Page 329 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

G L O B A L I Z AT I O N : I T S R O O T S A N D I N N E R L O G I C
marily as the pursuit of happiness. Thus, it creates a unity not
of persons but of individuals—often intensifying division even
as it seeks to unite.
In this way, globalization emerges as a synthesis of episte-
mocentrism, utilitarianism, and individualism. It forms a
global society connected by the pursuit of personal happiness,
facilitated through knowledge, production, and technology. It
is therefore both unifying and divisive, capable of increasing
wealth and communication, while at the same time fostering
inequality, hedonism, and the subordination of all things—in-
cluding knowledge itself—to economic usefulness.
Within this framework, culture is reduced to what knowl-
edge can produce as something useful for individual happi-
ness. All other forms of cultural unity become secondary, or
even expendable.
At this point, the problem of cultural identity emerges.
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