Post No. 2

Yesterday, prof called on me to answer a question, to which I wasn't able to answer coherently at that point in time. Dang. But now when I'm home and able to collect my thoughts, this is what I feel in relation to the question on "whether Americanisation is necessarily evil."

As we all know, the power and influence that America has over the world has been growing. And by that I mean their influence over others' economies, society and culture. But Asians generally have felt that Americanisation threatens the root of our culture because it seeks a more liberal attitude unlike the traditional conservative style. This is especially so with the influx of movies from the western countries which more often than not portrays vulgar language, obscenities and twisted mindsets rather loosely. Yes it really opens our eyes to a whole new culture but often, it can cause one to believe that Americanisation in this form is cool and worth worshipping, which can be dangerous. If the young model after this sort of mindset, they are likely to grow up into people with wrong values in mind.

Then again, that’s of course, one side to the coin. Because if we were to think of Americanisation as an influence to open up peoples’ mind to a whole lot of new things and for the continuous advancements in technology, we would be thankful for it. Thus Americanisation has had its positive and negative impacts on different countries and societies so we should not over-generalise that Americanisation Is necessarily evil.

Ok now back to the main point.

“Change is inevitable and often necessary. But the transition process can often be difficult/painful”. Indeed an intriguing statement which set me thinking about the different types of changes and how society has acclimatised to it. Take for example the development of agricultural technology (presented by Nickolas during class). People used to hunt and gather for food until agricultural technology was introduced to them. It was a whole new method because of it’s ability to be sustainable. When people grow & harvest crops instead of just finding food and eating it and waiting to find more food, they are planning for the future, their next meal. This drives people to be self-sustainable in the long run.

But did this come easy? No, because people had to adapt to changes. They had to grapple with the fact that they did not have the sufficient knowledge to operate the high-technology equipment which comes with agricultural technology. And it takes time to learn the ropes, which often proves to be more challenging than hunting for food all day. However, at the end of the day, we all progress and lead higher standards of living as compared to the past. Therefore, change is necessary and we should not try to stop changes just because the transition process is challenging to both the mind & soul. Because more often than not, it is through the survival of these shifts that people come out stronger and less repulsive to the notion of future changes.

Through today’s lesson, I had a greater understanding of how technology has affected cultures & the human development & I felt that the presenters did a great job in keeping their content concise and simple. 7.5/10! 