Ilana Gelb
IDC 4001H- Professor Maciuika
2/1/14

Destruction in Pursuit of Creation

One must destroy in order to create. In a time of Modernization, when the world is constantly changing, it is difficult for individuals to find steady ground. The readings, “All That is Solid Melts into Air” by Marshal Berman, “What is Globalization” by Ulrich Beck, and “Rocket Machine” exemplify the theme that in pursuit of building something new, one must terminate something old. What is familiar may be diminished in the quest for something grander, or more profitable. This ever-evolving society makes for great uncertainty, possibility, anxiety, loss, and potential.
Modernity is an era that has been ever evolving. Marshal Berman asserts that modernity began in the “start of the sixteenth century” when people “grope[d] desperately but half blindly, for an adequate vocabulary” as the general public “hardly [knew] what hit them” (Berman 16). The increased rates of development over the last few centuries have caused instability on a global and individual scale. Modernity presents an “atmosphere of agitation and turbulence… expansion of experiential possibilities and destruction of moral boundaries and personal bonds…” (Berman 18). For instance, as the global economy surpasses the bounds of national/state government, Transnational Corporations “rewrite the societal rules of the game- with the legitimacy of a modernization that will happen come what may” (Beck 4). In order to gain economic ground and increase profits, TNC’s destroy domestic economies, intensify class stratification, and circumvent state government regulations on taxes, trade, and other things- causing local governments and communities to lose money, potential, status, and impact. The company, Rocket Internet, must eliminate its original business model of low risk investments to compete in the globalized economy. The company must adapt to the “machine” of modernity and globalization in order to stay afloat.
In order to keep up with the rapid conveyer belt of modern day society, one must destroy things, infrastructure, economies, tradition, and much more.