Imperialist or Pinko-CompARE/ Contrast socialism/Capitalism

[coldbrightsunlight]

Well, only going by friends in Europe and not actual resources, there seems to be a greater sense of obligation to society as a whole over the Atlantic. In America, there's more of a pride in one's individualism, the rest of the world be damned.

As someone from the UK, I also get that impression. It makes US politics pretty confusing, given how influenced they are by the general feeling of individualism. Like the debates about socialised healthcare are just weird, coming from somewhere where pretty much everyone likes (or at least agrees with in principle) our healthcare system. Culture definitely has a big impact on government policy and how the same policies are received in different places.

[snipelfritz]

F'real it does...sometimes. The U.S. and most European societies are relatively individualistic compared to, say, China a collectivist country. It's no wonder communism has prevailed there for so long.

However, an equally collectivist country, Japan, has thrived as a democracy.

[D.o.S.]

F'real it does...sometimes. The U.S. and most European societies are relatively individualistic compared to, say, China a collectivist country. It's no wonder communism has prevailed there for so long.

However, an equally collectivist country, Japan, has thrived as a democracy.

Having no choice but to suck on the teet of Western culture after being on the receiving end of a pair of the worst atrocities in all of human history probably had some influence there. Post WW-II, you couldn't just leave a crippled country to flounder, as the interim between I and II taught everyone.

And China's communist in name only.

[snipelfritz]

F'real it does...sometimes. The U.S. and most European societies are relatively individualistic compared to, say, China a collectivist country. It's no wonder communism has prevailed there for so long.

However, an equally collectivist country, Japan, has thrived as a democracy.

Having no choice but to suck on the teet of Western culture after being on the receiving end of a pair of the worst atrocities in all of human history probably had some influence there. Post WW-II, you couldn't just leave a crippled country to flounder, as the interim between I and II taught everyone.

They still are very much a collective culture and a democracy. How that happened is irrelevant.

And China's communist in name only.

Socialist, marxist-derivative, whatever

[D.o.S.]

They still are very much a collective culture and a democracy. How that happened is irrelevant.

You can't have your cake and eat it too on this one, if culture plays into government and Japan's culture was radically reshaped by the West in the post war era, then Japan's Frankenstein culture must reflect on its government.

They were absolutely not on the road to democracy before the War. And how that happened is far from irrelevant.

Socialist, marxist-derivative, whatever

China's a Totalitarian Corporatist country, dude. Do a little research into what makes that country tick, and you'll see that it hasn't been Communist since Mao tried to reeducate the academics in the fields.

[Astricii]

They still are very much a collective culture and a democracy. How that happened is irrelevant.

You can't have your cake and eat it too on this one, if culture plays into government and Japan's culture was radically reshaped by the West in the post war era, then Japan's Frankenstein culture must reflect on its government.

They were absolutely not on the road to democracy before the War. And how that happened is far from irrelevant.

Socialist, marxist-derivative, whatever

China's a Totalitarian Corporatist country, dude. Do a little research into what makes that country tick, and you'll see that it hasn't been Communist since Mao tried to reeducate the academics in the fields.

WINNER!!!

[jfrey]

China functions as a capitalist nation, but its system of state ownership and high regulation give it a communist bent.

It is far closer to capitalism than communism, but it isn't really what I would think of as an example of capitalism.

That's just me though. I'm an absolutist.

[snipelfritz]

Once again, I'm using the word capitalism as any society that places predictable value on goods or services. It is NOT the same thing as free market. You can easily be capitalist and communist. It is that totalitarian control of business that is at least rooted in Marxist ideology and one of the closest iterations to communism in contemporary politics although you could argue it's more like fascism(which I'm going to say is also Marxist-derived).

"Totalitarian Corparativism(I'm assuming this is what you mean by corparatist, all governments are corporatist because they use a hierarchical structure)"

Issue of culture in Japan: Culture is relative. I really doubt that Japan is anywhere near as individualistic as we are in the west. Maybe not overtly, but when it comes to the importance of family ties, ways that people use avowal to identify themselves, ways that people interact in general there are plenty of small differences that reflect an overall difference in culture (seriously, tell any social scholar Japan doesn't at least have latent collectivist aspects of culture and they'll slap you in the nuts).