”this number is almost 40% in Pakistan individuals in the UK.” 🤯 whaaaaat
I’m always interested in this information that people somehow think is unrelated to anything else, how could it be?
Like maybe taking a bath at night is why Japanese people tend to live so long. I don’t know but it’s definitely worth exploring!
I am definitely not a fan of western exceptionalism. But I’m also not a fan of demonizing the west because of certain aspects of its past. This is not a sports competition. We can learn from the positive aspects of every culture and also point out the negative aspects.
I am also exploring the idea of how yin and yang (masculine/feminine, or collectivist/individualist) will always be equally present in some form. Like I find that in Japan, a lot of the aggression that people might have in the west is not absent, it’s just directed inward. People express their yin outwardly and yang more inwardly (and that’s why there’s the stereotype about discipline).
Yeah it feels kinda dirty. Like, the actual outcome of being so individualistic is about as damaging as it is advantageous. It remains to be seen by a deity who can see all time and context whether or not it's overall far more destructive than we realise.
One thing that was really seeding my brain about it all though was the breakdown of this American-style race division. You aren't inherently born collectivist nor destined to it. My wife, having spent some years in the west, is far more individualist than her parents - and they all argue she was just always like that lol.
I prefer this idea that we're shaped by externals but not doomed to it one way or the other, as a race-based perspective tends to do.
My trip to Japan was very short so it's not like I can have a hardline opinion but my immediate experience was pretty much as you put it (mixed with the obviously international influence of Japanese culture giving me at least some intel)
Agree. I don’t want to be in a culture that leans too far one way or another, I always find the outliers everywhere I go