Previously I wrote about Loneliness and Individualism, briefly touching upon the topics of collectivism and individualism. The duality and polarity of these two topics is actually quite foreign to many. From a Western perspective, the idea of being unique and standing out is such an ingrained cultural identity that it seems backwards to even discuss the idea of collectivism. The only thing separating one man from another was his name and his stories, after all. Famous explorers, scientists, and inventors all ventured out into the world to become different from one another, finding their own path through life.
I unjustly and abstractly summarize Western history this way as it is difficult to pinpoint and isolate how these two schools of thoughts separated from each other and so starkly divided the world geographically. There is not one particular reason that Western civilizations find themselves to be more individualistic. Rather, over time their politics, proximity of neighbors, and multilingual discourse led to a focus on individuals rather than a focus on the collective.
Interestingly enough, as I write this I have wild speculations of specific division in Europe’s development, ranging from mythic stories like the Tower of Babel cursing the population to having a thousand different languages to the Mediterranean Sea being just a large enough body of water to separate two civilizations by culture but not by conflict. Additionally, books like Guns, Germs, and Steel challenge the premise that Western civilization’s dominance was founded on superiority, but rather on geographic feedback loops. Conversely, researching conflicts between large nations like China and India brings up a curious but ultimately short lived conflict between the two, despite their long history and sizeable populations. While there are several different nations in Asia, many of them find themselves to be isolated from one another by ocean or mountains. An infamous example is China’s close border’s policy, which for some reason is not listed in Wikipedia, despite having an article on the Open Door Policy which was an economic and “diplomatic” policy forcing China to open its doors. You can tell by China’s modern day response how much they’ve enjoyed the Western invitation.
While this post took a deep turn into the history of diverging thoughts, I wanted to more closely focus on the practices and values that are similar and different from collectivist and individualist cultures. I’ll save that post for another time, as this post alone could have more examples and details that deserve more research and attention.
Leadership, Design, Writing 