Monday, September 13, 2010

Hindu Work Ethic

Ha-Joon Chang: "Until Japan became rich, many people thought East Asia had not develop because of Confucianism. But when Japan succeeded, this thesis was revised to say that Japan was developing so fast because its unique form of Confucianism emphasised cooperation over individual edification, which the Chinese and Korean versions allegedly valued more highly. And then Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea also started doing well, so this judgment about the different varieties of Confucianism was forgotten. Indeed Confucianism as a whole suddenly became the best culture for development because it emphasised hard work, saving, education,and submission to authority. (...) Given India’s recent economic success, I am sure we will soon see books that say how Hindu culture – once considered the source of sluggish growth in India (recall the once-popular expression, “Hindu rate of growth”) – is helping India grow."

Thomas Friedman: "Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11!"

7 comments:

  1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1216621/German-men-worlds-worst-lovers-lazy-English-come-second-battle-sheets.html

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  2. "There is...a rather British attitude towards work that sees it as a kind of purgatorial moral obligation." - English woman pundit in UK paper http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/29/right-to-work-recession-women-at-work

    "English mothers are lazy, slow and selfish, according to a new survey of foreign au pairs working in Britain" - http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2010/08/02/english-mums-are-lazy-and-selfish-says-survey-of-au-pairs/

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  3. Let me see if I understand this corrently: British men would be better lovers if they saw sex as a purgatorial moral obligation

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  4. I have had unremitting sex with a statistically valid random sample of all of the nationalities mentioned above--unlike the surely less hard-working, pseudo-scientific diletantes called upon in this poll--and I can catagorically state that men from the seemingly respectiable Australian city of Perth, in fact, are the worst-smelling sex partners on the planet. This silly article didn't even get the HEMISPHERE right. Please! Let's have some RIGOR, people!

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  5. Dear Chuckie:

    Are you somehow suggesting that sex is not work and, ergo, is not a "purgatorial moral obligation"?

    That's some radical s**t.

    I thought sex was like eating brussel sprouts.

    The police will be knocking at your door soon, I no doubt.

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  6. Another recent version of the national character and capitalism thing is Badiou insisting that the way women dress in Gulf states or on the orthodox Israeli settlements on the West Bank is resistance to capitalism's requirement that women "show their wares" like the shameless "putes" found everywhere from the Antilles to Bora Bora.

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  7. I just had "sex"--I guess that's what it was...--with Thomas Friedman. He smells the worst of all.

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