Proper Balsamic

 

One of the massive downsides of the western homogenised consumer society demanded by the global economy is that it loses the flavour and the personality of the individual nation and specifically it's people.

I suppose it's inevitable that the nation with the least history and therefore the most stunted when it comes to having true organic variance in its population is America (having killed off the indigenous people) , the driver of the global economy. It could be argued that they import their nationalities as immigrants and that the flavour of those communities washes into the mix. Of course as anyone who has spent time aboard, the effect is the other way in that the immigrant picks up far more of the new environment than he/she gives out, unless that is if a ghetto is founded and the new immigrants turn in on each other to preserve what they feel important.
Everyone's mindset is governed by the influences they encountered as they grow up and these characteristics define each specific society which in turn influence the way things are done and what is done within that society.
When an Italian designs a car or a food dish for the table he embodies generations of refinement and taste. The uniqueness of the cars design or the creation of the food dish is Italian.
Globalisation is not interested in this, it wants uniformity and codification. It wants price and delivery above quality and speciality.
We are all the losers in this Wall Street driven model.
The cars these days, except for the very expensive are from a specification which demands uniformity. The ingredients in a instant meal come from god knows  where and even the fruit and the table sources are at best a pail image of the real thing. They are an artificial equivalent without being equivalent.
It an interesting phenomena that only the really wealthy, the very people who bequeathed the bland landscape on us, are the people who can visit the expensive restaurant or drive the sophisticated car and escape the dull conformity which is thrust upon us.
The Italian man, eagerly discussing his extravagant balsamic vinegar is a far cry from the stuff I pull off the shelf at my local Sainsbury's but then with a bit of advertising waffle how would I know without having been to Italy.
In the Global Markets drive to batch us and remake our image into something recognisable to every palate we lose that individuality that spark or recognition that character which sets us apart and definable.