It is not a new idea but it is a new perspective. When Italian studies professor Fillippo Salvatore talks about ideologies and civilizations he is not saying that there is a conflict, but claims ideologies and civilizations are clashing.
In his lecture entitled Ideologies and Civilizations in Conflict held at the school of community and public affairs last Wednesday, Salvatore explained conflict is not a bad thing.
“We are now tackling issues of otherness,” he said, referring to the increase in migration in the last 20 years. “This otherness must not be seen as a threat, or a new attack on civilizations, but must been seen as others being equal.”
Salvatore, who has published several books, including his most recent, Ideologie e Civilita, was inspired by the ideological generation of the sixties: from the Vietnam War to terrorism in Europe to the Red Brigades in Italy. The coming together of civilizations and ideology began to interest him and shape his mind.
According to Salvatore, at the deepest level, the clash of civilizations is rooted in our psyche. People define themselves by identifying with cultural groups: tribes, ethnic groups, religious communities, nations and, at the broadest level, civilizations. In other words, the clash of civilizations is rooted in natural human frailties.
Salvatore explains the old perspective using Canadian history as an example. When the settlers arrived in Canada, it was beneficial for them to make treaties with the indigenous populations. These populations were spread out and had first hand knowledge of fur trading routes. As more settlers came, the alliance weakened. Settlers became knowledgeable of the land and had grown in numbers. Today, this alliance is only represented in existing treaties. The actuality is that the treaties are no longer respected.
But this new perspective, Salvatore claimed, can be recognized within the recent global agreements between nations. Salvatore described the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as the coming together of civilizations, a move away from ideologies into a whole collective. While NAFTA and other potential arrangements such as the present Free Trade Area of the Americas proposal have been criticized for creating a corporation-based ideology, Salvatore’s point here is acceptable.
“Nowhere in history have such large scale movements had the promise of bringing civilizations together,” he said. “It is clear that new alliances are based on the idea of otherness, or a new perspective.”
Finally, Salvatore explained that people from other civilizations who migrate to Canada must accept the civilization in which they live. Canada, at the same time, must accept the new influx of ideology.
“The world is changing very fast and we have to accept these changes,” he concluded.
