Conventional wisdom states that in the Age of Globalism, in which we live, truth has finally been attained within the confines of the democratic, free world that will march forward to break down all the barriers standing in its way. This new gospel of the open world market spreading inevitably to every corner of the Globe will be communicated in English, the only lingua franca of the New Age, primarily through the global medium of communication-satellite television. When this vision is challenged, its adversaries are confronted, theoretically, by means of a discourse of civilizations that stipulates the cultural division of the world into separate and inevitably clashing civilizations, and, practically, by means of wars thatwill bring about the final victory of the New World Order. This paper attempts to test the validity of the ideas upon which this wisdom is built and to evaluate how much truth it contains and what the logic is upon which it is founded. Doing that, it will focus also on the following key areas: clash of civilizations or dysfunctional dialogue; English as a global language of communication; and freedom of expression and truth in the media today. It will argue, principally, that there is no such clash of civilizations, and indeed it calls to question the very discourse of civilizations, or civilizational narrative, as it has been aptly termed. It will also argue that the promotion of English as the single, unchallenged and unchallengeable language of communication smacks more of linguistic imperialism than anything else and, finally, that the existing state of affairs based on the assumptions of conventional wisdom outlined above, instead of achieving the objectivity it claims, has actually ended up shooting truth as its first casualty.
Abdulla Al-Dabbagh