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There is no "the" Chinese. There are a lot of individual people, and if you took a Chinese baby and raised it in an encouraging way, there is no Chinese gene th
by musage 9y ago
There is no "the" Chinese. There are a lot of individual people, and if you took a Chinese baby and raised it in an encouraging way, there is no Chinese gene that would make them timid and obedient regardless. And just like you wouldn't take, say, an alcoholic, and say that being an alcoholic is obviously the best way for them to be, or they wouldn't be one, I don't see how that is any more sensible with "cultures". I reject it.
People hiding behind each other and in hierarchies is no less dysfunctional than people plastering over the holes in their souls with material goods and what have you, and harmony is a complete stranger to both, at least as I understand it. When I speak with a human being who wears a saddle of some kind, has some kind of dirt on their lens, peace enters my mind after the conversation, after the fake, uptight, unhappy circus leaves town and me with my mind and the world around me as it is, not as overly fearful people inside it want me to describe it.
- nabla9 9y agoDifferent cultures have different relationships to authority. Han culture is very different from the west. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_distance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_distance
- Chaebixi 9y agoI get the impression that the idea that Chinese culture is somehow more naturally accepting of authoritarianism is part of a propaganda narrative promoted by Chinese authoritarians to protect their own power. > China Takes Aim at Western Ideas > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/asia/chinas-new-leadership-takes-hard-line-in-secret-memo.html?mcubz=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/asia/chinas-new-lead... > Communist Party cadres have filled meeting halls around China to hear a somber, secretive warning issued by senior leaders. Power could escape their grip, they have been told, unless the party eradicates seven subversive currents coursing through Chinese society. > These seven perils were enumerated in a memo, referred to as Document No. 9, that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader. The first was “Western constitutional democracy”; others included promoting “universal values” of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation, ardently pro-market “neo-liberalism,” and “nihilist” criticisms of the party’s traumatic past.
- nabla9 9y agoThere is no basis to assume that cultures are similar in their power distance. More traditional cultures generally have more power distance. Whose propaganda is the higher acceptance of authority of Americans compared to many European countries? PDI (Power distance index): 81 MEXICO 80 CHINA 68 HONG KONG 58 TAIWAN 54 JAPAN 40 UNITED STATES 31 SWEDEN 18 DENMARK http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/power-distance-index/ http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimen...
- gruturo 9y agoThat was new (for me) and interesting, thanks for posting that. I'm actually surprised to see such a small distance between e.g. Germany and USA, where I observed much more power disparity. Possibly because Germans are, as a whole, "closer" to each other in relative power, but at the same time more accepting of the idea of a constituted authority which rules over them? It might be nice to see these values reported independently (Actually trying to figure out if this is what the other indexes IDV MAS UAI LTO represent). *Edit Never mind they're different indicators: Power Distance Index | Individualism | Masculinity | Uncertainty Avoidance Index | Long-Term Orientation