Jihad vs. McWorld

Jihad vs. McWorld is an essential text for anyone who wants to understand the challenges facing America after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. In a groundbreaking work, political scientist Benjamin R. Barber offers a penetrating analysis of the central conflict of our times: consumerist capitalism versus religious and tribal fundamentalism. These diametrically opposed but intertwined forces are tearing apart - and bringing together - the world as we know it, undermining democracy and the nation-state on which it depends. On the one hand, capitalism on the global level is rapidly dissolving the social and economic barriers between nations, transforming the world's diverse populations into a blandly uniform market. On the other hand, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds are fragmenting the political landscape into small and smaller tribal units. Jihad vs. McWorld is the term that Barber has coined to scribe the powerful and paradoxical interdependence of these forces. In this important book now more timely than ever before, he explores the alarming repercussions of this potent dialectic and in his new introduction sketches a democratic response to terrorism.

"How the planet is both falling apart and coming together and what this means for democracy."

"Terrorism's challenge to democracy."

Old economy and the birth of a new McWorld -- Resource imperative : the passing of autarky and the fall of the West -- Industrial sector and the rise of the East -- From hard goods to soft goods -- From soft goods to service -- Hollyworld : McWorld's videology -- Television and MTV : McWorld's noisy soul -- Teleliterature and the theme parking of McWorld -- Who owns McWorld? The media merger frenzy -- Jihad vs. McWorld or jihad via McWorld? -- Jihad within McWorld : the "democracies" -- China and the not necessarily democratic Pacific Rim -- Jihad within McWorld : "transitional democracies" -- Essential Jihad : Islam and fundamentalism -- Jihad and McWorld in the new world disorder -- Wild capitalism vs. democracy -- Capitalism vs. democracy in Russia -- Colonization of East Germany by McWorld -- Securing global democracy in the world of McWorld.