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According to Marshall Singer, a former professor of international and intercultural affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, humans can never accurately define reality; rather they have perceptions of reality. Yes we all live a reality: Wars, ideas, and people do exist. However, as Singer stated, reality is less important to understand human behavior than are “perceptions of reality.” Alas, humans tend to treat their perception of reality as though it is reality.
Samuel Huntington, a professor of Strategic Studies at Harvard University, concluded in his article that conflicts exist not as a result of economic or ideological division, but rather the great divisions exist because of cultural conflicts between different civilizations.
In Huntington’s article, “Clash of Civilizations,” he states that different civilizations are distinctive from each other by history, linguistic, culture, tradition, and most significantly religion. These differences according to Huntington have created “the most violent conflict.” For instance, the North African immigration to France formed violent conflicts among Frenchmen.
The conflicts between Muslims and Hindus are vicious. In Italy, France, and Germany racism that is increasing along with political violence against Arab and Turkish migrants is becoming extensive. Huntington draws his conclusion from the idea that people have different viewpoints, especially when it comes with the relation between “man and god,” “man and state,” and “individual and the group.”
It’s true that differences exist between different civilizations on various levels: economic, social, and political. Looking at world wars one appreciates the precision of Huntington’s argument. For instance, Hitler’s crimes and control against most European countries were based on his perception that Germany was the Aryan race (master race); Germany to Hitler had the natural right to control the world. Looking at Hitler’s regime type and era one would understand how his concept of Aryan race developed.
Misconceptions
People according to Singer can be, and frequently are, mistaken in the way they identify situations, causes, or intentions. He refers to this as misperception. In the “majority of conflict situations, neither party really knows what … they are fighting over because the misperceptions tend to obscure everything else.” For example, for years the former Soviets and Americans in the 1980’s were criticizing each other’s regime or ideology.
On an academic level, Thomas J. Scott, a teacher of international studies at Rosemont High School and adjunct professor of education at St. Mary’s University, argues in his article titled Student Perceptions of the
Developing World: Minimizing Stereotypes of the Other that knowledge and education are effective tools in enlightening students about other cultures. For us to effectively communicate with cultural differences, understand “the other,” and “respond to global problems,” we have to familiarize ourselves with cultural diversity.
Scott examined high school students’ perception toward developing countries by showing them “photographic images of exotic cultures,” and later on discusses the results of their perception towards the images. According to the photographic images results, the author divided students’ perception into three categories to briefly elaborate how collective students based their perception on things.
Ethnocentric perceptions illustrate students who view the United States as having “superiority” over the developing countries. Neutral perceptions illustrate students who drew “factual information” of what they observed, but identified it in terms of differences between United States and developing countries, “without applying a value to the people or the conditions in which they lived.” Finally relativist perceptions illustrate students whose perception was changed to positive views toward the developing world, they tend to develop “a sense of respect for cultural diversity.”
Coexistence
Finally, Edward Said, a former professor at Columbia University in English and Comparative Literature, ends his article Uses of Culture, by stating that the objective of perception is to discover how to bridge the gap between different traditions, peoples, and historical stages. To Said “Every identity is a construction, a composite of different histories, migrations, conquest, liberations, and so on.” The interaction of individuals in the global village will lead to multi identities within a person. Here, we have to differentiate between identity and self.
Think of how our identities might get affected from stereotypes, discrimination, and conflicts, but at the same time realize how our own perception of people of different cultures has a profound impact on self identity. It’s amazing how different aspects of our culture play a role in developing our perception of the world; nevertheless, we have to realize that other perceptions exist.
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