English 106: First Year Writing Seminar II
April 20th, 2014
Globalization: Not Economics
The idea of globalization, and its indirect effects were thoroughly examined by Franklin Foer and Kawme Appiah in essays that each of them wrote. Their thoughts thoroughly address the interconnections that are constantly increasing throughout the world, which has come to define the word of globalization and the modern world as a whole. They analyzed the idea of globalization much more than other scholars, and instead of discussing it in the sense of economic growth and simple interconnectedness, they both focused on it from a personal debate on cultural identity. By doing this, both authors have changed the perspective on globalization for many people. In his essay, Foer analyzes America’s attitudes toward the sport of soccer, which is traditionally a European favorite sport, but has been recently introduced into our culture. He attempts to distinguish why the sport has intensified divisions between the upper and lower classes in America. In the essay by Appiah, he illustrates the tendency for all groups of people to have discussions and disagreements about morality, whether in the formal setting of an international debate, or neighborhood gossip. Although Appiah and Foer use different strategies and methods in their essays, the ideas both of them present show a fresh truth, from the old idea of globalization being about economics, to the way it influences cultural and societal attitudes. Instead of eliminating the differences that each culture has by sharing their norms, traditions, and morals, globalization enlightens us and allows for sensitivity to our differences.
Foer begins his essay with a bold statement that soccer is “often more deeply felt than religion, and just as much a part of the community’s fabric, a repository of traditions” (p. 408). He claims that soccer, which in America represents higher culture, in most of the rest of the population in...