East West Cultural Differences

Written by Mathew Naismith

https://www.learning-mind.com/cultural-differences-east-west/

I have always loved noting the differences in the way people of eastern and western cultured people think and perceive.

It is interesting how a lot of eastern cultured people are thinking more inline with western cultures due to the influence of western cultured thinking processes, often inline with western style living conditions!!

The two main conceptual differences is that western thinking is more of individualism, while eastern thinking is more of collectivism. You will find that an individualistic mind set is a lot easier to offend than a collective mind set, this is probably why I get myself in a lot of trouble, I often say things that I would not be offended by. Just by mentioning these differences offends a lot of western thinking people,which I find petty which further offends the western mind.

You must be of what you are, not of what the environment around you determines you are otherwise you are simply living a lie.

It is funny to think that the forefathers of western minded people today actually displayed a more eastern thinking process, especially when of a tribal community kind of environment. I also find that a lot of western people today that live by teachings that are of an eastern origin can also display a more eastern style of thinking. It is often sad to see the western mind distort eastern teachings to western teachings. This one line is often highly offensives to the western mind, inline with the western mind being offended when someone doesn't use the correct pronoun when making reference to their numerous genders.

So is the Western style of thinking wrong and the Eastern style of thinking right?

It is funny, because it is the western mind that often puts everything in life into right and wrong, good and bad, positive or negative. So is looking after yourself, individualism, to best look after the tribe, collectivism, wrong? Another point is, can you focus too much on the tribe and not enough on yourself? The individual is as important as the collective so there is no wrong or right here. By looking out for the individual that serves the collective is non-abusive, to look after the individual while using the collective to do so is abusive. As yin and yang are important to each other, so is individualism and collectivism.