The West Vs The East Culture

The western culture develops strong individualism and eastern culture develops group behavior. Each of it has benefits and pitfalls. It is important to understand & analyze its merits and impact.

Between these cultures however there are many other differences. But this particular one is of interest and seems significant.  

In a recent experiment, a psychologist let few westerners and easterners observe a pond filled with lots of small fishes and a large fish. His observations revealed that the westerners retold all features and movements of the big fish in the pond & knew less about the small fishes. Whereas the easterners retold more about the group movement, features of the small fishes & knew little about the big fish in the pond.

What is Individualism?

In the west, the parents develop child to be independent from the beginning. By teen age itself they are encouraged to earn their living, live independently in rented house, and take loan for car. They are encouraged to find their own life partner.

This makes them very strong individuals. They are self-made & able to stand on their own at young age. They stumble and get up on their own. They are ready to take on the world. They understand the bad competitive, ‘ready to eat each other’ world out there. They see the world as survival of the fittest and hence have to constantly outsmart others to survive.

There is a problem however. There will be a sense of shame developed if they seek any help in their life’s achievements from parents & close ones. This is a problem because it alienates them from parents from their intimacy. By the middle age they go through various life’s stress almost alone. On the outside they are high achievers but inside they feel lonely.

The broken families, single parents, old age crisis are pretty common and endemic in the west.

The Individualism is in theory very attractively depicted by Ayn Rand in her famous books – Atlas Shrugged and Fountain Head. The names of the book itself show off the ego of the individual & his capability. These are highly optimistic stories never delving deep in holistic nature of the world.  

The economists, policy makers like Alan Greenspan, Ronald Reagan adopted these theories very well to overrule the world through their money policies.

Group Behavior

In the east, the parental care & ‘cover’ for the child during his growing years is high. Especially in the Indian culture, the youngster is encouraged to touch feet of parents, Guroos at every important milestone & take their Ashirvada for his success. By this, the ego of the young man goes away. His success is attributed amongst his hard work and ability to god’s grace and elders aashirvada. Our culture teaches him that he is what he is because of all the people around him. A sense of belongingness, a group culture develops. He is at ease through the thick and thin of his life because of his strong family & community support around him.

There is a problem however. This will hold back his confidence to be cut throat in competition & do everything to outsmart others. He will feel the sense of carry along with others.

Just to quote an example: Once, Vijay Bhardwaj, our Indian cricketer while in Australia insists on some specifics of the vegetarian diet, his mates call him a cribber and ask him to make do with what is there. Whereas, when an Australian comes to India & insists on some specific diet, he is hailed a professional, one who knows what he wants.

So if there is a bad world out there, will an easterner compromise or attack ruthlessly? If you see the world history, except Japan and a bit of China’s aggression, all eastern countries have remained focused on their own development and sustenance. Never bothered to go all over, conquer and enslave others. Especially India has never done that.

Exchange of culture:

The east people are fast adopting west culture. Whereas the west will never adopt east culture. It is a very difficult culture to adopt. Everyone in the game from father, mother, young ones, the system, society have to change. That is impossible. Where as to adopt western culture, it is easy. The individual has to claim that he has earned all by himself and is a strong individual. That’s it.

Now-a-days the urban development itself is highly individualistic. The middleclass especially is fast adopting it due to its ease & system support. An earning individual, able to pay bills will get water, electricity, real estate everything from the system.

In rural, it is not that easy. Because there is no government system supplying job. They are mostly agriculturists. They depend upon gods for land, tilling, water, rain; they depend upon each other in a small community for transportation & trade. They cannot fire someone if he is lazy. They have to succeed as a group. So the group behavior is predominant. India being rural & Agri based for many million years adopted this culture. Also it is significantly influenced by the Dharma of the land by the rishis and muni espousing Dharma through our epics. The Rajas of the yore gave such importance to the Dharma espoused by these Rishis of the times, that India remained prosperous and had freedom at individual level with a sense of duty to each other.

Now that the urban clusters are becoming parasites of rural environs, we are fast losing rural environs necessitating rural-urban migration. This will eventually destroy the group culture and develop individualistic society. This will lead ultimately to the depiction of end of Kaliyuga in killing each other.