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This reminds me of a period in the early 2000s when I and other area-studies colleagues tried to work with K-12 schools that focused on global studies, only to be told — confusingly — that they didn’t need knowledge of specific areas of the globe. https://twitter.com/profmusgrave/status/1332325302878388225
It turned out that their idea of global studies was based on this same understanding of a global economy in which “everyone is becoming more like us.” Walmart is in China. McDonald’s in India. Coca Cola is global.
The idea that you can do “global studies” without understanding the peoples and cultures that inhabit said globe was—and is—mind boggling to me. No, the presence of Walmart in China does not mean “China is becoming more American.”
It’s the sort of next generation evolution (if I dare to use that word) of American exceptionalism and modernization theory: a teleological worldview that American free enterprise is the end of history, and everyone will get here eventually.
It’s a lazy and myopic position. (There, I said it). It ignores what it took for America to get to the position it current occupies. It also ignores the possibility that others might look at the US with something other than childlike wonderment and stars in their eyes.
And, more to the point, it’s a lazy model of teaching.
I was flabbergasted then, and I still am, just thinking about it.
I was flabbergasted then, and I still am, just thinking about it.
