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Tom Sine 1999 Mustard Seed Versus McWorld: Reinventing Christian Life and Mission for a New Millennium Monarch Books crowborough, ISBN 1 85424 435 3

Quotable quotes
We will show both some of the promised benefits of globalisation as well as some of the potential drawbacks. But we will also argue that McWorld is about much more than creating a global economic system. The architects of McWorld we not simply trying to increase global free trade and free enterprise. They are, I believe, working to redefine what is important and what is of value in people's lives all over the planet In order to sell their wares. 24

here is a consensus among those who are strong advocates of economic globalisation about what the ideal future looks like and how to get there. Therefore, when I use the phrase 'McWorld' I am simply describing this shared consensus as well as the process of globalisation itself. 23

Everywhere we travel, Christine and I see the Church losing out big time to the seductions of modernity and the allures of the Western dream. As the values of modernity go global, Christians everywhere, our young in particular, will Increasingly find ourselves in a contest in which we will have to choose between the aspirations and values of the mustard seed and those of McWorld. 25

Instead of constitutional principles guiding our political course. I believe we will see market efficiency becoming the ' new arbiter of justice. I am very concerned that a growing number of citizens will seriously confuse expanding consumer choice ushered in by McWorld with political liberty and constitutional freedom. There are different levels at which the globalisation of the economy is already beginning to seriously erode national sovereignty and undermine popular consensus, from a fire in a toy factory in Bangkok to decisions made regarding the rules of international trade in Belgium. l07

!t is important to remember that of the one hundred largest economies in the world today, fifty-one are corporations' General Motors is bigger than Denmark, Ford than South Africa, and Toyota than Norway. Wal-Mart by itself is larger than 161 countries. We are likely to see a continuation of mega-mergers between corporations, banks and other financial institutions which makes shareholders happy but will also mean these humungus corporate institutions seek to expand their political influence in all of our societies. 109

Those who are running McWorld have a very big stake in using every facet of the new international order not only to move their products but also to shape Our political views and our personal preferences. 110

These 'opinion makers' have become very skilled at manipulating public opinion. Particularly troubling is the enormous amount of information that corporate interests are constantly collecting about us. There are serious discussions on how to use this information to create 'narrow cast' commercials targeted at us, and people with our profile, not only to change Robert Kaplan notes that 'Material possessions not only focus people toward private and away from communal life but also encourage docility. The more possessions one has, the more compromises one will make to protect them.' (Roben D. Kaplan, 'Was Democracy Just a Moment?' , Atlantic Monthly, December 1997, p.76.) 110-111

People being satisfied with enough has always been a serious problem for those who want to promote a high level of economic growth. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith stated that the new mission of business therefore was to 'create the wants it seeks to satisfy'. The only way it is possible to create new wants is to persuade people to seriously change their values. Over the past seventy years the corporate world has succeeded brilliantly in persuading us to change our values and our wants and the Church hardly seemed to notice. 123

the marketers of McWorld am celebrating that for the first time in history they have created a borderless youth market in which they can sell their Nikes, Marilyn Manson MTVs and Coke anywhere on the globe. Shampoo Planet is a book by Douglas Coupland that describes this generation as the first borderless generation. The reason for their brilliant success in evangelising this borderless youth is that marketers have found ways not just to sell the young their products but actually to change their values so they want to buy their products. These kids have the same interests whether they're in New York, London, L.A. or a small town in Indiana,' says Jeanine Misdom, a youth marketing consultant. 133

1995 in fact, the Pew Charitable Trust funded a study of American Protestants. 'Most striking were Protestant attitudes about materialism and television,' said Chris Smith, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill. While respondents consistently decried materialism and consumerism, they also defined problems in such a way that excluded their own behaviour. 14O

We need to institute courses in our churches to help people decode the messages, reduce their :consumption and get out of debt as quickly as possible so they have more of their lives to invest in the work of the gospel. As pan of this initiative we will need to help them seriously to re- evaluate their life priorities in the light of faith and to create communities of resistance to enable people to resist the seductions of McWorld and discover in Scripture an alternative to the aspirations and addictions of modem culture; 141

It is becoming increasingly evident that in an increasingly competitive McWorld future many middle-claw people will have to work not only harder but longer. So we am likely to continue to see a steady erosion of our discretionary time available for family time, relationships, prayer, Scripture study, service and being involved in our churches. As we have seen them will also ) growing pressure to persuade us and particularly our young to relinquish a growing percentage of whatever is left of our discretionary time and money at the McWorld macro-mall. 193

The problem with this dualistic model is that we not only sanction giving our first allegiance to decisions about where to work, live and entertain our young, we permit modem culture, as a part of the deal, to define our notions of the good life and better future. As a consequence our lives are too often driven by the same manic aspirations that propel McWorld. No wonder we are exhausted. Modernity calls the tune and we dance. 222
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