Our views of the world are at odds with each other, they certainly diverge because your experience and mine are totally different. I have gone from a third world culture to a first world culture. My personal experience has been nourished by North American currents and certain European countries, this year I hope to visit the colossus of Asia βChinaβ.
I maintain that America is the GREAT innovator and China, for example, is the great IMITATOR, but I recognise that within that imitation is the personal touch of its A, B, C and junk qualities, heh, heh, heh.
I do not share the idea that world thinking has become homogenised or globalised. Furthermore, I am particularly inclined to say that this is a trick that certain interests have wanted to implant in people's brains. The past to which you refer has led us to the present we live in. The internet is only an intangible medium, the reality is more palpable and crude. Passivity is sickening and impoverishing the human being.