At any time a new energy government has congregated with a new communications upheaval, society is pressed toward further difficulty. This time around is serious nevertheless, we may not have sufficient time to change. The Empathic Civilization is rising, but will it happen fast enough to ward off global catastrophe?
The author said, "It is increasing difficult to find anything in the world untouched by globalization" (169). This appears to be a reliable and authoritative theme as the author seems to give modest hope that we will ever come out from a consumerist mindset and way of life. Ritzer seems to demolish hope that globalization will dwindle and possibly give us glimpses of what once was and no longer will be. There emerges be a core fear of "nothing."
Globalism, capitalism, and consumerism is what I have recognized and experienced firsthand my entire life. Being brought up in middle-class America, from an early age I wanted G.I. Joe's instead of the wood toy trucks that a friend of the family crafted, I was fully occupied and clinched what the commercials during Saturday morning cartoons told...
I also remember cringing when my parents wanted to go to the neighborhood hamburger diner "Dad's" as an alternative to McDonalds. To this very day I find myself much more at ease eating in a non-place in place of gambling out and exploring other venues.
References
Rifkin, Jeremy. 2009. The Empathic Civilization. The Penguin Group. ISBN: 9781585427659.
Ritzer, George. 2007. The Globalization of Nothing. Upper Saddle River, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN: 1412940222
Riggs, Frederick (2006). Global Forces and the Discipline of Public Administration. In Jean-Claude Garcia-Zamor and Renu Khator, eds., Public Administration in the Global Village. Westport, CT: Praeger, 17-44.
Said, Edward (2009). Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred a. Knopf.
Schultz, Barry, and Slater, Robert, eds. (2000). Revolution and Political Change in the Third World. Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner.
Zysman, J. (2010) the Myth of a 'Global' Economy: Enduring National Foundations and Emerging Regional Realities. New Political Economy 1 (July): 157-84.
