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David Makora University of Zimbabwe
Undoubtedly the Western culture is a representation of a contemporary iconic way of life that is revered, treasured, thus handled and embraced with high esteem.
This underlying fact rests upon the basis that the western culture has far and exceedingly gratified the human ego, glory and pride of life that are indispensable traits of human fulfilment and satisfaction.
In the jungle of cultural contests and clashes, the western culture has maintained its sovereign, autonomous and ultimate status as a cultural deity or idol that determines the destiny and fortune of humanity.
Human nature is hard wired with innate and visible features of selfness, egotism and personality which are yardstick measurements of a youth phase. As a prototype cultural model embraced in contemporary times , the western culture has left explicitly clear footprints that manifest in the society today.
Beyond the continental proximity of the western borders, the porous nature of the western culture has been vivid in a manifold of social settings. The inevitable vestige of western culture embraced by youths today ranges from politics, technological advancement, fashion, drug and alcohol consumption and religion.
Either by design or accident youths have imbibed western culture and appropriated it so much that it has become part and parcel of their lives. The exogenous impact of the western culture connotes that culture is not only biologically and genetically inherited but learned through a process of acculturation.
This transplantation and ubiquitous nature of the western culture is anchored on the fact that it incorporates issues that bother on education, mode of dressing, language, marriage and sexual orientation, arts and craft.
The most pertinent question is whether such an intimate cultural communion between western culture and youths today is benevolent for the well-being of youths or has brought with it devastating casualties. This article serves to construct an appropriate and suitable approach that will enable the youths to harness the impact of cultural globalisation.
Quintessentially Western culture has been a bait for contemporary youths to embrace it with much radicalism without any reservations. An alternation model buttressed that individuals alter their behavioural patterns to fit for a particular context.
Likewise while alternating to the western cultural context is inevitable, the recipients should take a gradual stance as they improve their value system. This is due to the fact that any anticipated change is a movement from the known world to that of the unknown.
In essence, for maximum benefit from cultural globalization, it is important that the youths should take a cost and benefit analysis before integrating any way of life into their value system. This is due to the fact that cultural globalization has spillover effects to those social settings with weaker cultures.
An uncompromising stance behind youths’ motivation to western culture is anchored on a peer perception that the western culture is the far most recognizable trend worth to be juxtaposed into their social context. An anticipation whether the youths will escape the barbaric nature of cultural globalization will be inevitable due to power politics in the international system where the major powers exercise their dominance over the weaker states.
In a nutshell a conventional understanding of the western culture encompasses the knowledge, beliefs, morals and the act of bringing ideas or ways of the western world. It is my juvenile submission that as youths embrace western culture they should be cognizant of the vital cog of their social system which reflect a society’s virtues, identity and values.
Online Reporter