Over the past half century, globalisation has increased at an astounding rate, impacting many areas of life in most of the world’s countries. Some people think that this has been largely positive but others take the opposite view. This essay will look at both points and say that it is hard to decide because both the positives and negatives are significant.
To begin with, globalisation has undoubtedly had some hugely positive impacts on the world. By bringing people together and tying economies into a global network, the likelihood of war has diminished significantly. Although wars still occur, they are far less common and tend to be more limited in scope. Likewise, it has become easier for people to co-operate, allowing for more immigration, more scientific advancements, less poverty, and the proliferation of human rights. Globalisation could be said to have drastically improved the lives of billions of people through the provision of better food, technology, and education.
On the other hand, there are clearly drawbacks and these are also numerous. First of all, globalisation could be said to favour certain countries, such as the Western nations whose values are spread throughout the world. It is not only that Western culture and language spreads, but of course this naturally favours Western corporations and governments, arguably giving them more power. In addition to all that, economic progress in less developed countries tends to come at the cost of their cultures. As they adopt Western values, they often lose aspects of their own culture, such as their values and even their language. An example is that many countries stop producing traditional music and theatre and instead attempt to copy Western musical and film styles. This makes the world less diverse and perhaps even more materialistic.
In conclusion, globalisation has major benefits but also drawbacks. It is hard to say that one outweighs the other because they are both quite significant and this would really just be a matter of opinion, with different people placing importance on different matters.