The rise of China isn’t only an economic event

Harmony and the Dream
August 11, 2008 Chengdu, China

The world can be divided in many ways — rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian — but one of the most striking is the divide between the societies with an individualist mentality and the ones with a collectivist mentality.

www.nytimes.com...

individualism vs collectivism

what about individualism and collectivism. A balance between the two.
To me individualism and collectivism is synonymous with seeing the forest and the trees.
I believe that if americans were to develop a collective mindset, along with nurturing their individual mindset, we could attain positive change a lot faster.

To the extreme, both individualism and collectivism are destructive.

I don't enjoy the company of people totally absorbed with themselves. At the same time I dont enjoy the company of people who are participants of ''groupthink''.

also, it is kind of funny that although americans may seem to be individualists, you can find carbon copy's of people's mindsets everywhere. There is some truth to people being similar to sheep, as radically as they may style their wool.

I find it insulting to China the way they break down the differences into Individuality and Collective behavior

I find that individualism is a failing social system, that capitalism works, of course, China has absorbed this...

But the way this obviously American fellow describes China as a collective society makes them sound alien and Borg like and this is untrue

My first experience with Chinese culture was when I swtched from Japanese Karate to Chinese Kung Fu.

I would never switch back, there is far more individuality in Chinese culture than there is in some ways in our own, genuine individuality, understanding relationships, pattern recognition, symettry, inter dependence and Harmony in language

These things are not Collective, they are Connected. Like wise placing higher value on things beyond the self is not Collective it is Recogniton

To use the word Collective is a typical example though of how our thinking is different and it involves our tendency to rush and simplify everything and it is a downfall of our culture

The example of calling China Collective is to thier cuture what McDonalds is to Chinese Home cooking.