this cloth was through communicating, through trade, through sharing. They didn’t just decide to make everything ‘in house’ and shut themselves from the world and its ideas. As an individual, we have to live our lives, morally, and still be able to assimilate with others because we are not our own ‘one stop shop’. To futher that, I mean that we have an obligation to be open and exercise the fact that we have to tap into different communities in order to live like the individuals we strive to be.

I feel an individual can impact this kind of change. Someone with a lot of charisma, someone who appears confident and can create a movement of sorts can change the way a society, culture, or mass feels about a certain thing, or how they live their lives. An example of this would be the fashion choices of music artists and how it influences cultures and spreads quickly [ to be frank ]

The access to the information is an important matter as well. Without it, you may not be affected as quickly by it, but it doesn’t mean you are immune to it, it just may come to you in another form. But through the access to information, one is constantly adding pieces to their wall of ‘individualism’ where there is no clear cut rubric as to what gets places on that ‘wall’, but rather the constant inner workings of an individual making the choice of what to put.

I think Appiah is right when speaking about authenticity. Who are we to stop someone from making a choice that goes against their ‘history’ or ‘way of living’ if to them it feels like the next logical step in their life, or would actually help make their lives easier. Should we hold people to farming with oxen and cattle, where here in the west we are using the latest machine, just for the sake of preserving tradition an containing ‘cultural imperialim’? I don’t think we as an outside individual have the right to make that choice for another individual, or group.