[nukkad] Can We think ?

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-----Original Message-----
From: Minoo Sukhia
Sent: Monday, 30 October 2000 12:50 a.m.
Subject: Can We think ?





    I came accross the article below in Time Magazine. Found the same 
thought provoking. How true do you think the contents are ?

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It's True. Asians Can't Think




Until it abandons its twisted Confucianism, the region will trail the West.




CAN ASIANS THINK ? THAT'S NOT A RACIST SLUR, IT'S THE TITLE of a book by 
Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani. While he offers no answer, the 
question he poses is excellent and long overdue.




The facts are not in dispute: 1,000 years ago China under the Song Dynasty 
was the world's most advanced nation. Even 300 years ago China under the 
Qing rulers was first among equals. Yet in the past 100 years, the West's 
superiority over Asia has widened exponentially over any advantage the East 
ever enjoyed. No civilization with such a commanding lead, not even 
classical Greece, has declined more dramatically. The issue is not about 
economic growth or engineering dexterity; Asia's record in these areas is 
indisputable. It's about originality of the mind and its resulting influence 
over how mankind shapes the world.




China may have mastered cutting-edge nuclear technology, by stealth or 
otherwise, and Japan may have the best-engineered semiconductors. But these 
developments are ultimately based on Newtonian physics and quantum 
mechanics, both purely Western paradigms. China justifies its political 
system by invoking Marx while trying to restructure its economy using the 
theories of Keynes and Friedman, even employing Goldman Sachs for financial 
advice. Taiwan is a democracy more formed by classical Greek philosophers 
than by Chinese. Japanese leaders wear Western formal dress with tails for 
signing ceremonies. And everybody loves an Ivy League degree.




Asia must not merely reflect on why Western thoughts shape the world we 
know, it must also ask why so many Asian minds flourish only after they have 
gone to the West. For evidence, just look at the many Nobel Prizes won by 
Asians living and working in America. Time and again talented emigres say 
they had to leave Asia because the intellectual atmosphere was stifling or 
because the established hierarchy respected seniority over brains.




Blaming Asian schools for focusing on memorization - as opposed to 
"thinking" - is too pat an excuse, as schools and universities reflect the 
basic values of a society. It is ingrained in the Asian psyche that 
"correct" answers always exist and are to be found in books or from 
authorities. Teachers dispense truth, parents are always right and political 
leaders know better. In executive-led societies such as China and Hong Kong, 
leaders act like philosopher-kings, often uttering unchallenged banalities. 
Senior officials sometimes resemble the powerful palace eunuchs of past 
dynasties: imperial, unaccountable, incompetent. Questioning authority, 
especially in public, is dis-respectful, un-Asian, un-Confucian.




It is time to deconstruct Confucius. He said many things. Some emphasized 
order above all: on filial piety, never disobey. Others were democratic: 
without the trust of the people, no government can stand. Past emperors 
manipulated his works to justify a static order while they themselves rarely 
abided by the same rules. Japan became Asia's most advanced nation largely 
because it dared to change its own values during the Meiji Restoration in 
1868 (though it now needs a similar impetus to regain its creative energy).




The conventional wisdom that Asians cherish learning is misleading. In the 
past, learning meant passing imperial exams that led to well-paid jobs in 
the civil service. It's not altogether different in modern Asia. Learning 
for its own sake is considered a luxury, if not a financial waste, unless it 
also leads to an attractive income stream.




The twisted Confucian philosophy passed on by generations has played a 
damnable role in denting Asian creative thinking. U.S.-trained physicist Woo 
Chiawei, president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 
believes the Confucian stress on order is a major obstacle to creative 
thinking that has sometimes affected even his own instincts. All important 
advances in knowledge involve substantial revision or rejection of an 
existing framework. Scientists call that a paradigm shift. Order for the 
sake of order is the opposite of creative thinking.




Which Asian society, informed by home-grown precepts, is most likely to 
nurture and keep at home a future generation able to write better software 
than Microsoft, find a cure for cancer, and replace quantum mechanics with a 
Theory of Everything, now the Holy Grail of physics? The odds are not good, 
but the best bet is Taiwan. Alone among Asian societies it possesses the 
right combination of institutions that allow talent to blossom. 
Institutionalized disputes and a respect for opposing viewpoints, publicly 
aired, are not just about political democracy, they are fundamental to 
creative thinking. They act as a filter so that a rare gem may be found 
among the intellectual garbage. It takes only a few powerful ideas to change 
the world.




If Japan, China and the rest of Asia - perhaps even India - ever manage to 
cast aside mind-numbing communist, Confucian and caste values, then the 
region's talents could one day dominate the Nobel Prize lists, enriching the 
world through intellectual property, not property development. And they will 
be doing their creative thinking right here in Asia. Eventually someone 
might even ask, "Can Westerners think ?"




[Taken from "Time" May 31, 1999]



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