This summer I have been touring the southern United States. I have been in the valley of the Rio Grande, the bayous of Louisiana, the forests of Mississippi, and the reefs of Florida. I marvel at the diverse landscapes and people. I have tasted Cajun crawfish, New Orleans pralines, and Florida key lime ice cream. I have experienced Hispanic culture in Miami and African American hospitality in Georgia. I have seen people of different stripes. Some excel in science, some have a love of history, some have faith, some have unique talent.
I like diversity. I like places with different geography, cultures of all types, and people of all races. I love the uniqueness of the different regions of our country. I'm glad that we have distributed government that helps protect this diversity.
It is great that the world is smaller than ever with our modern communications and transportation systems. We can experience diversity more easily than ever. But this is a double edged sword. We can contaminate people, places, and cultures more easily than ever too. There is a worrisome trend toward sameness. Whenever I got outside of the historic districts, I was presented with the same gas stations, the same department stores, and the same food. I am as guilty as anyone at patronizing multinational establishments. When I walked into Walmart last week near Cape Canaveral, Florida, I felt like I was transported instantly to the Walmart back home in Colorado.
I am worried that we are nationalizing too much. I was always on the lookout for interesting local foods and snacks at gas stations. But the offerings were exactly the same all across the country. It is convenient to drive into a McDonald's and not have to worry about unknowns in price, food style, and service levels. When you shop local establishments you risk being inconvenienced by the unexpected. But that is what makes life interesting.
It isn't just the chain stores that introduce sameness. Our ecosystems are being damaged by invasive species. World travel has enabled people to bring with them exotic plants and animals that threaten local wildlife. Zebra mussels have invaded Texas, Asian hydrilla is clogging Louisiana bayous, and Burmese pythons have destroyed a large percentage of the fauna living in the Florida Everglades. This writer for the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bio-environmental Research also agrees:
The phenomenal diffusion of species in new environments has many ecologists contemplating the possibility of a "global McEcosystem." Just as franchised fast food has homogenized local cuisines, species introduction may homogenize the world’s biodiversity. (http://is.cbr.tulane.edu/InvasiveSpecies.html accessed 7/12/2015)I also worry about cultural sameness. When I was in the Acadian region of Louisiana, I didn't hear much French. When I was in Georgia and South Carolina, I didn't hear as much southern drawl as I would have expected. It could possibly be that I have spent too much time in the tourist areas. Tourist sites attract people from all over. When I went to a local ice cream shop near Charleston, the servers had a Scandinavian accent. When I went to a fruit stand in Florida, it was run by Guatemalans. I think the concept of "local" is being blurred. At least I have heard a healthy dose of "ya'all". I love that idiom.
Lastly, I worry about social and political sameness. A few weeks ago the Supreme Court removed two more forms of regional distinctness: health care and marriage law. We are fast going down the path of having a national identity that doesn't allow for regional variety in anything but the historical monuments (and even those are under attack**). The Supreme court swept away the ability for state governments to reflect regional differences in civil law with respect to homosexual parternerships. Marriage law was written by the supreme court. This would make sense if the issue at hand was an inalienable right. Like driving, hunting, or getting a college degree, marriage is a right conferred by authorities based on a charter decided upon by the people. But now one-size-fits-all social and medical institutions are being laid down. It's McDonalds, McEcosystem, and McMorality. What is next? Will SCOTUS decide that all states must have uniform laws with respect to gambling and prostitution? Excessive sameness was not the design of our federal system.
The globalization of everything is a tide that probably cannot be turned back. Europeans destroyed the way of life of the American native peoples. Change and homogenization is a fact of life. But we shouldn't give up on distinctiveness. I'm glad there are those that fight to preserve cultures. Just as we can fight the invasive species and other damage to our ecosystem, we can hold the destructive forces at bay and, with effort, preserve some of the diversity we hold dear.
**After reading about the removal of the Confederate Flag from being flown at the South Carolina State capitol, I came to agree with the removal due to the special circumstances here. But there is no reason to erase every vestige of that history...the Confederate South was not an evil empire as modern revisionists are trying to portray. It was misguided...but so have many governments been. I see a lot of goodness in those people and I celebrate their sacrifices as much anyone else's.
