Would the world be better off with a single culture & language?

[Babbler]

Simple question: Would the world be better off if all the cultures and languages of the world were to converge into a single homogeneous culture & language?

I figure it would be; fewer divisions in humanity, the better.

EDIT: Somehow, "culture" became badly misspelled. My bad.

 

[Tee Kay]

Simple answer: no.

Reason 1: It's boring. Everyone eating the same sort of food, believing in similar ideals, acting the same way, speaking the same languages...boring.
Reason 2: it's impractical, why, even impossible.
Reason 3: the desire to learn about/interact with/dominate/destroy things which are different is a great driving force in the development of civilisation.

 

[Elta]

No which one? America's? Ann Coulter or Michael Moore?

Western? Canadian Socialism help everyone or American don't touch my money Capitalism?

I don't think any culture or society is superiour to one or another, but, I do feel some are way better of compared to others; I even see some as barbaric. But then agian that is just my western opinion.


On the one language thing, A strong no I know from speaking more than one language you can't convey everything in one language. See: newspeak.

 

[Mureke]

It depends on the culture. Currently, it's in the planet's best interest to keep different cultures. The biosphere definitely couldn't handle it if everyone was under Western culture and its practice of consumerism. By having different cultures, we still maintain the possibility for a change some day.

 

[GenMarshall]

The world will be a boring place if everyone spoke the same language and had the same culture.

 

[Elta]

The world will be a boring place if everyone spoke the same language and had the same culture.

We don't and never will just compare Connecticut to Texas they are in the same nation and are polar contras.

 

[Perfection]

Simple question: Would the world be better off if all the cultures and languages of the world were to converge into a single homogeneous culture & language?

I don't think that could happen. Culture and language will never unify. What may instead change is that people will not be defined by where they are but other criteria.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Wouldnt stop people from waging wars, corruption, crime etc.

EDIT: On second thoughts there was this tiny hermit kingdom which had zero crime, women were put in charge and men were second with little power. It was rather uhh backwards its advancement was stuck an age gone by.

 

[Yoda Power]

Depends on the culture.

 

[aneeshm]

No. Farking. Way!

There exist concepts in cultures and languages which do not exist or cannot be expressed in another culture of language. Some of these concepts are priceless, irreplaceably valuable, and the loss of which is bad from a moral, ethical, pragmatic, and aesthetic viewpoint.

A case in point are the concepts of Dharma and Rita. I still haven't come across a proper translation of these words, nor have I found anyone capable of properly expressing them in any language other than the Indic languages, and I don't think I ever will. But these concepts are valuable beyond measure, because of what they imply and because of the potential they have of expression when India reaches a dominant position once more. It is only these concepts which will prevent us from becoming imperialists when we reach the top.

 

[Narz]

No, it wouldn't be better.

Diversity (in species and in culture) is superior to homogeneity.

It's sad all the cultures, languages, philosophies and worldviews that have been lost over the years and are continuing to be lost today.

 

[CurtSibling]

As Narz says, we need diverse humans, breeding in the same lifestyle helps create autism.

...

 

[azzaman333]

Maybe. Individuality is over-rated, and it would certianly cut down on wars. But which culture would become the 1 and only would be the cause of a lot of trouble everywhere.

 

[cthom]

no. but as an addition: eble, ni uzu la internacian lingvon!

 

[Verbose]

Probably not.

But the world would most likely be better off if more people weren't mono-cultural and mono-lingual like they are today.

 

[Eukaryote]

I'd be worse because if that one culture sucked then there'd be no other culture for it to learn from. Also we wouldn't be able to eat forgein food so say goodbye to pizza + chinease.

 

[puglover]

No. The more united a world is, the more dangerous it becomes. That's why I'm glad Christianity is split into denominations. If it was all united, and became ruled by one evil man, the church would be utterly destroyed.

 

[bhsup]

Only if it was English.

 

[MrCynical]

A single culture? - definitely not. A total lack of diverse culture would stifle creativity, and make the world a very dull place.

A single language though, I think the world would be better off with, though I can't see it actually happening in any reasonable amount of time. As to the objections that some concepts cannot be expressed in other languages, I don't see an issue here. A language is merely a communication system, and the presence of concepts which are currently limited to one language merely indicates laziness in convertring them to other languages.

A case in point are the concepts of Dharma and Rita. I still haven't come across a proper translation of these words, nor have I found anyone capable of properly expressing them in any language other than the Indic languages

So is the issue that not only do other languages lack a counterpart to these terms, but also that they lacks counterparts to the terms you would use to describe them? I still see no inate reason why any concept should be expressable only in one language. A language is nothing more than an array of sounds and characters connected to concepts, and hence any language can express any concept. It's merely a matter of tracking back to either a common concept in both languages, or some physical or imaginable concept which does not necessarily appear in one language.

The benefits of a single language are obvious; boosted efficiency and clarity of communication. The costs of translation, and time spent learning other language can be put to better use, and there will be less confusion from mistranslation.

 

[GinandTonic]

Apaulling suggestion.