Climbing the Tower of Babel

            Since the "Tower of Babel," humans have been fragmented into language groups, not only separated from one another, but often suspicious of or hostile to one another.  Privileged subgroups have often had the opportunity to bridge those gaps, though that’s been less true of general populations.  There have long been significant international contacts among groups of diplomats and business professionals; academics of various specialties; world travelers among the well-to-do; artists and musicians of various forms; and in the last century or so, radio amateurs, who spend time talking with one another all over the globe.  But the general population has not had the opportunity to develop much in the way of familiarity—let alone intimacy—with one another.

            No more.  Not only has international travel become more possible and more common, but the digital media flow around the world as easily as do radio and television broadcasts.  We have arrived at a crossroads where on the one hand international tensions are as dangerous as they’ve ever been, but on the other, opportunities for people-to-people understanding around the globe are also more accessible than ever before.  We have the opportunity to create unprecedented levels of familiarity with people who seem very different from us—if it matters to us.

            I want to argue that it is imperative for educators, journalists, peace advocates, and others to grasp the opportunities presented by the digital media to encourage growth in the direction of a genuine world awareness—not “one world,” because cultural and linguistic diversity will not melt away in the near future, but growing communities of people who understand that common interests in ecology, economics, military technology, etc., make it imperative that we get acquainted as well as possible across national borders.

            Mine is not an affluent family.  Yet all three of my children have spent time overseas.  My youngest spent a year in Shanghai, learning Mandarin.  I have a grandson who has spent significant time studying in Latin America—in Spanish.  I have two other grandchildren who have spent time in France, developing their French skills.  There is no longer anything unusual about those experiences.  But as we spend more time in cultures other than our own, I find myself wondering whether we feel the need to continue developing world awareness, or does it feel more natural just to subside back into the “normalcy” of our own setting, losing awareness just as we tend to lose fluency in languages which we rarely speak? 

            The first long-distance call I ever made required the assistance of half a dozen operators, connecting trunk lines to enable me to speak to someone less than 400 miles away.  Now I can pick up my phone, push a few buttons, and hear a friend in New Zealand answer the phone.  I enjoy that immensely—but those conversations don’t make me intimate with Kiwi culture (even though they can help).  What helps more is that one of the tabs on my browser is the front page of the Christchurch Press.

            We need more than ever to understand what feels urgent to the citizens of Nigeria, Australia, France, Brazil, etc.  We can’t learn all those cultures in depth.  But we can learn about a few more easily than ever before, if we are surrounded by people who expect us to follow the news of the world.  It makes a difference whether my friends think the latest gossip from Ballantyne, Gastonia, Atlanta or Hollywood is all I need to know about the world beyond my doorstep.

            How many Americans understand the difference between an Iranian and an Arab?  How many have a sense of the reality of life today in the cities of China?  How many understand what Qur’an really means to the Muslims of the Near East?  These and other issues are mentioned in our news media frequently, yet not many of us—yet—use the ubiquitous digital media to learn about the world beyond our borders.  We depend on professional journalists—who perform an incredibly important function, but their work product is not enough.

            Suppose twenty-five percent of Americans were to pick one other world country, and make it a source of frequent study?  Read their newspapers online, form digital friendships with interesting people in that country, become familiar with their history, politics, currency, geography, etc.  The result could be a dramatically enhanced American intimacy with the people of the rest of our planet.

            If we are to learn how to live in some sort of peace with the other peoples who share our planet, we must get to know them better.   The digital media offer us an unprecedented opportunity to do that, easily and steadily.  I wonder whether Americans will make use of those opportunities.  Your thoughts?

Ralph Milligan