DOES GLOBALIZATION KILL ETHOS AND DIVERSITY? Modernity has brought us the"programmer information from common outside sources. whether culture"of Silicon Valley, teenage rave culture of it be newspapers, television, or the Internet. Or the late 1980s and 1990s, and literally millions of these individuals have been brought into a common fandoms, to give a few examples. The science-fio pool with well-developed means of communica- tion revolution of the mid-twentieth century would tion, they sort themselves into more finely grained ot have been possible without national and inte and more diverse groups. Entrepreneurs create national networks for publishing and distribution new groups by marketing, and new groups evol Few science-fiction books and periodicals could have by mobility and sorting. Many kinds of internal supported themselves by selling to purely local audi diversification occur only when a society becomes ences. This niche ethos has in turn spawned creative larger and in some regards more homogeneous chievement in literature, cinema, and computer Counterintuitively, modern diversity is homogenizing trends to some degree The resulting cultural communities are typically In sum, the world's cultures are changing, and independent of geography, as their ethoses are trans- they are changing fast. But we live in an era of cul mitted through means other than spatial proximity. tural plenty and quality The benefits of trade are not We can speak of the liberation of ethos from geog- only limited to greater material wealth, but they also raphy, rather than the destruction of ethos. Most ring us greater creative joy recently, the Internet has liberated culture from geog- raphy to an unprecedented degree. The more that national and international commu- Tyler Cowen is the author of Creative Destruction: nications replace geographic and regionally defined How globalization is Changing the World's Cultures culture, the greater the impetus for the proliferation (Princeton University Press, 2002), and he writes for of new(albeit narrower)ethoses Homogenization marginalrevolution. com and volokh. com, two blogs implies a pool of customers who receive common FISH THROUGH NETS for Cheryl I'd know your lambs-wool slippers anywhere slope of worn right heel the sole's sheen rubbed by footsteps Your fingertips, smudged with watercolor, brush my wrist's blue veins Once, in a cinder-block house with a privy, those same fingers placed a single pansy in a blue bottle d ringed stones on window sills showed me something that slipped past words like fish through nets darting silve that drew me like lodestone down stretches of highway deep in evergreen shadow. through splotches of moon-washed asphalt where you lean close as my fingers furrow your dark hair, threaded with meteors PAT MCCUTCHEON Pat McCutcheon makes her home with her partner in far northern California. At the local community college, she teaches composition, lit- erature, and creative writing. Her chapbook, Recovering Perfectionist, was published in 1996, and her poems have recently appeared in Confluence, Cumberland Poetry Review, Evansville Review, Nightsun, Owen Wister Review, Pearl, Sanscrit, and The MacGuffin20 Fall 2003 PHI KAPPA PHI FORUM/Vol. 83, No. 4 21 Modernity has brought us the “programmer culture” of Silicon Valley, teenage rave culture of the late 1980s and 1990s, and literally millions of fandoms, to give a few examples. The science-fic￾tion revolution of the mid-twentieth century would not have been possible without national and inter￾national networks for publishing and distribution. Few science-fiction books and periodicals could have supported themselves by selling to purely local audi￾ences. This niche ethos has in turn spawned creative achievement in literature, cinema, and computer games. The resulting cultural communities are typically independent of geography, as their ethoses are trans￾mitted through means other than spatial proximity. We can speak of the liberation of ethos from geog￾raphy, rather than the destruction of ethos. Most recently, the Internet has liberated culture from geog￾raphy to an unprecedented degree. The more that national and international commu￾nications replace geographic and regionally defined culture, the greater the impetus for the proliferation of new (albeit narrower) ethoses. Homogenization implies a pool of customers who receive common DOES GLOBALIZATION KILL ETHOS AND DIVERSITY? information from common outside sources, whether it be newspapers, television, or the Internet. Once these individuals have been brought into a common pool with well-developed means of communica￾tion, they sort themselves into more finely grained and more diverse groups. Entrepreneurs create new groups by marketing, and new groups evolve by mobility and sorting. Many kinds of internal diversification occur only when a society becomes larger and in some regards more homogeneous. Counterintuitively, modern diversity is homogenizing trends to some degree. In sum, the world’s cultures are changing, and they are changing fast. But we live in an era of cul￾tural plenty and quality. The benefits of trade are not only limited to greater material wealth, but they also bring us greater creative joy. Tyler Cowen is the author of Creative Destruction: How Globalization is Changing the World’s Cultures (Princeton University Press, 2002), and he writes for marginalrevolution.com and volokh.com, two blogs. FISH THROUGH NETS for Cheryl I’d know your lambs-wool slippers anywhere: slope of worn right heel, the sole’s sheen rubbed by footsteps. Your fingertips, smudged with watercolor, brush my wrist’s blue veins. Once, in a cinder-block house with a privy, those same fingers placed a single pansy in a blue bottle, arranged ringed stones on window sills, showed me something that slipped past words like fish through nets, darting silver, that drew me like lodestone down stretches of highway deep in evergreen shadow, through splotches of moon-washed asphalt where you lean close as my fingers furrow your dark hair, threaded with meteors. PAT McCUTCHEON Pat McCutcheon makes her home with her partner in far northern California. At the local community college, she teaches composition, lit￾erature, and creative writing. Her chapbook, Recovering Perfectionist, was published in 1996, and her poems have recently appeared in Confluence, Cumberland Poetry Review, Evansville Review, Nightsun, Owen Wister Review, Pearl, Sanscrit, and The MacGuffin