Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#2seems like a thinly veiled comparison of communism and capitalism to me
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#3seems like a thinly veiled comparison of communism and capitalism to me
Corporate capitalism, though, is a rather miraculous invention. It manages to preserve the stifling collectivism and anti-creative properties of socialism, while maintaining the greed, rampant inequality, and social devolution inherent to runaway capitalism. Worst of both worlds, yay.
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#4I would argue that the China example is somewhat invalid. Seems to me that China's economy has been expanding because they've begun to mimic "western" capitalistic principles more closely than in the past. That is, Chinese citizens are more able and willing to start up businesses for personal gain, something that wasn't really possible a couple decades ago.
Also, I picked the cow and the hay, even though I lean more towards individualism-- maybe not compared to the average American, though (I'm Chinese, born in the US).
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#5seems like a thinly veiled comparison of communism and capitalism to me
Corporate capitalism, though, is a rather miraculous invention. It manages to preserve the stifling collectivism and anti-creative properties of socialism, while maintaining the greed, rampant inequality, and social devolution inherent to runaway capitalism. Worst of both worlds, yay.
The stifling collectivism and anti-creative properties you refer to are more akin to Feudalism, IMO.
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#6I would argue that the China example is somewhat invalid. Seems to me that China's economy has been expanding because they've begun to mimic "western" capitalistic principles more closely than in the past. That is, Chinese citizens are more able and willing to start up businesses for personal gain, something that wasn't really possible a couple decades ago. Also, I picked the cow and the hay, even though I lean more…
If you're going to make a prediction of China on which you will bet, bet that China will continue to be China.
This is more that a tautology -- I suspect there is a tremendous stability to the underlying forms of culture and society in China that seems to transcend ideology. Mao just turned out to be the latest Emperor, after all. I predict that China will more or less continue to have its current borders. It will continue to have a highly centralized government. China will ultimately defeat invasions (including cultural ones) through assimilation. If democracy ever comes to China, it will be a uniquely Chinese version that will somehow manage to resemble an imperial government.
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#7Yet another blah article generalizing about entire countries based on experiments done on 30 people at a time under lab conditions.Go NY Times.
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#8Brooks is confusing collectivism with dictatorship, and they're not related. You can have a collectivist democracy, like Japan, or an individualist dictatorship, like Saddam's Iraq or Nazi Germany.
China's recent economic improvements have nothing to do with its collectivism. They're due to more freedom, both economic and personal, for its citizens. Taiwan, whose people are arguably very similar to the Chinese in cultural outlook, started prospering as they emerged from martial law under the Kuomintang to democracy. Hopefully China will follow the same path as Taiwan and South Korea in this respect.
I get the sense that Brooks wants to prove that dictatorships are just as morally legitimate as democracies, and that the people of Asia (or the Middle East, or wherever) are somehow culturally programmed to thrive under a dictatorship. He's got it backwards -- the people thrive not because of the dictatorship, but in spite of it. Once they're freed, they'll thrive all the more.
Re: Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities
#9Bleh
Sweeping generalization after sweeping generalization, this article not only provides no substance, but then starts bringing up some of the stupidest "what if" scenarios I've ever read.
"What if Asia all of a sudden started doing well economically?" -- Has this person been under a rock for the past 50 years? East Asia has consistently grown economically since the mid 20th century and and some nations currently rank with the nations of the Western World: Japan, Singapore, South Korea, etc.
Granted, some Asian economies have their problems, but so do many so called individualist Western economies. Mexico, for example, is easily no better off than China.