Many people are asking why China, Japan, and Korea have been more successful in securing the cooperation of their people in fighting and curbing the further advance of COVID-19. Is it due to form of government?
No. While China is an authoritarian country, Japan and Korea are vibrant democracies. So what is it? The clear answer is culture...the way people think and relate to authority.
Despite decades of US “influence,” the people of Korea and Japan generally respect authority, trust the police, comply with laws when no one in authority is watching, and have a culture heavily influenced by shame. They are much less individualistic than in the US and most western countries. Instead, they see themselves as part of community, a social fabric that inextricably links their thoughts and actions to considerations of public good. When government authorities order the people to shelter in place, or any similar activity in aid of combatting a clear threat to the nation, there is an instinctive response that is at once compliant and resilient, patient and willing to sacrifice personal comforts for the common good. This is part of the cultural DNA of entire populations. It is a very powerful force, which can be really bad or very good, depending on the circumstances.
We saw the bad in World War II, with Japan.
Some western cultures used to be similar to Asian cultures in respect to popular compliance with government orders and laws. Germany used to be that way, but now with over six decades of American cultural influence post WW II, things are changed. There is an expression in German that, loosely translated, means that in every German lives a policeman. When I lived in small German villages in the 1970’s, everyone swept the sidewalk in front of their houses every Saturday morning. And if you forgot, a neighbor would give you a gentle reminder.
Contrast this to American culture. Our people are prone to ignoring laws or rules that deal with conduct that is not morally wrong when inconvenient and when no authorities are watching. As individuals, we tend to distrust authority, keep deadly weapons to protect us from dangers including government overreaching, and lack a strong sense of acting for the benefit of society generally. This is not to say that all our people are this way, but these are elements of our cultural DNA. Our society is not homogeneous like most Asian nations, and this greatly impacts our unity (or the lack thereof).
Our people focus on individual rights, and not so much on individual responsibility. We are generally well fed and enjoy comfortable and secure lives. Most have never faced a serious, existential threat to our country. Most have never served in the military or law enforcement. This includes those who make our laws and lead our nation. This personifies our current President. In a word, our people are hard to manage when it comes to actions that entail sacrifice or pain. Witness the college students on the Florida beaches.
I am not saying we cannot mobilize to meet a common threat, but it is a really difficult challenge, and it requires a gut punch that impacts everyone (emotionally if not physically). And even though the Civil War ended with the total defeat of the Confederacy, we still see many of our states acting as if they were independent of federal control. So national leadership has huge challenges in our America. Our unity is elusive and fragile. Lord, protect us from ourselves🙏, please.
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