Civilizational identity shifts fail without elite support, public acquiescence, and host acceptance

Evidence

For a torn country successfully to redefine its civilizational identity, at least three requirements must be met. First, the political and economic elite of the country has to be generally supportive of and enthusiastic about this move. Second, the public has to be at least willing to acquiesce in the redefinition of identity. Third, the dominant elements in the host civilization, in most cases the West, have to be willing to embrace the convert. The process of identity redefinition will be prolonged, interrupted, and painful, politically, socially, institutionally, and culturally. It also to date has failed. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 379

Categorization

• QUESTION: A useful test: has any torn country ever met all three conditions? Huntington says none has yet.
• SEED: The three requirements read as a checklist for any ‘rebranding’ attempt — national or corporate; article angle could test the framework against a contemporary case.
• XREF: connects to: The Californian Ideology’s global replication fails without local geographic conditions — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 120