Discussion Class Week 28 (Friday, Nov. 6th)

For the Friday night class, we are going to revisit a topic that we talked about many months ago:  Western philosophy vs. Eastern Philosophy in our everyday lives.

In Japanese, there is a famous expression: The proverbial nail that sticks out is hammered down.  This means it is better to stick to the 'team concept' than try and do something on your own.  

In the West, we believe that you should always strive to be Number 1 at everything.  America has the world's largest economy, the world's most powerful military, the best movies and music in the world, the biggest and most successful companies in the world, i.e. Apple, Microsoft, Apple, etc....  

Japan has been rewarded with a fairly stable society with little crime.  These wonderful aspects of society are a direct and indirect result of the Japanese society playing by 'team rules'.

Though the West is the leader in many things, it also has a horrendous crime and drug rate that can be indirectly tied to the concept of 'I want to be Number 1 and I don't care what anybody else thinks'.

Think about Western vs. Eastern thinking and talk about it in next Friday's class.