In our plane coming back from Japan, this video played for all the passengers:
To me, this video emphasized working together towards a common good. The person in the wheelchair was being helped by many. Every person had pride in their work, from the corporate people with their powerpoint decks, to the chef, to the pilot, to the cleaning crew.
At US customs, another video played, which featured visible diversity: an interracial couple, people of many more diverse ethnicities (compared to the above video), and also someone in a wheelchair. This person, however, was not being helped: they sped down a long road in a racing wheelchair, biceps bulging and sweat pouring down their torso, likely training for a competition.
The values emphasized in the US video were: diversity and individual achievement.
In the airport elevator back in the US, I noticed scratches, graffiti. Thinking back to the past week in Japan, I realized that my wife and I had only seen graffiti once, despite spending nearly all our time in cities. The Japanese elevators were immaculate. They even had thoughtful touches such as an “emergency kit” which included a bathroom bucket, food, and even playing cards (in the event that the elevator gets stuck). Below the elevator buttons was a pad to discharge any static electricity on one’s fingers.
These differences between elevators, airport videos and graffiti are fractal-like: in these little fragments of culture we can see the major differences in values between the US and Japan. Every value has a shadow side. The shadow of being very considerate is a stifling of self-expression, a theme that’s come up in my conversations with several Japanese expats. The shadow of individualism and diversity is loneliness and chaos, because people are not on the same page, not looking out for the common good.
Another example: I recently spoke to a German friend about the value of “being rich.” In Germany, being rich is seen as a negative thing: it means you are likely not honest or lazy, achieving a high level of wealth through hoarding resources or inheritance. In Germany, very wealthy people would actually be less likely to be elected because of this national value. This is such a contrast to the US, where billionaires are often lionized on the covers of magazines, in popular songs, and where one was just re-elected president.
Nations have values. Families have values. Individuals have values. These values interact. In his book, How to Know a Person, David Brooks asks the question: “How are you both a cultural inheritor and cultural creator?”
While we are “thrown” into our cultural world, we still have choice. We can embrace our nation’s values, or rebel against them. If we really don’t vibe with our nation’s values, we can even choose to become an expat (this requires a degree of privilege as well as sacrifice).
Traveling to Japan made me come back to the US and see the values here more clearly. Spending time in other people’s homes does the same. I have a friend whose family values frequent big communal dinners with lots of wine. My uncle Buma valued long and serious deep-dive conversations, where he really got to know people. Both of these are different from how my family operates. Neither is “right” nor “wrong.”
The Grateful Dead sing, “sometimes we visit your country and live in your home, Sometimes we ride on your horses, sometimes we walk alone…”
The benefit of travel, be it halfway around the world or to friend’s house for dinner, is that we get to see how other people do things, and when we return, we get a clearer view of ourselves. In the words of Wade Davis, “The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”
danscreativeoulet 