ure may not be recognisable as a Made In America product. Or it may only have certain elements recognisable as such: for example, in the scenes of a futuristic Los Angeles as seen in the movie Bladerunner.
Benjamin Barber, in Jihad Vs. McWorld (1996), puts forth an interesting argument: the two most dominant forces in the world are globalisation and tribalism. Or as he more provocatively puts it: McWorld and Jihad. According to Barber, neither of these two opposing forces are good for a democratic world. In fact, the decisive victory of one over the other will lead to a dictatorship of one kind or another. The best thing that can happen is for the two to remain at odds and evenly balanced.
Barber defines McWorld in the same way that Ritzer does: a method of doing business where efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control over all processes are of prime importance. This is the world of Western technology and industry, the rational system first proposed by Weber. McWorld represents globalisation, modernity, proactiveness. Or as Ritzer puts it, a world in which ôpeople would move from rationalised educational institutions to rationalised workplaces and from rationalised recreational settings to rationalised homesö (Ritzer, 2000, p. 23). McWorld entices people by offering them peace and prosperity as potential end goals.
On the other hand, Jihad represents tribalism, tradition and reaction to modernity. It represents local cultural traditions and concepts. This is a world where people feel threatened and are frightened due to what they feel is the collapse of the barriers that
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