Ignorance By Robert S. Winstrich: The Clash Of Civilization

According to Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, civilization is “a relatively high level of cultural and technological development, specifically the stage of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained”. Other sources trace the meaning of civilization to political, economic, military and social structures as well as the heightened intellectual and artistic aspects of life (Spielvogel,xxxi). Civilization developed as the crises of everyday life necessitated change. As history progresses, we study our past in search of guidance and other crucial information to help us along the way. The study of civilization also plays as an agent to defer us from

In fact, while the distinctive ideologies and religious groups still exist, the clear boundaries of different civilizations characterized by Huntington have blurred. When this dichotomy to recognize the world as direct confrontations between ideology and culture groups becomes no longer valid, the theory of the inevitability of the clash of civilization, thus, are now flawed, because it is realistically unreasonable, ethically wrong, conceptually biased and historically inaccurate. These problems regarding the clash of civilizations embody a misleading western supremacy shown in Bush’s speech as well as the war on terror on a larger

The civilizations, as identified by Huntington are Sinic [Chinese or Confusious], Japanese, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox [Russian], Western [Europe, North American, Australia, New Zealand], Latin American and possibly African. And it is among these groups that share a “common interest and common values” and have a “common culture or civilization” that will lead to more interdependence on members of the same civilization and less dependent on the West. Huntington’s theory is that the West has had [at one time or another] a negative impact on every other civilization, and this has led to a decline of power and influence around the world, especially the Islam civilization. Therefore he predicts, “the fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”

Civilization occurs when a society moves to an advanced state of social development with complex legal, political and religious organizations. There are several definitions for civilization, for instance, "the people slowly progressed from barbarism to civilization"; "the quality of excellence in thought and manners and taste"; "a man of intellectual refinement"; "humans living together in an organized way".

Each one of the claims will go onto support the overall issue that culture will cause the clash of civilizations. A great support Huntington uses is that no matter what we think of cultures each one is different in many ways. If its religion, language, or different historical backgrounds these will cause conflict to arise. With each civilization being different it can be hard to get along with other people because of how different their views might be. Another issue that arises is that not all, but many civilizations are influenced by the west. This is where the idea of westernization comes into play. Each community is trying to improve and be bigger and better themselves, they are trying to be better than their neighbors. If one civilization improves the surrounding groups will want to be the same. This means they will compete to be the same or even better than the civilization that already made it. This can lead to conflict and death between civilizations. Another reason is that when conflicts arise between civilizations it is a lot harder to resolve than a political or economical one. Like stated before it is very difficult to change someone’s beliefs, that means there is very little wiggle room for negotiation. The final example that Huntington writes about is that the economic regionalism is increasing. This means that more cultures and civilization are trading between themselves, but

Huntington also does not see westernization as a desirable surge that engulfs world politics. Conflict is very natural and history proves that argument. The author takes away focus from states as a foundation of war in the future and more on conflict between major culture regions. He states that peoples cultural and religious identities will be the primary bases of conflict post cold war. The world is becoming a smaller place with modernization and technology; thus, relations between people of different civilizations deepen consciousness and awareness. Post cold war, the role of the Western society enhances the growth of civilization. Unlike Fukuyamas argument, Huntington states that cultural characteristics and differences are more complex to solve than political and economical

Civilization. What exactly is a civilization? Well, I know one thing that we can agree on; A civilization is made up of five characteristics. Those five characteristics include Complex Institutions, Advanced Cities, Record Keeping, Advanced Technology, and Specialized workers. Due to those five characteristics, a civilization is a place of safety for a certain religious or ethnic group of people. Not only is it usually safe because of those five characteristics, it is also a secure living area with its own form of government. Why do so many of us believe this? Take a look around. There are many places and were many places that, for the most part, stuck together with a singular ethnicity or religion. Within the next few paragraphs, I am going to explicate how certain civilizations, or how civilizations in general, are impacted in growth and development by geography, how the human rights are defined in certain civilizations, and what the effects of human interaction over time both positively and negatively affect a civilization.

Many historians do not agree on what is really the best way to define the term civilization. But most of them usually would agree or accept the view that a civilization is a culture that has reached a degree of complexity, characterized by the life of people living in a city and the relationship among other urban residents. In other words, a civilization is a culture capable of sustaining a great number of people inclined in a specific job to furnish and enhance an organization’s economic, social, political, and religious needs (Edgar, Jewsbury, Hackett, Molony, Gordon (2008). Civilizations Past and Present. In Stone Age Societies and the Earliest Civilizations of the Near East, pp.10. United States). Components of a civilization includes a Centralized

In this intricate time, Niall Ferguson, the author of Civilization: The West and the Rest, presents a story and what appears as a defense of the ascend of the west to supremacy and its unrivalled influence in restructuring the world of today. The West seems to be on the defensive, confronted economically, politically, and militarily by the rise of China (delete this: as well as politically along with militarily) by a gesture of Islamist abhorrence (what do you mean by “as well as politically and militarily by a gesture of Islamist abhorrence”? It’s not clear. Are you trying to convey the idea that the West’s political and military interventions in the Muslim world are a sign of their defensive posture and abhorrence of the Muslim world? Or

What is civilization? Civilization is people and the advancement of human beings. It can also be something small such as a pair of glasses. In the book Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are stranded on an island without any connection to the civilized world except for Piggy’s specs. Golding showed this by the fact that Piggy is the one of the very few boys to remain human during their time on the island, and his glasses help the boys survive in multiple different ways.

Sam Huntington's claims that Western ideas do not resonate with civilizations from the East is incorrect. Huntington only acknowledges that Western ideas were developed by the West when ideas such as the separation of the church and state weren’t practiced by Western civilizations all throughout Western history, while also ignoring the history of Eastern civilizations having similar ideas, namely liberty.

Apart from that, Huntington is an ideologist that tries to put things the way he sees it. In this context, “civilization” and “identities” are defined and described by Huntington besides they are made into something that they are not. Apart from that, Huntington observations on wars that happened in the past are just on the basis of religion clashes without considering the other major aspects that contribute towards modernization process. In addition, the incident like mass killing by group of militants has become one of the proof of Huntington thesis as he just see the big idea or the surface of that particular incident without considering the element that lies behind it. Another aspect that comes into consideration is the way Huntington views

While reading this article I was able to iidentify ways Huntington talks about and uses religion in his assessment of world affairs, the composition of civilizations, and how civilizations interact with each other. Democracy is like religion it can be seen as a imperialistic venture if it is not grown at home. trying to convert a person is always a act of bigotry. Without the ideology of collectivism, the new enemy would then be based on culture or maybe even religion. I believe that Huntington identifies the civilization in the religious divisions because " civilization is a cultural entity."(2) All groups for example: ethnic groups, religious groups, regions, nationatilies, and villiages has distinct cultures at all different levels. However,

Samuel Huntington sees an emerging world organized on the basis of "civilizations". Societies that share cultural affinities cooperate with each other and the efforts to force a society into another civilization will fail; countries gather around the leading States of their civilization. This description of the process of new structures of international relations that Huntington sees developing, leads him to consider that the greatest risks of violence and confrontation lie in the Westerns’ claims to universality, which are leading them to increasingly get into conflict with other civilizations, particularly Islam and China; local conflicts, especially between Muslims and non-Muslims, generate new alliances and lead to an escalation of violence, which will usually lead the dominant states to make an attempt to stop them.

Samuel Huntington, the author of the clash of the civilisations believes that the World will eventually divide in accordance with cultural lines, and not political lines. According to Huntington, “the thriving East Asian and Muslim societies will soon challenge Western dominance, and the United States being the World leader will need to reevaluate its policies on foreign invention and domestic immigration to remain a major player.” During the Cold War, the world was divided into the First, Second and Third Worlds. Huntington views these ties as insignificant now and states that the remaking of the World order will be based upon cultural similarity. The different thriving civilisations according to him today are the Western civilisation comprising of North America and Western Europe, the Muslim civilisation, the Orthodox Civilisation led by Russia, the Chinese civilisation, the Hindu civilisation, the Japanese civilisation, the Latin American civilisation and the African civilisation. Huntington’s proposition of the division of the World according to cultural lines has been backed by the use of various examples by him; examples of events that have taken place in the past.