Amidst the managerie of corporate globalization protests, one can't help
                   but ponder the issue of the socialization that comes with such a
                   responsibility.

                   Ever since kindergarten, my generation's well-meaning, ex-hippie parents
                   have tried their best to provide us with good education and social skills.
                   Most notable among these skills is the ability to socialize with people that
                   are very different from us. While it's been beneficial, in a sugar-coated
                   prep school kind of way (where the African American student body makes
                   a whopping 3% of the total) to experience other cultures, I can't help but
                   feel it's something that's rather forced on our generation. I mean, our
                   parents certainly didn't like values forced on them, so why should this
                   generation be any different?

                   We're sheltered in prep schools; we are taught to treat one another with
                   equality, but by the time graduation rolls (royces) around, everyone
                   knows about equality. Treat people equally, we preppies know, as long as
                   they're like us and as long as they shop at Abercrombie & Fitch. Let's face
                   it: these pampered prepped out, Starbucks drinking, Jeep wrangling
                   people that I've graduated with aren't ready for any kind of globalization,
                   especially not in a social sense. While they may be eager to make
                   corporate takeovers, globalization will only make it easier for them to take
                   advantage of those that they feel are inferior for whatever reason.

                   Globalization has got to slow down. The upcoming generation is still totally
                   inept. We cannot accept that the United States isn't the only powerful
                   nation in the world. While we were taught in theory that other races and
                   nationalities were our equal, are we now ready to accept it? Of course
                   not; we can't handle the race relations in our own country. We always
                   grew up knowing that the United States was the best, and that's what
                   made the world peaceful. Then we graduated high school, and wondered
                   why things suddenly became so different.

                   The fact is that my generation was taught how to exist in a peace-loving
                   and equal world. The problem is that such a world does not exist outside
                   of standard academia, let alone inside a preperatory school. I always felt
                   that those few teachers there, the ones that 'made a difference' in my
                   life as a student and as a person, wouldn't lie to me about the idealism
                   that existed in every face that made up society.

                   While it truly is an exemplary idea to teach tolerance, forcing it into
                   practice seems relatively ineffective. By the time we get to college, we
                   groan at the first mention of tolerance. Even myself, member of the ACLU
                   (when I could afford it... and does Ira Glasser ever cease to send those
                   membership renewal forms?), idealist with few cynical moments, groans.
                   Perhaps it is no coincidence that my occasional cynicism is reflected upon
                   and understood by the majority of the student body at my liberal arts
                   college. This society is still dealing with civil rights laws that were passed
                   in what we now learn as history. We have essentially discovered
                   potentially destructive technology. Until we can safely live with the total
                   implementation and daily living of basic civil rights laws, we should keep
                   our money and our minds where they are: in our own country.
 

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