Globalization threatens to obliterate individual cultures, according to the preeminent Arab poet and thinker Adonis who spoke at a Montgomery Endowment lecture in 105 Dartmouth Hall yesterday.
The lecture, entitled "Beyond the East/West: Towards a Culture of the Future" and attended by over 50 people, focused on the nature of individual identity in an increasingly homogenous world.
Adonis envisions the conflict as one essentially between abstract notions of myth and reason.
"In modern civilization, economic factors contribute to the repression of the body and soul," Adonis said.
"Interest-oriented globalism, with its emphasis upon economics, is laying siege to values-oriented universalism, with its emphasis upon diversity," he added.
Adonis sees the West as the main progenitor of the current threat to international diversity.
"This siege is being spear-headed by the West, which dominates economic/political globalism in the name of wealth, and cultural globalism in the name of intellect," Adonis said.
He believes culture to be the very essence of a man. The preservation of one's humanity therefore rests upon the preservation of one's culture.
"A country's ability to build itself is dependent upon its own distinct culture. Hegemony of one culture will lead to a cultural desert. The truth is that culture is not a barrier. It is a precondition to interaction."
Adonis offered a solution to the dilemma.
"It is imperative that a transformation take place. Unless the West embraces openness to values-oriented universalism, humanity will plunge into the abyss."
This transformation involves determining a global cultural model that transcends individual cultures.
"It is a culture that finds its identity in diversity and such a culture necessitates a redefinition of the notion of identity," he said.
Adonis, born Ali Ahmad Sai'd in the 1930s in Syria and educated at Damascus University, has lived a lifetime amidst the turbulence of the Middle East. At one point he was imprisoned for his political views as a member of the Syrian Nationalist Socialist Party. He currently lives in Paris and teaches at the University of Geneva.
"His position has come to be a belief in the necessity of a positive dialogue between cultures," Susan Prager, College Provost and moderator at the event, said.
