The Impact Of Culture On Culture

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The hunt for the solution of whether it is policies that influence culture or it is culture that influence policy is like an infinite loop that raises more questions than it answers. Nevertheless, whatever is the root driving force, it is pretty obvious that culture does play an important role in dictating the policies of a nation. As pointed out by Paarlberg in “The United States of Excess: Gluttony and the Dark Side of American Exceptionalism”, America has a unique culture from its unique history. The effect of this culture is visible in the way policies are formed and also in the way society is structured. China and United States are world super powers, but both have reached this spot in a different way. It is hard to estimate how much role …show more content…

“Messages that convey the values of individualism with a focus on being unique or winning and individual success are very common in marketing communication in the United States (Shavitt et al)”. With culture centered around individualism, it is hard to make people focus on collectivist issue. A lot of people feel disenfranchised with issues of climate change, because they are either unaware of the repercussions or simply live in areas which might instead face some potential loss from climate change policies. When fear or ignorance is combined with individualism, we are often left with a recipe which discourages collective action. In a research conducted by Xue,Wen et al., they found that individualism was directly linked to climate change policies. “In addition, higher scores on individualism were associated with reduced support for policies to mitigate climate change. (Xue, Wen, et al)”. Considering the deeply ingrained culture of individualism in the United States, the current scenario isn’t very hopeful for environmental enthusiasts. Environment degradation is a group action and hence its correction also demands group action. “By individualizing environmentalism it loses one of the major driving forces in social change, group action. The “individualization of responsibility” conceals the fact that environmental degradation is an institutional issue and limits our ability to pursue productive responses” (Chelstowski). The simple solution to “individualization of responsibility” seems to be collectivism, but collectivism or individualism is a case of either/or. Unfortunately, this makes the change in basic nature of population

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