The term ‘McWorld’ is a neo-philosophical term
The term ‘McWorld’ is a neo-philosophical term that refers to the amalgamation of the world’s nations into one commercial homogenous global society tied together by commerce, technology, resources and ecology. The McWorld dynamic seemed to gain momentum after the end of the Cold War. The term ‘Jihad’ on the other hand is an Arabic word which means ‘struggle’. This meaning has been contextually molded by modern political scientists to refer to the deep-seated traditions or traditional values (religious or otherwise) of individual countries worldwide attempting to resist the forces of globalization (McWorld) from permeating their societies (Barber, 2010). The United States not only represents the force of McWorld, but is viewed as its leading connoisseur. Jihad and McWorld generally have one significant ideological difference and one major similarity: The difference between the two is that McWorld is driven by the spirit of universalizing economies and cultures while Jihad is driven by parochial values that aim to curb global homogeneousness. On the other hand, their similarity is that both offer very little chance of a perfect democracy as they both pit people against people, cultures against cultures and so forth.
The four imperatives that constitute the dynamic of McWorld are: a market imperative, information and technology imperative, a resource imperative and an ecology imperative (Barber, 2010). The market imperative compels the establishment of an international economy where goods and services produced by a particular nation should ideally be available not only to that nation, but to the international community as well. The technology imperative obliges the research and development of new technology through global cooperation and intelligence sharing despite political or cultural differences. The resource imperative dispels autarky and suggests that every nation needs something another government has, and thus, global integration is necessary. Lastly, the ecology imperative implies that every country’s ecological systems are tied together, and their safeguarding or destruction ultimately determines the wellbeing of the global ecology in the end.
All these imperatives are incompatible with Jihad as they negate the ideals of isolation and parochialism, which are core foundations of Jihad (tribalism). The four imperatives listed above are not only Transnational but also Transcultural and Trans ideological too. This means that they are impartial to the cultural, religious, political or economic systems of the world (Battistoni, 2018). This is directly contrary to Jihad which is quite eccentric and anti- homogenization. Overall, McWorld currently seems to be getting the upper hand over Jihad in large part due to a global need for peace and the perceived (but false) sense of freedom it offers.