This week we each experienced different University College seminars during our Common Event Program. Some of us got to learn about hermit crab sex, while others talked about how our favorite and least favorite movies define our personality. When our temporary professor said that we had to connect a zombie movie to world politics I thought “oh no, how am I going to do that” and I’m still not sure exactly how it will work. With a topic as broad as world politics, though, I’m sure somehow I will find a way. World politics is made up not only on the actions of states on a global level but also on the actions of individual persons and how they influence the global system. Therefore anything that influences the daily lives and perspectives of individuals impacts the international system as a whole. Movies are part of culture and culture is a major component of how people interact with their government and how they interact with people of other nations who may have different cultural values. While zombie movies may be a normal part of American culture to other nations this may seem barbaric.
Thinking about this relationship has made me realize just how broad the topic of world politics is; anything could fall within the realm of international politics. With the world as interconnected as it is today any event that happens could be of potential foreign policy interest to the United States or any other nation on the globe. If it impacts people either economically, politically, or socially it impacts their government, their neighbors, and nations across the globe. If people get an incorrect notion about the people of another nation through entertainment, especially a negative one, they will be more likely to either themselves or through their government enact policies to the disadvantage of those people. Therefore we do have to care about the social effects of entertainment even if it occurs on the other side of the world. How crab sex fits into all this is a question for another day.
Erica Peterson
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2 comments:
Did you know that some species of hermit crabs have a large "penis-like" structure that is larger than their legs and yet we do not know what it is used for... ponder that :P
Seriously now, you mentioned how broad the topic of world politics is. I wanted to say that I recently started thinking the same thing. When I signed up for World Politics, I expected the class to be focusing on specific world issues or how foreign governments are set up. Instead, we have been having broad discussions concerning IR theory and the very meaning of "world politis". This class has really helped me to realize how difficult it is to define and study a topic such as world politics, in part because everyone's definition of "the world" varies and the problems we have to address are incredibly complicated.
You said you wanted me to attempt to tie in hermit crabs to World Politics... here is my attempt:
We ask the question in world politics - does having the most wealth make you the most powerful country? Well, does having the largest "penis-like" strucutre make that hermit crab the most desired hermit crab? No one knows. We must work to collect empirical evidence,which is extremely difficult in both cases. If even a seemingly basic question, such as "how do hermit crabs reproduce" is so difficult to answer, how can we even begin to answer "what is the exact definition of world power and how is it acheived?"
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