Mohan, The books that I refer to, do indeed have evolution as their
underlying theme. In order to understand racism and humankind's preference for their own race, you need to start with parents
protecting their young. Extended family working for common purpose.
A clan protecting itself from invaders. Next you are at the tribal
level and the 'foreign' and the 'other' starts to become overriding concepts. How much evolution has shaped this is anybody's guess.
In the Third Chimpanzee Diamond discusses the animal antecedents for
human behavior, such as e.g. genocide.
As human's we try to rise above our animal status. By forgetting that we are animals, is a cause of many of our troubles. The best be can do
is to muddle through. That to me is one of Diamond's messages.
I think biogeography explains part of Japan's evolution as a people and a state. Island nations tend to be insular. The lack of resources,
homogenuity of the people, and the large population forces them to export oriented growth. Korea's situation is similar. Nationalistic forces are strong in both of these countries and they do not want westerners to tell them how to run their economies. When people look into the US and see how poorly our schools are doing, the high crime rates, drugs and other ills that plague our country, they worry about the future of their country in this regard. Hence Japan is not willing to let their consumer benefit from their export earnings greatly. Hard work, belief in education and 'patriotism' are the Asian values that they cherish. The rampant corruption, cronyism and other ills they like not to bring out.
With all the ills in the US, the technology keeps humming along largely by importation of foreign talent. I don't know of any other country where race relation are in better shape than in the US. Since second law of thermodynamics (with help from transportation technology)
guarantees intermixing of the races in the long term, it is good to live in a country in which the worst racial troubles are over.
Sincerely Seppo |
