Thanks again! The Spring 2009 WI-Global Forum is now closed.....

...but once again, the discussion -- we hope -- will continue!

The Spring 2009 Forum has closed but we will still be moderating and posting comments. So we invite authors and blog visitors to continue to read, think, and send thoughts along. WI-Global awards -- both the Forum and the Undergraduate Paper Awards -- will be announced 5 June 2009.

To learn more about WI-Global and to keep up to date on the Forum check back here, visit our website, or email us.

Our best wishes & thanks,
The WI-Global Team.

Culture and Nationalism

The Nazis put a large emphasis on culture and the best way to utilize it in order to move the German people to support them. They used culture to try and create a sense of unity as a nation, they tried to use it to show the world how great of a nation Germany under the third reich was. Culture can be used to mobilize the people to support the nation, culture can be a driving factor to creating nationalism.

In our rapidly globalizing world, it seems that even the structures of nations which we have been working with recently are beginning to crumble. National power is being erroded away for different forms of power. The international political scene is changing from what we have known in the past couple of decades. We have seen the weakening power of the US on the global scene, we have seen the rise of powerful institutions such as the EU which require a degree of national sacrifice in order to join.

It seems that culture has been reflecting these changes, or perhaps driving these changes. We are starting to live in a society where it is not uncommon for people to watch Bollywood movies-- people you wouldn't think. For example, people from rural Wisconsin areas. (Sorry for the Bollywood references of late, it seems to have come up everywhere I go). Our culture is blending with other cultures more rapidly than in the past, and it is... something that is just adapting to the times. I don't think we can attach a negative or positive value to the changes, it's something that is happening and while we're in the process of its evolution we don't have the right perspective to judge it. Perhaps one day we'll be able to talk about how "good" or "bad" the cultural changes were in the US, and the world. But until then, I think it's best to wait, and watch. Who knows where the movement of globalization will take us?