Homework

in

Understanding
Culture, Society, and Politics

G12-STEM
 Understanding culture, society and politics entails a lot of things. With undertaking and
understanding those things, however, it will bring a lot of benefits to the person who does. It
will allow oneself to be overall a better person in terms of social understanding and interactions
with other human beings.
There are a lot of things that one needs to learn and know if they are to fully grasp the
meaning of UCSP. One of the factors that may affect your interaction with other humans in
society is political affiliation. One may have different views on their ideal policies that the
government should apply and implement in their country. A lot of other factors may heavily
affect how much a person leans to the left or right politically.
Another thing someone will have to understand is to view things in a holistic manner.
One shall always have to consider the position of the other people in the conversation. Their
culture, their context to all of this, possible personal experiences that they may have had when
considering the entirety of their being, if you have access to such information. One will be able
to learn about how to consider all of these, provided you have correct and complete facts to
base what you say on. Life is different for all of us, and we all have different tolerances to
insensitivity by our fellow man, so we should be considerate of everyone.
One of the most interesting topics we have touched on in UCSP has to be the idea of
colonialism. Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one
people to another. The invading country goes ahead and tries to take over the weaker, smaller
country for gain. The term colony comes from the Latin word colonus, meaning farmer. This
root reminds us that the practice of colonialism usually involved the transfer of population to a
new territory, where the arrivals lived as permanent settlers while maintaining political
allegiance to their country of origin.
Before the modern world, more advanced countries would send exploration parties,
hoping to find people to trade spices with, or if they’re lucky, land that they can claim for their
own. If the latter situation happens, they would take over the land, with force if needed, and
then take their natural resources, along with the people. They would establish colonies there
and slowly make them larger, gaining more and more power and influence along the way.
Of course this is morally wrong, as the peaceful people living there were, oftentimes,
brutally forced to cooperate, or they were most likely going to be subject to violence, maybe
even escalating to genocide at one point.
However, the countries that did this had their own excuses and cover ups for doing so.
One way of reconciling those morally wrong actions was the argument known as the “civilizing
mission,” which suggested that a temporary period of political dependence or tutelage was
necessary in order for “uncivilized” societies to advance to the point where they were capable
of sustaining liberal institutions and self-government.
They had branded those who would not follow their “civilized” ways of living as savages,
killers, and much worse terms. They did all they could so that people would join them.
 An interesting anecdote is that this was probably the origin of the term “cannibal”. The
westerners tried to demonize whoever did not want to comply with their agenda of
colonialism.
Colonialism seems like a thing of the past, and in reality it should be as everyone should
be working towards pulling everyone else up instead of pushing them down. However, in our
modern world, one problem is neo-colonialism. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary,
the definition of neocolonialism is the economic and political policies by which a great power
indirectly maintains or extends its influence over other areas or people.
Their goals are pretty much the same, as they are both going for financial gains not from
their own country, but neocolonialism differs from colonialism through the methods that it
acquires power over the territories it wishes to control.
Arguably, the biggest country that is practicing neocolonialism right now is China. They
have been extending their resources to help other countries, and then when the country
cannot pay, China asks for a piece of territory or a share of the economy. For the past decade,
China has been doing business in Africa. However, many people in Africa have complained that
workers are not treated fairly, the environment has not been considered well, and a lot of other
completely valid complaints.
China has been pursuing what is now commonly referred to as “debt trap diplomacy” in
order to have its way with Africa. In 2000, China’s official loans to Africa had been just in the
millions of dollars. Johns Hopkins University has estimated that between 2000 and 2015, the
Chinese government, banks, and contractors had loaned $94 billion to African governments and
state-owned enterprises.
Neocolonialism is truly something to be afraid of. If a country succeeds in taking over
another, what will become of the culture? The population? Will the colonists be treated as
equal as the mainlanders? Truly terrifying to think about.
Anthropology is the study of human societies and behavior in both the past and present.
This helps us to understand how cultures developed and why some things are such in their
societies. It builds upon knowledge from natural sciences, including the discoveries about the
origin and evolution of Homo sapiens, its physical traits, its behavior, the variations among
different groups of humans, and from social sciences, including the organization of human
social and cultural relations, institutions, social conflicts, and many other things.
Political science is a social science that mainly deals with systems of human governance.
Political science applies empirical and generally scientific methods of analysis in order to
understand the reasons behind things in governance. This helps us understand and predict
certain things that may be important to the development of government policies for everyone
on earth.
 Sociology is the study of society and the social interaction within it. This is the branch of
social science that intrigues me the most. I find it amazing how humans are sort of predictable
in how we interact with others in a group of individuals of the same species.
Agency refers to the individual thoughts and actions taken by a person, and it also
expresses power due to the reason that they can decide for their own lives. It shows that a
person in the society can think for themselves. Structure, on the other hand, are the social
forces, relationships, and institutions that combine together to affect the lives of people living
in that society. Structure in a society is one of the biggest factors in how a person’s life may
turn out, regardless of their individual thoughts.

Five Learnings from the two lessons

 I have started to understand why some people have radically wild and different political
ideas compared to me. It always seemed absurd how other people can get that kind of
thinking and those ideas. I mean, if they looked around them, they would probably think
the same way I do. However, I realized that there was a multitude of things that may
affect your political ideology, and I have been more considerate. Not everyone sees
things the same way.
 In that same thought as my paragraph above, I have also learned to be more
understanding of the perspective and position of the people I talk to. Small problems for
me might be huge for them due to big factors such as ethnicity and socio-economic
status. Life can be wildly different for us in ways that we may fail to see at first glance.
 I also learned about the importance of social inclusivity in society. Back when I was a
child, I wondered why there were Filipino signs right next to English ones whenever my
parents and I went someplace. I never considered that not everyone has had an
opportunity to be educated and learn English at school. I now fully understand why and
will fully support any advances made for social inclusivity.
 I learned about the UN’s sustainable development goal plan for the whole world, and I
am happy it exists even though some countries don’t really work towards them. The
plans are easy to understand, effective, and have already achieved results. I hope at
least a few of them will be achieved in my lifetime, even though the chances are low.
 The mentioning of neocolonialism was a mind-opener for me. I never would have
thought that such an ancient idea, the thought of conquering another country for
economic power, would actually be done in our modern world today. It would be a
living nightmare for a country to experience that. Too much debts, foreigners invading
our country with lack of respect for our traditions and culture, and other horrifying
things. It just sounds all too familiar.