ABSTRACT
Ethnocentricity is the natural condition of mankind. Most peoples of the world do not, in their conservative heart of hearts, like foreigners and display feelings of hostility (often tinged with fear) towards them. This indeed is one of the most widespread ways in which people declare and affirm their identity - by saying who they are not. Today, however, especially among the younger generation, we see a very different set of attitudes in western countries. Under this new dispensation things foreign and far removed from our own polluted urban world acquire an exotic piquancy, an exciting glamour, which causes them to be ap proached with a mixture of reverence and hope. For all its faults, it can at least be said for the modem world that it has produced a substantial body of articulate opinion that blends passion with compassion in its concern for the impoverished and starving peoples of the world. This expanding (though by no means un ambiguous) sense of common humanity is encouraged by the rapidity and intensity of modern communications and by a grow ing awareness that mankind as a whole may face extinction unless some more harmonious and rational adjustment can be achieved between the world's rapidly growing population and its dwindling natural resources. Ironically, the sudden realization by the oil states of the Third World that they possess a powerful weapon capable of commanding world attention and respect adds a new element of self-interest to this wider sense of common human identity.
