Breaking the Culture Barrier

Abstract

Whether we like it or not, the world is moving more and more in the direction of a standard, universal culture, at least in some parts of life. The changes which take place in this direction usually come about through adopting behavior patterns learned from the West, or material goods from Western technology. Such changes are often known in the different languages of the world by such words as “development” “progress” “improvement.” Because of the unevenness of rates of change it is a common experience in Asia and Africa to see young people who are in many respects highly westernized, side by side with their parents or other contemporaries who have not been so highly affected by this change. And even though some change is wanted, by and large, all over the world, not all aspects of westernization are equally wanted. Attitudes, furthermore, may be ambivalent, and the individual who moves faster than his contemporaries may be subjected to severe pressures. The following article is a brief human case study of the difficulties which one young man faced for a few hours in just such an ambivalent situation.