Consider this:
You’ve been working in a theatre as a technical director. You’ve been building four sets a season for the last ten year. Most of these sets are constructed from combinations of wood and cardboard that you purchase from a bulk distributor – the same bulk distributor for the past ten years. However, as you prepare for the new season, you learn that there is a new lumber store in the area willing to offer you a 4% discount for supplies for the whole season. You don’t hesitate – the theatre has been struggling and this would be an excellent way to cut back on the scene shop budget. You accept.
You’ve been working in a theatre as a technical director. You’ve been building four sets a season for the last ten year. Most of these sets are constructed from combinations of wood and cardboard that you purchase from a bulk distributor – the same bulk distributor for the past ten years. However, as you prepare for the new season, you learn that there is a new lumber store in the area willing to offer you a 4% discount for supplies for the whole season. You don’t hesitate – the theatre has been struggling and this would be an excellent way to cut back on the scene shop budget. You accept.
It seems like the obvious choice, right?
In most Asian societies they wouldn’t agree. We discussed in class the different relationships that exist in Asian culture. A business relationship, as you would have developed with your cardboard and wood supplier, is considered equal to that of a friend. You trust who you work with and you only work with people you trust. You uphold the relationships that you’ve built above all other business transactions. In most Asian societies, your deal with the new lumber store made it known that a person could be bought for 4%. You would throw away 10 years of good business and good relationship for 4%.
I couldn’t get the comparison out of my head. Are American’s just cold?
After reviewing Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development, I found an answer.
According to Kohlberg, the sixth stage of moral development is the internalization of “universal principles of justice, of the reciprocity, and equality of the human rights, and of respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons.” According to Kohlberg, one who has reached the sixth stage of moral development “would not [for example] vote for a law that aids some people but hurts others.”
Perhaps it is not that Americans are cold, but that we, as a society, have not reached this sixth stage of moral development. We are still learning to respect our fellow man as a human being. After all, we are a country that is a mere 235 years old compared to the impressive 7000-year history of Asian civilization.
Returning to Kohlberg, an earlier stage or moral development caught my attention. In this stage, “right action consists of what instrumentally satisfies one's own needs and occasionally the needs of others. Human relations are viewed in terms such as those of the market place. Elements of fairness, reciprocity, and equal sharing are present, but they are always interpreted in a physical, pragmatic way. Reciprocity is a matter of ‘you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours’, not loyalty, gratitude, or justice.” This description of human relationships seems to hit the nail on the head, if you ask me. It is accepted in American society to work for oneself; to work with a notion of self-interest. We are always looking for the best deal, the easiest route, or what is the best for ME. We seem to have no thought or care of what another may be feeling or experiencing, or how our actions may affect them. We would sell each other out for a mere 4% if it meant we could get ahead.
What may be surprising – maybe even a let-down to ever-patriotic Americans – is that this stage is only the second stage; the first level of moral development. We have four stages of development to experience before American society could even begin to be considered “moral” in the eyes of Kohlberg. And yet we have this ever-present desire to be a superpower; to be the leading country of the world; to be the best. We think we can go in to other countries and fix them – give their citizens better lives.
Perhaps we really can help – who am I to say that we are nothing? But when I look around America and see families falling apart, people starving on the streets, groups of people persecuted in the name of “right and wrong,” I can’t ignore how far we still have to go.
In Asian culture, it is expected that the younger respect, obey, and learn from the elder. Maybe it is time we, as a nation in our wild youth, sat down learned from a nation for wiser through its years.
In most Asian societies they wouldn’t agree. We discussed in class the different relationships that exist in Asian culture. A business relationship, as you would have developed with your cardboard and wood supplier, is considered equal to that of a friend. You trust who you work with and you only work with people you trust. You uphold the relationships that you’ve built above all other business transactions. In most Asian societies, your deal with the new lumber store made it known that a person could be bought for 4%. You would throw away 10 years of good business and good relationship for 4%.
I couldn’t get the comparison out of my head. Are American’s just cold?
After reviewing Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development, I found an answer.
According to Kohlberg, the sixth stage of moral development is the internalization of “universal principles of justice, of the reciprocity, and equality of the human rights, and of respect for the dignity of human beings as individual persons.” According to Kohlberg, one who has reached the sixth stage of moral development “would not [for example] vote for a law that aids some people but hurts others.”
Perhaps it is not that Americans are cold, but that we, as a society, have not reached this sixth stage of moral development. We are still learning to respect our fellow man as a human being. After all, we are a country that is a mere 235 years old compared to the impressive 7000-year history of Asian civilization.
Returning to Kohlberg, an earlier stage or moral development caught my attention. In this stage, “right action consists of what instrumentally satisfies one's own needs and occasionally the needs of others. Human relations are viewed in terms such as those of the market place. Elements of fairness, reciprocity, and equal sharing are present, but they are always interpreted in a physical, pragmatic way. Reciprocity is a matter of ‘you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours’, not loyalty, gratitude, or justice.” This description of human relationships seems to hit the nail on the head, if you ask me. It is accepted in American society to work for oneself; to work with a notion of self-interest. We are always looking for the best deal, the easiest route, or what is the best for ME. We seem to have no thought or care of what another may be feeling or experiencing, or how our actions may affect them. We would sell each other out for a mere 4% if it meant we could get ahead.
What may be surprising – maybe even a let-down to ever-patriotic Americans – is that this stage is only the second stage; the first level of moral development. We have four stages of development to experience before American society could even begin to be considered “moral” in the eyes of Kohlberg. And yet we have this ever-present desire to be a superpower; to be the leading country of the world; to be the best. We think we can go in to other countries and fix them – give their citizens better lives.
Perhaps we really can help – who am I to say that we are nothing? But when I look around America and see families falling apart, people starving on the streets, groups of people persecuted in the name of “right and wrong,” I can’t ignore how far we still have to go.
In Asian culture, it is expected that the younger respect, obey, and learn from the elder. Maybe it is time we, as a nation in our wild youth, sat down learned from a nation for wiser through its years.
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