I N T H E NAME O F I D E NTITY
of the simple idea prevailing in the United States today, according to which every citizen, especially every member of a minority, should encounter recognisable names and faces when he watches television, and should see himself repre足 sented positively to prevent him from feeling excluded from the national community. The idea deserves to be adopted on a wider scale. Since people all over the world now have access to the same images, sounds and products, wouldn't it be more appropriate if all those images, sounds and products were representative of all cultures, so that everyone could recognise himself in them and no one feel excluded? Neither on a world scale nor within any society should anybody feel so scorned, depreci足 ated, mocked or demonised that in order to be able to live among his fellow-citizens he is forced to conceal or be ashamed of his religion, colour, language, name or any other ingredient of his identity. Everyone ought to be able to hold his head high and acknowledge without fear or resentment every one of his allegiances. It would be disastrous if the current globalisation were to be a one-way process, with "universal transmitters" on one side and "receivers" on the other, with the "norm" set against the " exceptions;'; with on the one hand those who think they have nothing to learn from the rest df the world, and on the other those who believe that the rest of the world will never listen to them. I am thinking here not only of the danger of hegemony but also of its converse or negative image - the equally grave
1 22