DELOS REYES, Steve B.

Bachelor of Arts in International Studies 2-1

Politics, Governance and Citizenship
REFLECTION
POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES AND POLITICAL SPECTRUM
The profoundness of the effects of politics and governments in our lives means we cannot fully
favor a particular ideology if we do not effectively understand it - its concept, theoretical paradigm and
its application. The underlying philosophy that drives that ideology must be understood in a way that if
we put it to a real-world test, will it match and persist or will it fail? It is under-stressed and we often
either overestimate or underestimate their importance in exchange of practicality and convenience.
Political ideologies are supposed to be a concrete representation of our political views, opinions and how
we perceived society, what it is and what it ought to be, also the state of society itself. By the time we
fully understand that then we can navigate ourselves better in the political spectrum. I see it in way of
analyzing politics and society academically, we categorized ourselves inclined to people and politicians
who represent our views and understand how we perceive concepts in order to fight for what we want to
be dominant in the political climate of the state. And because our views and thoughts change overtime,
so does our place in the political spectrum.
This becomes more important in the context of democracy. A democracy that is contested needs
more than ever the people to be knowledgeable and educated to understand ideologies and their place
in the spectrum not only to figure out which candidates should represent them but also to be aware of
their power. A person that is not interested about this discussion tends to be easily influenced by
malignant forces, by those who disguised themselves as one of the people, who pretend to know what
the common folk wants and will manipulate the mass through their network of disinformation. To
persuade the people to cater to your way of politics no matter how harmful your ways are means these
people are clueless about one of the most important things in politics and society – history. History is a
gateway to build our worldview, where we build our opinions in the context of politics and where we
begin to place ourselves in society. And if history is continually denied and revised, then the result is a
society willingly herded despite knowing they are not chained. Remember, knowledge is power.
The world is already too complex for us to try to oversimplify in order to understand. As I have
previously mentioned, politics and governance have profound effects in our lives, so political ideologies
and our standing in the political spectrum are essentially not apart from our lives. We should understand
these in parallel of other things that are as much as important like religion, technological innovation,
education and so on. We may have different views in lives, and we often clash because of how differently
we want to find solutions on the problems of society but being educated and knowledgeable may find us
as a good start towards cooperation and who knows? Maybe somewhere in the spectrum we might find
we share a common ground that can lead to a harmonious coexistence in a heavily contested political
society.
REFERENCES

Mr Beat (Nov 22, 2019). Political Spectrums Explained — Why is there a left wing and right wing?
[VIDEO]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjQHuBvdyNg

Political Books Review (2020). CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES EXPLAINED [VIDEO].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TObxjI03XnA

Simpleshow foundation (2017). Political Spectrum [VIDEO]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeaEs0lgXsM

Ted52 (2021) What is Left and Right in Politics? Political Classifications [VIDEO]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIyStpov3eE

The Birdly Skeptic (2013). What is a Political Ideology? [VIDEO]. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYOKtvMOpLA