Manipulation Of Cultures By Developed Societies

In the modern world, wars have taken on various forms. With the establishment of modern weapons, including nuclear weapons, war has evolved into a hypocritical form. The primary reason behind a war remains the same as when nations use tanks or guns to destroy their opponents. Now, with the establishment of various modern weapons, the chances of physical war are comparatively less. Instead, other forms of war, such as economics and manipulation, are considered broader in this modern era. 

Impact of Control and Exploitation on Society

Cultures are always crucial for any civilized nation, but unfortunately, they are one of the greatest victims of today’s war techniques. Cultures consist of humans’ norms, moral values, and behaviour towards a particular thing while living in a social circle. Cultures are also linked with people’s beliefs and thoughts, which they will not compromise at any cost. 

Personality is associated with a person’s qualities or habits that distinguish them from others of the same or different culture. Every society has famous personalities who are considered so because of their character or profession. For example, in most communities, cricket stars and film stars are considered above ordinary human beings because of their profession or role in their specific fields. 

Manipulation is the behaviour of dominating others for specific gains. According to psychology, manipulation is linked with exploitation and control. Control is the first step toward manipulation. The one who manipulates first controls or dominates the opponent’s mind, and this control or dominance leads to exploitation or destruction at extreme levels. 

Opportunity and Compromise 

Opportunity is linked with chances, or, directly, an opportunity is a chance for a person with a specific character or personality to advance. Chances are required and desired by every human being, so it is natural that we will go towards opportunity as it is a fascination for human beings. This opportunity becomes more fascinating in societies where talent mostly goes to waste. When a young man is provided with the opportunity to utilize his natural talent on platforms that he could never dream of, this is where the cultural fight starts. When a young man who has suffered for many years, struggling to cash in on his talent or enjoy his dream life, is offered all the incentives for which he has been struggling for years, he usually makes up his mind about some compromise that he is going to make for the accomplishment of his dreams. These compromises are the main weakness of societies where human talent is never flourished or appreciated. Developed societies use these weaknesses to manipulate growing communities. 

Reasons Behind Manipulation Policy 

The reasons behind the manipulation policy adopted by developed societies are as follows: 

• Developed societies want underdeveloped societies to remain dependent on them.
• They don’t want such societies to develop and be on the same level as them.
• They want to keep them oppressed so they can easily adjust to such societies according to their benefits.
• Manipulation leads to a situation where the victim society starts fighting against each other, so such a situation will never allow such societies to work on character-building, education, etc.

How Developed Societies Manipulate? 

The main trick to manipulate is by providing opportunities and, in return, demanding that the individuals to whom opportunities are provided work against the values of their society or adopt their culture if they want to avail opportunities. As a result, modern societies force such persons to do acts not allowed in their cultural or moral values.

For example, South East Asian culture is generally very concerned about women and considers them precious things that need protection. In South East Asian culture, relationships between men and women are considered very private, and open relationships are not allowed or liked by people living in South East Asia. On the other hand, if we broadly look at Western culture, they are less worried about relationships between men and women. They call themselves modernized nations and care less about sensitive things in South East Asian culture.

Recently, an actor from a South East Asian country was called upon by the Western film industry, stating that they wanted him to play a role in one of the Netflix seasons. Shortly after, he was selected and played his part. During his role, he was found doing an intimate scene against the culture he belonged to. This indeed had a reaction from South East Asian people, and the response was obvious.

The actor’s actions were criticized because local people didn’t want their famous personalities to get involved in values against their culture. So, after recalling the above scenario, we know that developed societies manipulate other underdeveloped communities by providing them with opportunities that are against their fundamental moral values. This trick also results in the loss of the reputation of talented young people in their society, which also benefits the developed societies so that no talented individuals will come out from underdeveloped communities and make their way toward developed societies.

If such manipulation in the name of opportunity continues and completes several cycles, it will result in cultural dominance. This means that such things will become common in underdeveloped societies, and they will consider them their own culture, resulting in the complete loss of culture. So, the individual existence of society will vanish, resulting in following a specific culture that can’t differentiate people on a cultural basis.

Individual existence is essential as it allows a nation to have policies according to its fundamental beliefs. If this independent or separate existence gets out of the way, then a single culture will dominate, resulting in exploitation and destruction everywhere.

This dominance of culture needs to be addressed as early as possible. This is only possible if societies sacrifice their self-interest for the interest of humanity.