Nationalization and the Flow of Ideas

(from NBC News)

The last election was a big reminder for us of how divided the United States is. More than just among groups of different religions and races, but also geographic regions. In general, states along coasts leaned towards Hillary Clinton, and central and southern states leaned towards Donald Trump. Of course, the divisiveness of ideologies between these regions is not new at all. But this time, the candidate on the red side in this election was considered very extreme. The two sides have probably never been more polarized than before. It has revealed how divided this country could be even more.

The states have been united politically by force since centuries ago but never socially. Different regions have had some fundamental differences in values and beliefs throughout the history. On many issues, including abortion, same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, racial segregation, gender equality, the coasts tend to be more liberal and the central and the south have been more conservative. 

Let us leave our positions on those issues aside for this article. Why do we have different opinions on different issues? I always remember that a few years ago, my friend from an African country told me that at first, she did not feel very comfortable with gay people, because she was in a culture that had strong aversion to and hate against gay people. But after she came to the U.S., she was more exposed to openly gay people, and she felt that gay people were actually just like anyone else, which was a big contrast to the depiction by her people. She is definitely not alone.

Leave alone the questions of right or wrong, moral or immoral, nature or nurture. Why is it the case that when some people get to meet people of different backgrounds and with different opinions, they change their minds? We are a social animal and our thoughts and behaviors are largely shaped by the society. Ever since we were kids, we have learned to conform to the society and adopt social norms, like not being naked in the public, speaking and eating in a certain way. All the beliefs, customs, religions, behaviors, ideologies gradually develop into a set of norms as a community forms, and it consolidates over time. When we become adults and enter a new society or start meeting new people in our circle, we can be influenced by them.

That is why we find that people in different geographical regions are significantly different in thinking and behaviors, and they could be different countries or different regions within a sovereign state. So what religion you have, what you eat, what attitude you have towards gender equality and how you dress are hugely influenced or determined by where you were born and raised.

Now that we know geographic distribution is a major factor to the differences of thoughts and behaviors, we can easily understand why people of different regions of a country can think so differently. But, when there are events between different regions of a country, like migration or trade, people bring their ideas with them to another place.

For example, “poke”, raw fish or seafood often with soy sauce or other kinds of sauce or seasonings, is a Hawaiian food and you can find it mostly in Hawaii. But if many people from Hawaii move to California, they may introduce them to the food, or even open restaurants that sell the food. Soon, more Californians will be exposed to poke. No matter how many Californians will like it, they will at least know about it, and it will at least gain some certain popularity. Geographers call this action of spreading ideas “diffusion”.

But the exchange of ideas can happen more frequently between metropolises of different countries than cities within a country. Why?

Globalization has become another big factor to how ideas are spread and formed in the past century. Different kinds of human activities are now conducted beyond the limitation of geographical distance and political borders. Immigration, international trade, cultural and academic exchange, foreign investment, tourism, etc. have all contributed to the massive exchange of values, beliefs, scientific and technological innovations, political and social ideologies, etc. But that does not mean they are spread and exchanged evenly over the world, not even among developed countries. They are more widely spread and exchanged among the metropolises or major cities that are have good development.

When a certain region of a country becomes more developed because of historical, geographical or political reasons, they attract more foreign investors, international students, scholars and innovators, than other parts of the country do. And as they continue to prosper more, they attract more people from other countries and regions, so the flow of ideas can be very fluent. But for cities within a country, if one or both of them is/are not prosperous, they lack exchange and interactions. Take Lhasa (the capital of Tibet) and Shanghai, and Tokyo and Shanghai as an example. Because Tokyo and Shanghai are well developed metropolis and city that have world-class education, advanced technology development and big businesses, they have lots of exchange of ideas. The flow is big, fast and frequent. But for Lhasa and Shanghai, because Lhasa is not a very developed city, and it is quite far from Shanghai, there have less exchange of ideas between them. Of course, there are still other factors that could affect this, one of the major ones would be the freedom of speech.

When a region is rather less developed, then there are fewer incentives for people from outside of the region, within the country or not, to come for different kinds of activities. They are less connected not just to other regions of the country, but also to other countries too. The flow of ideas do not run into these regions, or rather run very slowly. If it is Guacamole that cannot be spread through, then it probably is not a problem. (I personally think it would be a shame) But what if it is about social equality or knowledge about health and hygiene? When good ideas, knowledge, technological and scientific innovations, etc. cannot flow into some regions from other regions, it is a problem. And it is not just a problem for that particular region of the country, but also the country as a whole because different regions will have very different views and ideologies, like how southern states have been conservative on many social issues while liberal ideas have been contagious among many coastal states; thus, it creates a boundary between them.

Being different is never a problem at all. Different customs can be practiced, different festivals can be celebrated, different languages can be spoken. In fact, this is the beauty of the United States—diversity. But, when different regions have different views on things like what social justice is, it is a huge problem. We consider justice to be a crucial element to life. When one side says the right of abortion should be seen as a fundamental right, and the other side says it should be seen as something fundamentally unjust, how are we supposed to be harmonious?

In the last century, we have pushed globalization so hard but it seems like that we need more “nationalization” now too because we have left some places behind.

If we acknowledge that there is a blockage of the flow of ideas into certain places, then our next step will be to ask: what could be an ideal improvement?

(The above is a very brief analysis of the problem. Please allow me to continue next time.)