Globalization of the local

I thought an interesting graf in this article was found on page 479:

"...But somehow, more than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it no longer seems inevitable that everyone is going to look, speak, sing, dance, and think like an American because of globalization."

I think it's a very good thing that this hasn't happened. In the graf above this quote, the author attributes Americanization via globalization NOT happening because the forces of particularization are as strong as the forces of homogenization because the flattenization of the world has enabled many nations to "hold on to many aspects of their local culture."

It's funny how we thought that as technology progressed, the world would become more American-ized, but that's actually prevented that from happening