Greetings from Canggu, I've been doing a bit more reading about Asian culture and economics. Enjoy some of the things I've found.
#1 East vs. West: On differences of narratives between the east and west.
The “independent,” individualistic self stresses uniqueness, defines itself via inherent attributes such as its traits, abilities, values, and preferences, and tends to see things in isolation. The second—the “interdependent,” collectivist self—stresses commonality, defines itself via its place, roles, loyalties, and duties, and tends to see things in context.
#2 On China: A former Australian diplomat to China shares his perspective on the country and the Xi Jingping’s increasing march towards totalitarianism.
Xi Jinping has reinvigorated ideology to an extent we have not seen since the Cultural Revolution.
In classical Chinese statecraft there are two tools for gaining and maintaining control over “the mountains and the rivers”: The first is wu (weapons, violence - 武) and the second is wen (language, culture - 文).
Xi has set in motion a purification project - a war against the forces of counter-revolution - that has no end point because the notional utopian destination of perfect communism will always be kicked a little further down the road.
#3 How the world works: This essay from 1992 compares some dramatic differences in economic choices between Asia and Western countries - much of it based on a relatively unknown German economist. Replace Japan with China in this article for a more relevant perspective.
#4 Parenting: On the anxiety of modern parenting, which highlights the fact that both parents are spending more time with kids:
Mothers who juggle jobs outside the home spend just as much time tending their children as stay-at-home mothers did in the 1970s.
The pressure to raise A+ kids is higher than ever and as the article notes, a trend driven and perfected by upper-class Americans, but aspired to by most people, despite not having the financial means to follow the same strategies. I do wonder sometimes how overblown articles like these are, but they I talk to my friends with kids and hear how often they mention jobs or schools and realize that the struggle is real. Perhaps it's time to write a book on how to raise a B+ kid...
#5 Weirding: Venkatesh Rao offers some thoughts on temporary versus normal weirding:
A situation is a normal situation if inhabiting it is a matter of going on with your sustainable survival/existence habits, and expecting the situation to persist indefinitely. The mark of normalcy is the allocation of surplus energy to fun, after you’ve taken care of necessary present and future-oriented behaviors.
A situation is temporarily weird if you either can’t, or don’t want to, adapt to it using sustainable habits. In the former case, you cut back sharply on fun, minimize use of resources to survive, and save as much as you can for post-weirding normalcy. In the latter case, you try and exit the situation.
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