Modernization strengthens indigenous cultures and weakens Western dominance

Evidence

Modernization, in short, does not necessarily mean Westernization. Non-Western societies can modernize and have modernized without abandoning their own cultures and adopting wholesale Western values, institutions, and practices. The latter, indeed, may be almost impossible: whatever obstacles non-Western cultures pose to modernization pale before those they pose to Westernization. It would, as Braudel observes, almost “be childish” to think that modernization or the “triumph of civilization in the singular” would lead to the end of the plurality of historic cultures embodied for centuries in the world’s great civilizations. Modernization, instead, strengthens those cultures and reduces the relative power of the West. In fundamental ways, the world is becoming more modern and less Western. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 211 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Initially, Westernization and modernization are closely linked, with the non-Western society absorbing substantial elements of Western culture and making slow progress toward modernization. As the pace of modernization increases, however, the rate of Westernization declines and the indigenous culture goes through a revival. Further modernization then alters the civilizational balance of power between the West and the non-Western society and strengthens commitment to the indigenous culture. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 202 (#expands, via linked claim)

In an interdependent modern world, “traditional cultures” do not spontaneously grow or develop into “modern cultures.” People are pushed, seduced, coerced, or persuaded into trying to change themselves into something else, something that allows them to be redeemed. It may not be possible to stop this process; it may be a wonderful thing that the process takes place as it does because people really are redeemed through it. I do not argue for or against such directed changes here. I merely emphasize that they are not possible without the exercise of political power that often presents itself as a force for redeeming “humanity” from “traditional cultures.” Or—and this comes down in the end to the same thing—as the force for reclaiming rights that belong inalienably to man in a state of nature. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 743 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Culture follows power, so declining Western dominance erodes Western culture’s reach; Modernization and democratization may push Mexico away from the West.; The West promotes a universal culture it is increasingly unable to impose. (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Modernization strengthens local cultures and reduces Western relative power, not the reverse. #corroborates (0.97) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 211
• Societies move from Westernization to cultural revival as modernization accelerates #expands (0.92) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 202
• Modernization of traditional cultures always requires political coercion #complicates (0.80) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 743
• Western literary forms replaced indigenous genres down to the level of language itself #complicates (0.78) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1140
• Western colonial globalization made traditional cultures hybrids, not fixed entities #complicates (0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 347
• Indigenous culture cannot be a unified site of anti-imperialist resistance #complicates (0.74) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 18
• Western identity developed centuries before it modernized, so it is not reducible to modernity #complicates (0.71) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 183