The Tower of Babel
We’re all familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel found in Genesis 11. Essentially, the whole earth had one language, and all the world’s population had migrated to the same location. The whole world then joined together to build a great city, and had aspirations of building a tower that reached the heavens. Not much detail is given in regards to what exactly their great sin was, but [G-d] came down and confused their language, so that they no longer understood each other, thus the people of the city of Babel were dispersed throughout the earth.
Though the text isn’t explicit in regards to their sin other than God saying “this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them” (Gen 11:6), the greater theological implications of the story are many. I do not intend to explore the implications today, but I would like to consider the concept of globalization in regards to this narrative.
Globalization
I first studied cultural globalization in an anthropology course I took last year at Kennesaw State University. It was a topic that I found very interesting. According to Wikipedia, Globalization “can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together.”
Related to this globalization is acculturation, which is “the process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group.” Essentially, this is when one culture adopts the traits of another culture because of their exposure to it. Westernization, for example, is one clear form of this, as the western way of living –things like industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language– spread from America and Europe into Eastern societies.
Globalization and the Tower of Babel
I think it is safe to say that human depravity and it’s outward manifestation of evil flourishes most in large cities, in the larger concentrations of population. This isn’t the case every time without exception, but with the concentration of a large population in one location, the influence and opportunity for evil is greatly multiplied. Add to this the prosperity provided by living in [a] location where work is plentiful, and there is soon little to restrain any and all outward manifestations of [a] sinful nature.
I think one aspect of the sin of the city of Babel was the fact that they were determined to all live in [one] location; one giant city, with one common culture. Forming one such culture, while rejecting the command to ‘be fruitful and multiply (spreading the knowledge and worship of G-d), would lead to such an abundant of sinfulness, that ‘nothing that they propose (sinfully) will be impossible’.
The City of Babel = The City of this World
If you haven’t noticed, in our day, the world is rapidly unifying in culture. One thing emphasized in the textbook that I studied was the unfortunate downside of all our technological advances in this day. It is unfortunate because pretty soon, anthropology, the study of social customs and human behavior, will will no longer have much to study given that we’re all becoming exactly alike! There won’t be any primitive tribes and their customs, or relatively unknown clans and their unique preferences of food; the entire world will be the same all over, and pretty soon we’ll find no group of people living out of reach of a local McDonalds.
This globalization started on a large scale with worldwide mail and the telephone, where we could almost instantly communicate with others all the way across the globe. Next it was air-travel, opening up global travel in a way like never before. Now, with the internet and 24hr news stations, we are experiencing a globalization at a growth rate unprecedented in all of human history (except, maybe, in the case of Babel). To put it simply: there is a breaking down of cultural distinct[ions], and we are rapidly moving toward a one-world, one-city, largely one culture society. We are becoming, quite frankly, a modern-day, worldwide, Tower of Babel.
Conclusion
[...] Simply put, I think the western influence on culture is largely a good thing. There are many aspects of globalization that are very good.... But, what I fear, and what I thought about while watching this video, is how this movement toward one-culture (notice that China will soon become the number [one] English speaking country in the world) will indeed multiply sin and the opportunity of sin on the earth. With the growth of the population, and the spread of information made possible by the internet and other media, there will be no shelter from all forms of wickedness for even the most remotest of people on the earth. Indeed, though the internet has been a great means of spreading [good], the accessibility of evil it has provided is enough to make any [person, parent] shudder.
Indeed, one unfortunate downside to our technology is the fact that “this is only the beginning of what WE will do. And nothing that WE propose to do will now be impossible“.
ADDENDA:
Was the Tower of Babel a Nuclear Powered Spaceship?
"And it came to pass when they traveled from the east, that they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there." (Gen. 11:2)
[...] Acording to Rabbi Eliezer Ben David ... they did not find a valley, a Bik'a; but rather they found a Bik'ia... The Hebrew word Bik'ia also means nuclear fission. Both the Torah text and our Sages commentaries seem to imply that the ancient technology ... later discovered by the Builders of Babel was nothing other than the secrets of nuclear technology... this might not be so wild and unnbelievable as we might initially think." Read on here
