Photographs taken of the earth during the American space missions to
the moon revealed our globe to be a small blue-and-white planet shimmering
in a setting of endless darkness. There is no more spectacular proof of the
physical oneness of our contemporary world. Yet, present-day technological
advancements also confirm the growth of a common global order. Airline
systems, telecommunication networks, even individual "hot lines" between
world leaders allow for direct, frequent, and even instantaneous contact
among peoples whose predecessors and problems of but a few generations ago
were considered "foreign."
In such a cultural environment the older, distinctive characteristics of
each region are being swept away. However, their disappearance has only
revealed other, often more disturbing, global divisions.
Economically, the contemporary world is arranged on a north-south
axis. The overwhelming amount of the world's current wealth - measured in
gross national product, per capita income, and actuary tables - is found in the
northern hemisphere. Europe, the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan
produce most of the world's goods and consume the greatest part of the
world's available resources. The vast number of nations outside of this
privileged economic zone have populations living in conditions of poverty
and want. Even where the rise in the cost of oil importation has upset the
balance of payments, the effect has been most severe on the non-industrial
importers, those nations of the southern hemisphere who are now indebted
in an amount exceeding $200 billion.
Furthermore, there is a severe political division in the ranks of
nations. Only a small number of countries now have freely-elected,
democratic government. The majority of the peoples of the world are ruled
autocratically. More chiefs of state wear military uniforms today than they did
at any other time in history. Indeed, in many parts of the world, the military
coup has become a common condition of political life. The political instability
and intolerance of opposition that military rule so often suggests account for
another dire development: the repression or denial of civil rights.
Europe remains on the brighter side of this rather gloomy global
picture. The privileged position that continent has enjoyed in the modern
era has been retained. Western Europeans continue to live within a political
tradition of representative government, and they benefit from more
guaranteed personal liberties than inhabitants of most of the other continents
of the world. Although the threat of terrorism is present daily, and urban
crime figures are ascending, the average European's domestic life is more
secure and comfortable than it ever was. Moreover, despite inflation, the
population has never been better off economically.
By most available indications, contemporary Europe is prosperous and
peaceful. Its present status, therefore, remains consonant with its historical
condition of growth.
It is not too much to argue that the modern era was in large measure
European in definition. Industrialization, communications, urban
development, technology, even organized leisure-time activities -those
characteristics generally associated with modernization-were probably more
pronounced in Western Europe during the nineteenth century than
anywhere else at the time. In turn, these characteristics were built upon a
tradition of commercial development, rational inquiry, and national
consolidation. Comparable modernization in the United States, Japan, and
Russia was initially an outgrowth of European precedents and justified by
European-inspired ideology. The influence of Isaac Watt, Adam Smith, and
Karl Marx, by way of obvious examples, extended well beyond their native
Europe.
The lead that Europe initially enjoyed was soon lost to the United
States, but the continent was never pushed from the forefront of industrial
regions. The inventiveness, productive capacity, and organizational ability of
its peoples have continued to be impressive. Today, the visitor to Europe will
find a cultural mosaic of striking variety: gothic cathedrals and steel
skyscrapers, castles on the Rhine and jet aircraft on the runways, folk festivals
and rock concerts, museums and shopping malls.
In all of this, Europe seems to have unusual cultural resiliency, a
capacity for renewal. Certainly, contemporary Europe is no longer the "Old
World."
