Topic 1: Social, Political, and Cultural Influences Many people within a country

Question

Topic 1: Social, Political, and Cultural Influences Many people within a country may recognize how social, political, and cultural influences have an impact upon them. At the same time, social, political, and cultural influences may be such a part of daily life that they seem merely “the way things are.” For example, when reading that America is an individualistic culture, you may not understand how life could be any different. Exposure to ideas from other ways of living can broaden your perspective and open your imagination to different philosophies of life. Identify one social, political, or cultural influence from the assigned reading that you believe would be difficult to identify if you were a part of that culture. Why do you believe this influence would be difficult to notice? What is its impact upon the people? Next, introduce one artistic expression that may help one to express individuality, independence, and creativity. What can the act of artistic expression do to open up the experience of the individual? How can it expand the perspective of the artist and possibly the whole country or culture?

Explanation / Answer

The social functioning, politics and cultural belief systems, values and protocols define to a great extent how the people of that nation would operate on a individual level. Their thinking, ways of operating, behaving and approaching different situations is hugely impacted by these. Exposure to different set of cultures, ways of being can to a great extent bring about change in a person's outlook to life in general. The perspective may broaden and the individual may be in a position to think about a certain situation using different lenses. The same would not occur if the person's vision is confined to how their own subjective society, culture and policies operate. A culture that I would personally find difficult to fit in could be the Western-individualistic culture being talked about. Being an Asian and having grown up in a completely connected culture, highly influenced by each other and in its truest sense collectivistic in approach may have to some extent conditioned that as my way of being. Personal priorities in that sense may be centred around satisfying my need for affiliation and belongingness before moving on to other tasks. The influence of these however, could be difficult to notice since we as humans are highly adaptive and try to fit in to whatever new situations we are put into. For instance, migration due to work or for academic purposes may initially be challenging for people since they may find it a cultural shock of sorts, however over time, people are seen to gel and adapt themselves to the new surroundings by accepting things the way they are. This impact could on the other hand be of having too many masks around us in terms of Jung's 'personas'. The fact that so much conflict and suppression occurs in people undergoing this complex change in life may lead them to 'fake it till they make it' which in itself brings its own set of challenges in the process.

Art can however be a great source of catharsis for people to freely express themselves through this powerful medium. One of them could be drama. Immersing self in characters, feeling them, being in their subjective position for playing their parts can have huge impact on the way artists personally approach life. This is so because drama can teach us more than we believe it to. It includes, having unique ideas, ways of responsiveness (that which the characters may possess), or simply having the art of shedding own 'ego' and immersing self into a different character altogether to experience life differently. Individuality can be fostered during the process, while also encouraging independence and creativity to express self in one's own unique way. By playing this therapeutic role, artistic expression can open up different experiences to an indiviodual, widening their own horizons and highlighting new possibilities. It can expand the perspective of the artist by showing different ways of being, different cultures that one may be showcasing through the plays, and highlighting these new and fresh perspectives for the whole culture to ponder upon. Ways of adapting are not only applicable to us as individuals but also on a societal level, where wisdom would only mean adapting self by discarding ineffective ways of being and adopting newer and profound ways of operating that other culltures may ave to offer.

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