I think a big problem in today’s world, whether interpersonal, within families, nations etc.… Is this issue of culture.
For example, I am Korean, Korean American, born and raised in the states. Also, marrying Cindy, who is Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, born in refugee camp in Long Malaysia, being sponsored to the states, etc. Much of understanding Cindy, her mom, Her side of the family, is understanding that the refugee mentality is a quadrillion times different than what I was raised, coming from a rich and affluent family, coming to the states.
For example, it seems that the refugee mentality is about frugality, economics, and positive. What does that mean? That means that too “waste money“, is a mortal sin. A sin against God. For example the simple act of keeping on a lightbulb when you aren’t using it… It is not an issue of money it is an issue of morality. Just for fuzzies, I calculated it with Chachi P4, how much it cost to run a single lightbulb all day and I think it mounted to three cents at most. Therefore keeping on a light for even an hour or two longer than I should, might only be 5% of a penny. Less than peanuts.
However what I suppose is the critical thing to consider is that at the end of the day, it is a cultural war, a cultural clash.
What is the solution? Just leave other people alone.
For example, some issues that I’ve faced when it comes to American, Korean American behavior. The first one is about greeting. In Korean, Korean American culture, to greet somebody and get a response is an integral part of life. “To say, “ahnyeungee-gehsehyoh†and “ahnyungee-gah-seh-yoh†(and also get a response) is critical.
Also in American culture, to say hello, and get a response it is normal.
But I suppose in Vietnamese culture, maybe just Cindy‘s family, this is not common. It seems that people don’t really acknowledge each other’s existence, don’t make eye contact don’t say hello don’t say goodbye etc. This invokes my fury, however, I suppose if it is just the way that their family culture is, I should just tolerated, or just leave them alone.
Perhaps I’m the tyrant?
Then the realization… Perhaps the critical issue here is an issue of a culture clash. The issue is that everybody is trying to superimpose their culture on others, to do as they please.
My way or the highway?
What is a Nazi? What is a tyrant? somebody who tries to get you to do what they want you to do or what do you think you should do, rather than just leaving you alone.
For example, an issue with shared or communal things, or when you’re just by yourself.
For example, a big annoying I’ve had is in regards to lights. I always like all of the lights on, I think maybe for myself, I need the light. I need it to get me going.
Bur for others, they seem sensitive to the light, like having too many lights on actually hurts their eyes or their head, and or perhaps it is a money economic thing. And also a funny theory, are women more sensitive to the light than men? Meaning that men prefer higher stimulation and higher lutz, nits, lux and light?
Regardless, this is my thought:
If you are sharing space with somebody else, and there is one person who is sensitive to the light, and would prefer to keep the light off, keep the light off.
However, if you are by yourself, not disturbing nobody else, and then somebody invades your pace and turns off your light, this is what invokes my fury.
Guns in America?
I also think this is the tricky thing when it comes to guns in America. For example let us say that you are living by yourself on your own private range somewhere in Idaho whatever. Let us say that they like all of their guns or whatever. Then, nobody should be permitted to invade their property and take all of their guns.
However the issue is when it comes to public, public spaces etc. For example, this insane notion of “conceal and carry“. The biggest issue here is an asymmetry;
You know that you have a concealed gun on you, but I don’t.
For example, let us say that some loser has a conceal and carry gun on him. And I don’t, and I don’t know that he does.
Let us say that we get into some sort of altercation, or argument., Unwarranted, let us say that he is in an inferior position and feels threatened, he might shoot me with his gun and kill me, even though he is a “licensedâ€, gun holder.
Perhaps a solution is actually a little bit more unorthodox; if one is going to have a gun in public, one should have it publicly displayed, on their holster for everybody to see.
This was actually a really really random thing that I saw when I was traveling with Cindy, and we went to Penn State. I randomly saw an older man, with a cowboy hat, also ironically with the same Verbum five finger shoes I had entering the CVS with his gun proudly on his right hip.
to me this was really interesting, because ultimately, because I knew that he had a gun on him, I made the obvious decision of not entering that premises. Also I like this idea that if you enter a party or a wedding that there be a public “gun check in.†if you checked in your coat, you should also check in your gun, like how they do it in gangster movies or John Wick. Whether we like it or not maybe everyone should be patted down?
“Please have compassion!â€
Another funny thought; can you force other people to have compassion? No.
For example, the big issue with the Middle East, Israel versus Palestine, Jewish people Jewish hate, anti-Semitism etc.
What I am currently witnessing is that both sides is trying to get American public to have compassion and empathy for them, and to paint the other side as the bad guys. Yet, unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be very effective. Why?
First of all, people in America don’t really understand what Israel is. For example, people in America abstractly know that Israel is a state somewhere in the Middle East, but there isn’t a strong understanding or attachment between the notion of Israel as a state, Israeli, and Jewish people. Even for myself as a UCLA undergraduate educated, born in the barrier my whole life, growing up with a lot of Jewish Jewish American friends, and not being weird to see the star of David or the little Jewish hat, even it took me a long time to understand What Jewish, Judaism is and was. For example, Seinfeld. I had zero idea that it was a show about Jewish, Jewish American culture. I also had no idea that Steven Spielberg was Jewish, and I also had no idea that a lot of Hollywood, media was built and run by Jewish people and personalities, even that John Stewart was Jewish but he changed his last name to sound more “American“.
Are Jewish people “white�
The interesting juicy question that I’ve asked a lot of people, whether they be typical Caucasian, or Jewish, Jewish American, orthodox or unorthodox or reformed etc., is this:
“Are jewish people â€whiteâ€?â€
After hearing all of the responses, and also having some time to think on my own, my personal takeaway is this:
No.
Why? In America, it seems a lot of successful people are closet Jewish. Meaning that they are Jewish, have a Jewish mother or a Jewish heritage, yet for the fear of persecution have hidden it.
Why? People have been scape code for millennia. Why, just read the first recorded history of the Jews, by the Roman historian Tacitus? (Need to check this later):
Essentially he said many things — the gist:
The Jewish people are a mean, despicable group. They do not enter inter-marry with other races, they only believe in one God, they don’t share gods, etc. Their religious worships are strange and mean.
Also, according to him, the reason why Jewish people performed circumcision on male children was to differentiate themselves with others. Personally speaking as a Roman Catholic, I am circumcised and always wondered this issue of circumcision. The general spiel we get is that we get circumcised for sanitary reasons, or aesthetic reasons. But because Roman catholicism is essentially Judaism 2.0, (let us not forget that Jesus was Jewish), the tradition continued.
Who is the bad guy here?
What do I find a little bit bizarre is that Israel, wants the whole world to be compassionate towards Israel, yet, everybody knows that Israel is strong, the Israelis have one of the most formidable military on the planet, apparently both women and men are trained in the military.
Also, the US military and department of defense, head commander Austin said that America has a “ironclad†commitment to Israel. What does that mean?
What this means is that the reason why America is so committed to Israel is because America wants to also defend her own personal interests in the Middle East, and they also want a launchpad to patrol the area and overall perimeter. The same reason why America bailed out South Korea via the IMF, And they want to keep their positioning, their strategic positioning in Asia and east Asia.
Do we have compassion for the strong?
I think as a general bias, at least in America we root for the underdogs. Let us not forget that in fact America was once the underdog, the general narrative goes that the British were the bad guys, and the scrappy Americans went to America and search for freedom liberty etc.
For myself personally, I probably empathize stronger with people from Palestine, Palestinians etc. Why? I think when America and the other countries were diving up the land in the middle east, the reason why they “gifted†Israel to Jewish people was this:
They wanted to make a strategic outpost for US military control in the region.
I am not 100% certain, but I would surmise that in fact, a lot of US military investment went into Israel, and also a lot of great Israeli innovations have actually percolated to the states.
Let us also not forget that some of the greatest thinkers and innovators, many of them are Israeli. For example, Daniel Kannemann and Amos Tversky are unabashedly Israeli, from Israel, Israeli American.
Israel?
I’ve never been to Israel, but I’ve met many Israelis. I have nothing but good things to say about people from Israel. Many of them I have met are good-looking, tall, highly intelligent, have a strong world view, and also very global in thinking. Also when they talk about the military and Palestine in the Middle East, they are all a little bit low-key and hush-hush about it. kind of like how America is in regards to our military intervention all around the world.
Whenever I meet people who are Palestinian, people in the states, a lot of great innovators I’ve met in the world of Internet tech entrepreneurship, even crypto, many of them Palestinian. Or from Palestine. Why? When you’ve had everything taken from you, that entrepreneurial spirit is integrated into your soul body and worldview, and you come to America the land of opportunity.
Even one of the new friends I’ve made at the gym, a successful 70-year-old Israeli American man who immigrated to the states from Israel when he was 15 years old, told me… “Of course we went to America, the land of opportunity!â€
So what should America do about things?
I have some simple suggestions:
First, don’t have an opinion about politics, if you have a strong opinion, enlist in the military and do something about it. Doesn’t matter whether you are man or woman, trans or whatever.
Skin in the game?
What I believe is the next frontier is in the realm of ethics. Why? Ethics is true power. Whoever controls ethics controls the people.
Why? Ethics is the little pretty on your shoulder who is always watching, and which governs your thought behaviors, your physical behaviors etc.
I have a funny joke: just ask somebody “what do you really do when you’re watching Google incognito? Or, that night, when everyone is asleep or you are in your room by yourself, and you turn on your VPN and go to pirate bay… What do you download, torrent, or mirror?â€
Next steps?
I would say strive to become more intelligent, more knowledgeable, more wise, more practical, and also have more skin in the game. Nas seem to start that every opinion you have must also have a correlating physical behavior associated with it, which actually is impacted in the real world.
The real world
Also a very very very very practical thought I have:
No more discussions on the Internet.
Why? ChatGPT4 is so insanely good now that it is so so so so so so insanely easy to make some sort of bought, that impersonates a user online, a Reddit user, etc.… Can you imagine forging a false relationship with somebody on the Internet, with Internet forums, etc.?
Therefore, the ultimate skin in the game is if you have some sort of discussion, argument, debate about anything… Make sure to do it real life in the flesh.
For example, for the most part I am anti-Donald Trump, but I also find him hilarious, and also, I actually think some of his ideas are good. For example, I think Donald Trump‘s anti-China policy is a good one; him trying to band TikTok in America was actually very good idea. Why? The biggest issue in today’s world is With all these young kids on TikTok, do they not know is a Chinese company? This is a low-key propaganda way of China inoculating the American youth with Chinese ideals. Same thing goes with league of legend, Tencent games etc.… It is all RIOT, owned by a Chinese company.
Is China bad? No. However, I think with America the best way to think about China is that they are a “frenemy“— part friend, part enemy, but mostly it is all for show.
For example UCLA versus USC; ultimately nobody really cares. So many people I know when UCLA is undergrad and ended up going to USC for graduate school med school or dental school or law school etc. Funny enough it doesn’t seem to go the other way.
What can and what should you do as an individual?
I was also experimenting with the new ChatGPT voice, the audio of the voice is insanely good. Kind of like the movie “her“, with a personal AI assistant women that he falls in love with, or maybe even in Blade Runner 2049, the beautiful AI that he falls in love with, funny enough that Ryan Gosling is also low-key an android.
Ultimately things I would not trust include podcast, because I bet you already right now, there are fake podcast AI voice things out there, spewing out some sort of nonsense.
What can you trust? People in the flesh, YouTube vlogs… Why? As long as you can see a real human face and a real human voice at the same time, preferably not looking super cartoony or fake or 3-D animation generated… You know that they are real and their opinions are real.
Also, what you create must be open source, permission list, maybe on the block chain, on Hackable, impossible to take down, and not hosted on any foreign site or website.
This means no wordpress.com, which is actually censored in Vietnam and mainland China. Also, truth be told I think eventually, sooner or later, even normal websites will get censored, sooner or later.
So what can you do?
It seems that, at least for now… Email is not censored. If you have some sort of open source permission less newsletter, hosted by sendy.co — at least one thing that cannot be tampered with is accessing and contacting other human beings.
in today’s world, it seems that people check their email more frequently than they even check social media. And whether or not we like it, even though I personally hate email, it looks like at least in our lifetimes, people will not stop using email. Social media will come and go, this includes Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, (Twitter is already gone), Snapchat, etc.
Even within my short lifetime, I was born in 1988 and currently 35 years old, I have already seen the rise and fall of Xanga, live journal, my space, GeoCities, Alta Vista, etc.
Create your own new carte Blanche culture?
There are a lot of things we could do, things we cannot do, things we could change and things we cannot change.
It seems that one thing we cannot do is change the culture of others. I cannot suddenly start forcing Jewish people to eat pork, I cannot force Islamic people not too fast, etc. Also when it comes to our families, we cannot change the culture of other families. My personal thought is dip out, create your own new family culture, fresh and anew.
Fin.
