Gorgias
Joined: 27 Aug 2005
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 Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:19 am Post subject: A Yellow Elephant |
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A Yellow Elephant
| Quote: |
| ��Your country��s people only attack.�� |
My Korean friend said this after I (inappropriately) compared Canada��s Residential Schools to the English-only policy at the institute I work at.
| Quote: |
| ��They��re very positive��. Effervescent, vivacious, ambitious,���� |
A friend from my hometown, who has lived in Japan and who I now work with, made this remark about the Japanese.
This got me thinking about Nietzsche��s Mater and Slave Morality. In a nutshell:
| Quote: |
��Master morality is a "yea-saying" attitude where "good" and "bad" are equivalent to "noble" and "despicable" respectively. The master creates value.
Slave morality is a "nay-saying" attitude or herd morality which holds to the standard of that which is useful or beneficial to the weak or powerless. The virtues are sympathy, kindness, and humility. Strong and independent individuals are evil.�� from here. |
In other words, cultures which have been conquering (Nietzsche sometimes used the Old Testament Jews as an example) are imposers of their values, whereas conquered peoples (Nietzsche often used the New Testament Christians as an example) are a ��herd�� who live in resentment. (Nietzsche takes these two ideas from a section of Hegel��s Phenomenology of Spirit (don��t read this book) called ��Lordship and Bondage.��)
The differences between individuals is greater than the differences between ethnic groups. That being said, I have noticed that a few Korean co-workers of mine with whom I have bumped shoulders, have held a grudge long after I stopped caring about it. There are no shortage of examples of ��herd mentality�� among Koreans, but how about other examples of ��resentement�� in Korean culture? I would love to hear about any quotes, references to scholarly sources which discuss this topic (with respect to Korea) or amusing personal anecdotes. Perhaps in the future this topic can be developed into a more ambitious philosophy/anthropology article. |
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