The Pros and Cons of Ethnocentrism in The Society

Ethnocentrism: We are the Best

Society is built on everyone thinking that their views, culture, ideas, and values are better than anyone else’s in the world. Regardless of where a person is from they are ethnocentric in some way. People can even be ethnocentric because they feel the country is better than any other country in the world. Some people think that they cannot connect to ethnocentrism, but the truth is they can. If a person feels that their religion is the absolute only path to truth and eternal happiness, then they are ethnocentric. Understanding what ethnocentrism is and how it affects the world around us can explain the positives and negatives being ethnocentric creates. By definition ethnocentrism is “the tendency to look at other cultures through the eyes of one’s own culture, and thereby misrepresent them” (Giddens 72). Looking at another culture through the eyes of your own means that you are not recognizing the culture as a whole, but how to compares to yours. When comparing cultures everyone in a specific culture is going to think that their culture is superior to any other culture. Even if a culture is actually better than another culture, the people in the inferior culture are still going to think that they have the best culture compared to the rest of the world. Being ethnocentric allows people to take pride in their culture, but also causes people to become close minded.

Being ethnocentric does affect the way people view the world around them. Every culture in the world can learn something from a different culture. There are always better and more efficient ways of doing something. However if people are ethnocentric they cannot accept the idea that a different culture might be able to improve their way of life. If a country is constantly offending another country because the people are extremely ethnocentric, the other country will become more resist to want to do any business or trade with that country. Ethnocentrisms can affect growth within different societies and cultures, but people fail to acknowledge that. Just because one culture doesn’t work for one certain group of people, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work for another group of people. Having a close mind, prevents people from recognizing the different diversity that every society has. Also ethnocentrism affects the way people think that other cultures can live in the same community. Every culture has something to offer to society and people need to start opening their eyes and accepting it. Even though the idea of ethnocentrism is often viewed negatively, it does have some positive effects on society. One thing ethnocentrism encourages is patriotism. People will come together and bond over the simple fact of loving the nation. More people on board with that idea will allow more things to get done with the intention of what is best for the nation as a whole. “It provides protection to group members by, creating sense of belonging among them. Those members who are weak, poor, hopeless, and helpless are encouraged by joining hands of it with them. It means it provides compensation to the people of low status” (Fooraq). Having a sense of ethnocentrism allows people who normally wouldn’t interact the chance to bond. Bonding with other people within a community allows a person to feel like they belong and have a sense of safety.

Another positive effect that comes from ethnocentrism is that no internal conflicts should arise. Everyone is on the same page on how things are done, so there wouldn’t be an opposition. One more advantage to ethnocentrism is “the level of cohesion in such a group is very high and such is essential for developmental purposes” (Prossylink). It is a huge positive that everyone is working together and getting along. Everything has its positives and it has its negatives. One negative to ethnocentrism is that it creates prejudice against other people. People have to deal with the conflicts that arise from people being prejudice. The national development of countries who have an ethnocentrism belief is usually slower than other countries. Countries tend to not want to accept ideas and possibly ways of improving growth. Another negative is “it limits an individual in a small social group to which he belongs. He remains within the limits of that group and is not influenced by the general social changes happening around him in the society. He remains backwards in a sense by this way and adopts little changes. Sometimes even he preaches against social changes, it means, it discourages culture change among the people” (Fooraq). Ethnocentrism leads to no diversity in society.

Like everything else ethnocentrism has its positives and negatives in society. With ethnocentrism, people think they are superior to other people in other cultures. Having a ethnocentric mind set makes people view the world completely different and they tend to miss out on some really good things that other cultures can provide. Ethnocentrism encourages patriotism and allows people who wouldn’t interact on a daily basis to actually start interacting. However, ethnocentrism also creates prejudice amongst people resulting in the lack of diversity in society. It’s better to just keep an open minded about everything other people have to offer. People should be embracing cultural differences, not trying to destroy them.

Works Cited

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