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| Jiao Jiao and Wan Yi in Thailand |
Thursday 30 September 2010
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Mental Health, Violence, Societies and Cohesion
It’s interesting how different cultures determine mental health and illness, it really is, because it indicates the layers of variation among groups.
For example, in Korea, both North and South, they have a culture based on Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Catholicism from the early colonial days. The impact of these influences, especially shamanism, brings about acceptance of high levels of expression of anger and violence as being quite normal and beneficial. You can see that in the North & South’s strident and nasty rhetoric about each other, and then there’s a lull of missing each other.
There’s real love and hate between the two ‘brothers’. Violence between the North and South and between people within both societies is quite normal. Aggression is seen as a very positive trait. These are both relatively modern nations, especially the South, but they are quite different to, for example, Australia.
I’ve noticed that in Australia where violence is reasonably unacceptable, although we are happy to send soldiers overseas to butcher people we decide are bad guys, or more honestly, bad children running around with scissors, but, in-country Australia, that there is an enormous proportion of the population on anti depressant therapy and on all types of sometimes quite significant pain-analgesia therapy. That’s no hard to see just by interacting with people from Customs officers to shop keepers to taxi drivers to professionals and workers and business folk.
You just don’t see that layer of ‘anti-freeze’ in Asian cultures; nor do you sense the paranoia that grips so many Australians regarding foreign folk, terrorism etc. Fear and loathing is part of the Australian character to a more perhaps stylized extent than you see in Asia. Also Australians are much older, heavier, wider and more constrained by cultural laws and idioms than folk in other countries in the region. Most folk in the region don’t live as long as Australians but they seem to have a far more lively life and do a lot more and interact with larger numbers of ‘others’ from everywhere than is the experience in Australia. It’s fine for Australians who say “well, that’s the way we like it’ because it is certainly the way it’s going to be here. It’s an island continent, significantly isolated, it just doesn’t have the neighbours or the real abiding attractions of so many people. it's damn lonely in comparison. That has its benefits...a very low population is useful in the long term, as long as there is sufficient social diversity.
I noticed that in China it is quite normal to have volatile arguments in public. These happen regularly between family members, in reaction to other families, and between strangers. Sometimes these fights, that can and sometimes do become physical, continue for hours and draw an interested crowd...but is still seen as normal behaviour. When you consider the volume of people in China, obviously there is always push & shove, and that’s normal too. It’s not something that is medicated away.
What the Chinese add to this is an enormous capacity for intellectual argument. Many TV shows are simply argument-forms often in comedic scenarios that we don’t quite understand , but still, the intellectual capacity of Chinese people is something that is actively stimulated throughout the life span on a daily basis the forms of high and sharp humour are hard to grasp but are well worth the effort.
In China I was quizzed on my thoughts regarding Tibet and I answered that Tibet is an issue for China not for me. The Chinese make no suggestions to Australia regarding impoverished indigenous communities with many social problems, and I offer the Chinese the same space.
An old Red Guard was telling me that he’d studied both Buddhism and Christianity at length and said that they differed in that Buddhism centred on self-liberation whereas Christianity centred on doing good for others so in comparing the two, he felt Christianity was far more a collective effort and had more merit although both Buddhism and Christianity, in comparison with Confucian human systems were very primitive and mostly made of bullshit, with some interesting intellectual attributes. I agree.
He had also studied British Labour Unions philosophy and actions and thought they were the only way to really introduce worker rights. He had put this notion in a newspaper to the Government in China when Mao was in charge and then spent a decade in prison for his efforts.
Still, he respected Mao as a great military strategist which he most surely was. He doesn’t dislike the government in China. They pay his pension and he remains an active businessman at 75. He has no desire to go to the West at all. His understanding of democratic forms is very advanced and his thoughts are lucid. It’s not a good idea for China. If the China Govt continues to reject the notion of democracy, then he’s quite happy to support them.
For example, in Korea, both North and South, they have a culture based on Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Catholicism from the early colonial days. The impact of these influences, especially shamanism, brings about acceptance of high levels of expression of anger and violence as being quite normal and beneficial. You can see that in the North & South’s strident and nasty rhetoric about each other, and then there’s a lull of missing each other.
There’s real love and hate between the two ‘brothers’. Violence between the North and South and between people within both societies is quite normal. Aggression is seen as a very positive trait. These are both relatively modern nations, especially the South, but they are quite different to, for example, Australia.
I’ve noticed that in Australia where violence is reasonably unacceptable, although we are happy to send soldiers overseas to butcher people we decide are bad guys, or more honestly, bad children running around with scissors, but, in-country Australia, that there is an enormous proportion of the population on anti depressant therapy and on all types of sometimes quite significant pain-analgesia therapy. That’s no hard to see just by interacting with people from Customs officers to shop keepers to taxi drivers to professionals and workers and business folk.
You just don’t see that layer of ‘anti-freeze’ in Asian cultures; nor do you sense the paranoia that grips so many Australians regarding foreign folk, terrorism etc. Fear and loathing is part of the Australian character to a more perhaps stylized extent than you see in Asia. Also Australians are much older, heavier, wider and more constrained by cultural laws and idioms than folk in other countries in the region. Most folk in the region don’t live as long as Australians but they seem to have a far more lively life and do a lot more and interact with larger numbers of ‘others’ from everywhere than is the experience in Australia. It’s fine for Australians who say “well, that’s the way we like it’ because it is certainly the way it’s going to be here. It’s an island continent, significantly isolated, it just doesn’t have the neighbours or the real abiding attractions of so many people. it's damn lonely in comparison. That has its benefits...a very low population is useful in the long term, as long as there is sufficient social diversity.
I noticed that in China it is quite normal to have volatile arguments in public. These happen regularly between family members, in reaction to other families, and between strangers. Sometimes these fights, that can and sometimes do become physical, continue for hours and draw an interested crowd...but is still seen as normal behaviour. When you consider the volume of people in China, obviously there is always push & shove, and that’s normal too. It’s not something that is medicated away.
What the Chinese add to this is an enormous capacity for intellectual argument. Many TV shows are simply argument-forms often in comedic scenarios that we don’t quite understand , but still, the intellectual capacity of Chinese people is something that is actively stimulated throughout the life span on a daily basis the forms of high and sharp humour are hard to grasp but are well worth the effort.
In China I was quizzed on my thoughts regarding Tibet and I answered that Tibet is an issue for China not for me. The Chinese make no suggestions to Australia regarding impoverished indigenous communities with many social problems, and I offer the Chinese the same space.
An old Red Guard was telling me that he’d studied both Buddhism and Christianity at length and said that they differed in that Buddhism centred on self-liberation whereas Christianity centred on doing good for others so in comparing the two, he felt Christianity was far more a collective effort and had more merit although both Buddhism and Christianity, in comparison with Confucian human systems were very primitive and mostly made of bullshit, with some interesting intellectual attributes. I agree.
He had also studied British Labour Unions philosophy and actions and thought they were the only way to really introduce worker rights. He had put this notion in a newspaper to the Government in China when Mao was in charge and then spent a decade in prison for his efforts.
Still, he respected Mao as a great military strategist which he most surely was. He doesn’t dislike the government in China. They pay his pension and he remains an active businessman at 75. He has no desire to go to the West at all. His understanding of democratic forms is very advanced and his thoughts are lucid. It’s not a good idea for China. If the China Govt continues to reject the notion of democracy, then he’s quite happy to support them.
Brilliant Comrade Un
Contrary to some reports regarding the DPRK or North Korea as being in 'freefall' I think you'll find that the present change-process is in line with the way the NK system actually works and has worked in the past. It appears Kim Jong Il is making sound preparations for the dynastic future elevating his relatives into more and more important positions within the system for the future.
This is both a Royal/Dynastic system and a Militarist one and we can see degrees of these systems in many other countries. Also, from the Workers Party meeting in Pyongyang came some interesting news of people engaged in the past with interface with the West being expressly promoted so there are indications that NK is moderating its position in some ways and looking to interface more with the West in the future.
What I would hope will happen is that Kim Jong Il will remain at the helm for quite some time giving Un some support as he begins to assume his dad's role. This would be a good preparatory stage and would also enable Un to be fully incorporated into the Militarist Form and its high level military-bureaucracies without undue haste or pressure.
The fact that Un's sister and some other family members have also had military position-elevation appears to indicate that Kim Jong Il is placing adequate support mechanisms in place for Un's future as Brilliant Comrade.
This is both a Royal/Dynastic system and a Militarist one and we can see degrees of these systems in many other countries. Also, from the Workers Party meeting in Pyongyang came some interesting news of people engaged in the past with interface with the West being expressly promoted so there are indications that NK is moderating its position in some ways and looking to interface more with the West in the future.
What I would hope will happen is that Kim Jong Il will remain at the helm for quite some time giving Un some support as he begins to assume his dad's role. This would be a good preparatory stage and would also enable Un to be fully incorporated into the Militarist Form and its high level military-bureaucracies without undue haste or pressure.
The fact that Un's sister and some other family members have also had military position-elevation appears to indicate that Kim Jong Il is placing adequate support mechanisms in place for Un's future as Brilliant Comrade.
Timing
When you look at the timing of the torpedoing of the South Korean ship, it was probably a decision of Un as a payback for a nasty ship-sinking incident the year before that South Korea deemed as an unfortunate accident. They opened a dam spillway and a NK touring ship was sunk down river. Many died. Oops. The DPRK is not a 'forgive & forget' kind of nation. Just because the Americans decided where the sea border is that separates the Koreas, it doesn't mean the the DPRK agreed to that unilateral decision. Both DPRK and the South are highly geared emotionally charged regimes with a stark and direct capacity to express aggression, grief and rage with succinct and usually proportional actions.
It's interesting to note that DPRK philosophy is an almalgam of neo-confucianism, Buddhism, Shamanish, and even Catholicism. The Shamanism, in profound expression, explains the high emotional range, and willingness to display anger and to fight anyone, of many people in North Korea, no matter what the odds of victory,and should be seen as an important and impressively defining and abiding social and cultural aspect that will not change.
North Korea still has good friends. Mao's son was killed in the last war by the Americans. Family heroes aren't forgotten; and those bonds forged in war and blood don't break. It is not like the West where national loyalties and human honour are deals done on a dime.
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More from Wikipedia
According to Kim Jong-il's On the Juche Idea, the application of Juche in state policy entails the following:
1.The people must have independence (chajusong) in thought and politics, economic self-sufficiency, and self-reliance in defense.
2.Policy must reflect the will and aspirations of the masses and employ them fully in revolution and construction.
3.Methods of revolution and construction must be suitable to the situation of the country.
4.The most important work of revolution and construction is molding people ideologically as communists and mobilizing them to constructive action.
The Juche outlook requires absolute loyalty to the revolutionary party and leader. In North Korea, these are the Workers' Party of Korea and Kim Jong-il, respectively.
In official North Korean histories, one of the first purported applications of Juche was the Five-Year Plan of 1956-1961, also known as the Chollima Movement, which led to the Chongsan-ri Method and the Taean Work System. The Five-Year Plan involved rapid economic development of North Korea, with a focus on heavy industry, to ensure political independence from both the Soviet Union and the Mao Zedong regime in China. The Chollima Movement, however, applied the same method of centralized state planning that began with the Soviet First Five-Year Plan in 1928. The campaign also coincided with and was partially based on Mao's First Five-Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward. North Korea was apparently able to avoid the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward.
Despite its aspirations to self-sufficiency, North Korea has continually relied on economic assistance from other countries. Historically, North Korea received most of its assistance from the USSR until its collapse in 1991. In the period after the Korean War, North Korea relied on economic assistance and loans from "fraternal" countries from 1953–1963 and also depended considerably on Soviet industrial aid from 1953-1976. Following the fall of the USSR, the North Korean economy went into a crisis, with consequent infrastructural failures contributing to the mass famine of the mid-1990s. After several years of starvation, the People's Republic of China agreed to be a substitute for the Soviet Union as a major aid provider, supplying over US$400 million per year in humanitarian assistance.[
-----------------------
More from Wikipedia
According to Kim Jong-il's On the Juche Idea, the application of Juche in state policy entails the following:
1.The people must have independence (chajusong) in thought and politics, economic self-sufficiency, and self-reliance in defense.
2.Policy must reflect the will and aspirations of the masses and employ them fully in revolution and construction.
3.Methods of revolution and construction must be suitable to the situation of the country.
4.The most important work of revolution and construction is molding people ideologically as communists and mobilizing them to constructive action.
The Juche outlook requires absolute loyalty to the revolutionary party and leader. In North Korea, these are the Workers' Party of Korea and Kim Jong-il, respectively.
In official North Korean histories, one of the first purported applications of Juche was the Five-Year Plan of 1956-1961, also known as the Chollima Movement, which led to the Chongsan-ri Method and the Taean Work System. The Five-Year Plan involved rapid economic development of North Korea, with a focus on heavy industry, to ensure political independence from both the Soviet Union and the Mao Zedong regime in China. The Chollima Movement, however, applied the same method of centralized state planning that began with the Soviet First Five-Year Plan in 1928. The campaign also coincided with and was partially based on Mao's First Five-Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward. North Korea was apparently able to avoid the catastrophes of the Great Leap Forward.
Despite its aspirations to self-sufficiency, North Korea has continually relied on economic assistance from other countries. Historically, North Korea received most of its assistance from the USSR until its collapse in 1991. In the period after the Korean War, North Korea relied on economic assistance and loans from "fraternal" countries from 1953–1963 and also depended considerably on Soviet industrial aid from 1953-1976. Following the fall of the USSR, the North Korean economy went into a crisis, with consequent infrastructural failures contributing to the mass famine of the mid-1990s. After several years of starvation, the People's Republic of China agreed to be a substitute for the Soviet Union as a major aid provider, supplying over US$400 million per year in humanitarian assistance.[
Juche- the North Korean Principle (from Wikipedia)
The first known reference to Juche was a speech given by Kim Il-sung on December 28, 1955, titled "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" in rejection of the policy of de-Stalinization (bureaucratic self-reform) in the Soviet Union. In this speech, Kim said that "Juche means Chosun's revolution" (Chosun being the traditional name for Korea). Hwang Jang-yeop, Kim's top adviser on ideology, discovered this speech later in the 1950s when Kim sought to develop his own version of Marxism–Leninism.[2]
The Juche Idea itself gradually emerged as a systematic ideological doctrine under the political pressures of the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s. The word "Juche" also began to appear in untranslated form in English-language North Korean works from around 1965. Kim Il-sung outlined the three fundamental principles of Juche in his April 14, 1965, speech “On Socialist Construction and the South Korean Revolution in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”:
1."independence in politics" (chaju)
2."self-sustenance in the economy" (charip)
3."self-defense in national defense" (chawi).
Current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il officially authored the definitive statement on Juche in a 1982 document titled On the Juche Idea. He has final authority over the interpretation of the state ideology and incorporated the Songun (army-first) policy into it in 1996.
The Juche Idea itself gradually emerged as a systematic ideological doctrine under the political pressures of the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s. The word "Juche" also began to appear in untranslated form in English-language North Korean works from around 1965. Kim Il-sung outlined the three fundamental principles of Juche in his April 14, 1965, speech “On Socialist Construction and the South Korean Revolution in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”:
1."independence in politics" (chaju)
2."self-sustenance in the economy" (charip)
3."self-defense in national defense" (chawi).
Current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il officially authored the definitive statement on Juche in a 1982 document titled On the Juche Idea. He has final authority over the interpretation of the state ideology and incorporated the Songun (army-first) policy into it in 1996.
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