Nikko Angelo S.

Carisma

Senior - H

English IV

Problem-Solution Essay

Cultural Hegemony: A Curable Complexity

In front of us exists a silver-laden rectangular book of whimsical magic, which when we

open, is very simplistic visually: the laptop. However, it hides a myriad, a plethora, of tricks
beyond our understanding. As we open it and peek through its contents, an army of powerful
thoughts overwhelms our heads, dictating us to direct our attention sharply. On top of it all, we
peek through a blue bar with a giant unmistakable "F", or we peek through a blue box with a
shadow of a robin in it. Afterwards, we immerse ourselves in seemingly unending movements on
its screen. In these, we look for faces of porcelain beauty, or eyes of blue, or actions of laughter
or dilemmas induced by confusion, or themes of love.

In this scene, there is a tendency; a force unseen that influences us to change our choices
not just in our thoughts but our destinies. This tendency may be referred to as "cultural
hegemony". According to Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin (2013), "fundamentally, hegemony is
the power of the ruling class to convince other classes that their interests is the interests of all."
Historically, this idea of cultural dominance has its roots in the days of colonialism. The powers
of the world, referring to countries like Spain, Portugal, France, and others, have continued to
influenced lands far and wide, and in it, a domination is exerted; not necessarily by actual
persuasion, but a subtle and inclusive overtake of the area's economy and its culture takes place.
In our familiar, modern, contemporary society today, it is noticeable in many parts of the world.
Despite existing cultural identities among countries, particularly previously colonized countries
in South East Asia, an increasing trend of dominance of Western ideals is observable. However,

although these present themselves with capitalist and economic potential for the said countries, it
undermines the cultural foundations that have established these countries in terms of humanistic
development. As a product of postcolonialism, cultural hegemony in itself is a force that hold
potential for cultural loss and is a threat to the humanistic development of countries.

The "implementation" of a cultural hegemony takes a relatively systematic process,

supported by the fact that it relies on culture and ideology. First, there needs to exist a class that
builds a "certain" ideology or belief that it sees as its interest. This then develops the so-called
"nucleus" of the hegemony: an interest that will involve all. Afterwards, these set of ideas are
then released to areas for it to spread. This may be exemplified by propaganda set up during wars
and conflicts, especially in totalitarian governments, where cultural hegemony may be seen as
"almost perfectly" existing. Finally, these ideas situate themselves as parts of a man's lifestyle,
knowledge structures embedded fundamentally in our psyches, also known as "habits".
According to Arts and Dijksterhuis (2000), when ideas are learned regularly, the need to pay
conscious attention to their details gradually lessens. In the case of lifestyle habits formed from
cultural hegemony, the instigation of an action stemming from such ideas is essential to perform
habitual activities automatically, with less and less attention to detail. Finally, these habits
become part of lifestyle of the affected, in this case, the colonized. This may be compared to soft
power such that these habits bring in more profits to the same companies, allowing certain types
of products to be sold or consumed with less of a need for persuasion. These ideological
influences may shape the cultural environment of a society; this includes a certain social class
altering what is of interest to other inhabitants.

Cultural hegemony works similarly to the concept of "soft power", a concept developed
by Joseph Nye of Harvard University to describe the ability to attract, rather than coerce, as a
means of persuasion (Nye, 2004). The difference in these ideologies lies in the usage of soft
power as a means of economic development, while cultural hegemony constitutes part of the
nucleus of a certain culture, having a fundamental dimension to it. The ideas of cultural
hegemony and soft power, particularly in regards to their similarities, tend to intertwine
especially in issue of postcolonialism and modern politics. To illustrate it more clearly, two
situations may be utilized: the shift of the "world power" during colonialism, and the rise of
South Korean culture also known as "Hallyu". For the first, hegemony, both political and
cultural, shifted to different countries throughout the course of colonialism. It may have been
first seen with Portugal, as the world leader in navigation in the 15th century, up to its transfer to
the British Empire, with Queen Victoria in the 18th century. During this time, what they thought
were important became of importance to a lot of other states at the time simply because they had
the most power over the most vital of resources, leaving others to be influenced because of their
dominance. On the other hand, the increased popularity of South Korea, particularly in terms of
entertainment, has poked the attention of youth all over the world. This has led to higher sales in
South Korean products, and Korean language classes. In effect, this drastically increased the
value of cultural exports coming from South Korea to US$4.2 billion in 2011 (Oliver, n.d.).

To compare these two situations, a clear similarity rises from soft power and cultural
hegemony, the maximization of influence. Both situations involved an increase of a state in
terms of increasing and attracting influence: political influence in the former, and cultural in the
latter. This showed a display of cultural hegemony in the first situation, and soft power in the

second. To quote South Korean President Park Geun-hye, "In the 21st century, culture is power."
This may refer to both terms, as it points out that culture may be utilized in increasing influence.
However, these similar ideas pose similar problems for those outside of the hegemon. There are
two possibilities: 1) the ideas adopted by the dominated through hegemony may be harmful or
destructive, and 2) adoption of cultural views may effectively "push out" cultural identity and its
uniqueness, disabling a group from solving both economic and political problems effectively as
these are both affected by an area's culture. First, ideas accepted through hegemony may be
harmful. This may be seen in a more isolated case of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, where
individuals influenced by an extremist idea of Islam to take lives do so. They seem strive on the
mindset that the interest of what they believe in lies for the interest of all, seen in publishing and
the publicizing of videos online where people are killed. Second, the attention that people have
paid to the new view adopted through dominance may simply overshadow their own identities as
social beings. This may be seen in an example very familiar to the Philippines: colonial
mentality. The moment when people start to patronize cultures other than their own may lead to
a fading of their own culture. This erasure in cultures may mean a destruction of morals and a
disability to uphold a society's stability.

Because of this possibility of a cultural loss, solutions must be made to keep a cultural
identity and interest relevant. In this manner, even if a culture dominates others within a society,
it maintains external in nature; it does not interfere with the vital interactions that keep a culture
alive and running. The main problem in this situation is that people who have benefitted from the
European brand of colonialism seem to deny the legitimacy of an indigenous cultural knowledge
thereafter. The solution is simple: restore this perceptual legitimacy for the people. This may be

done in numerous ways. First, public citizens and cultural agencies should acknowledge culture
as fluid in nature. It never stays static in terms of its context and content; one should be able to
understand how it shifts from one to state to another do one may make necessary adjustments to
such changes. This may be seen in modern integrations of popular culture with the native culture
seen in our country: an example of which is seen in the company "Team Manila". It presents
inherently Filipino values in ultramodern, mainly Western styles. This shows that although the
interests of the West are concerned, these are only secondary and are centered on the interests of
the Filipino people. This further implies that while culture may seem to have been forgotten, it
actually has not; it only changes in the form that it manifests itself in. Second, humanistic
development in an area should be complementary with the culture that it resides in. For example,
if Thailand should solve poverty, is should be solved in terms of Thailand's cultural perspective
and values. In the case of the Philippines, people cooperate to solve communal problems by the
famous Filipino concept of "bayanihan." It is an idea that people living in a common community
put in individual contributions to create a bigger change or solution in a problem. In the end, the
culture may be considered the mind of the society. If this then applies to the concept of cultural
hegemony, we ourselves may very well be experiencing a brainwash in terms of culture. In
response to the increasing hegemony brought on by the globalization not only of economies but
also of cultures, modern societies must maintain their prudence in welcoming such a wave of
unification.

BIBILIOGRAPHY

Aarts, H., & Dijksterhuis, A. (2000). Habits as Knowledge Structures: Automacity in GoalDirected Behavior. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 78(1), 54.
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2013). Postcolonial studies. Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge.
Nye, J. (2004). Soft power. New York: Public Affairs.
Oliver, C. South Korea's K-pop takes off in the west. Financial Times. Retrieved from
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ddf11662-53c7-11e1-9eac-00144feabdc0.html