Richard Shweder

a.) Richard Schweder outlined three prophecies of new world order and talked about the history and likelihood of each.  He introduced his lecture by talking about posing the questions: Are cultural practices that aren't "liberal" ok such as poligamy?  Could all of the worlds diversity actually live together in one nation?  How far should tolerance go?

The first prophecy is the Washington Consensus.  What I took away from this section of his talk was that after the Cold War it became popular to think that civilizations have and should have the tendency to move from savagery towards an ideal civilization and that the United States/ Western Civilization is the most successful civilization.  It was very interesting to hear that the popularity of this theory went out but now it is back.  This ideal is reflected in the opinion of Americans to expect other countries to be waiting for us to invade.  I think many Americans are guilty of thinking that other countries are eager for a American like democratic system.

The second prophecy is related to globalization and a world convergence.  Schweder stated that a 'narrowly conceived global economy' may fail again like it did leading up to WWI.  Instead a separate but equal mind set on a global scale may be more appropriate.  As we have seen, the spread of free trade and private property rights do not also spread ideals or customs etc.  So other societies do not have to become Americans to enjoy the benefits of technology etc.

The third prophecy was most interesting because it was Schweder credited as being the most likely outcome for the future.  He talked about how modern society has  been around for a relatively short period of time and that the majority of human history has been in empires.  Using the ottoman empire as an example of an inclusive, accepting empire with a weak center state, Schweder predicted that the world may tend to this sort of society in the future. 

b.) From this talk, I think that I can better predict the direction of global change.  If there are efforts to try and create a convergence of global economies I might look for collapse.  As in WWI, this sort of attempt may again lead to barriers to immigration and resilience to cultural convergence.  If I see a pattern of larger culturally inclusive societies then I would expect there to be a trend toward empire like societies.  So cultural acceptance and the degree to which there is effort to converge societies seem to be indicators of global change.

c.) Culture does seem to be important in the outcome of economies.  One example that we talked about is the culture that traded with each other by leaving goods at a designated location and picking up other goods that by agreement had been considered a fair trade.  This sustenance economy is much different than the success driven economy of the US. I think that the importance of culture in economic outcomes can be seen in the failure of a global economy where culture would at least in part be lost.