Aging & Wisdom Quote by Norman Spinrad

Spinrad starts by stepping on a familiar slogan: the world has “gotten smaller.” Calling it “trite” isn’t modesty; it’s a warning flare. He’s telling you the phrase has become a lazy substitute for thinking, the kind of cocktail-party wisdom that turns a complicated reality into a comforting graphic. Then he pivots to the authority that matters in a global era: not theory, not spreadsheets, but embodied experience. “My travels have told me” functions like a credential and a challenge, positioning the writer against armchair globalism.

The real target is the bait-and-switch hidden inside the “smaller world” metaphor. Shrinking distance and increased connectivity don’t automatically produce sameness; they can just as easily amplify difference, harden local identities, or create parallel cultures living in the same cities without merging. Spinrad is pushing back on a corporate-flavored fantasy of frictionless cosmopolitanism: one world, one market, one taste profile. That fantasy is seductive because it flatters the traveler (and the consumer) into believing they’re fluent everywhere.

As a science-fiction writer, Spinrad’s context matters: he’s professionally suspicious of grand narratives that pretend to be inevitable. The subtext reads like a critique of cultural imperialism with a twist of realism: yes, global networks spread images, brands, and English-language chatter, but culture isn’t a skin you peel off and replace with “uniform.” It’s stubborn, locally negotiated, and full of resistances that only show up when you actually go there.