Archive for category Egalitarianism
How to Practice Business Etiquette In United States
Posted by admin in Egalitarianism on August 15, 2011
Before we even begin to discuss some of the general business practices in the United States, there are two key points in American culture that we need to understand. Individualism and egalitarianism are two important elements in American culture that have significant effects on their business etiquettes.
According to the research and studies of Geert Hofstede, a Professor of International Management at the University of Limburg at Maastricht, the Netherlands and a notable expert on business culture having done comprehensive studies on values in the workplace, the United States has a high level of individualism in its society.
This is the reason behind Americans show more self-reliant behaviors and, aside from themselves and close family members, tend to form loose bonds with other people. American culture emphasizes and practically awards those who take the initiative and those whose goals are towards personal achievements. Status and age doesn’t matter much and what is looked at are one’s personal achievements.
Meanwhile, egalitarianism or the concept of equality is important as well. Americans believe that they should be provided with equal rights, equal social obligations, and equal opportunities. Equality, however, is still based on individual achievements. Americans feel and believe that working hard and doing their best deserve success and better financial gains. Read the rest of this entry »
What Is True Egalitarianism
Posted by admin in Egalitarianism on August 15, 2011
Why did the founding fathers of the United States consider egalitarianism to be such a necessary value? True egalitarianism is based on tolerance for differences. It is a principle of integrity much more than a rule of law. The antithesis of egalitarianism is judgment. Judging others does not define them. It defines you.
My friend’s grandmother went to the same university in which Albert Einstein taught. Einstein had a friend who was a psychology teacher. This teacher made his judgmental and racists students do a very embarrassing exercise as a class assignment. They had to go up to student on campus that they disliked and say, “What about you don’t I like about myself?”
People often mistake judgment for prudence. Choosing not to hang out at bars with chronic alcoholics when you’re an abstainer is prudent. Condemning people for being alcoholics is judgment.
Of course, choosing not to judge does not mean associating with people with whom you don’t have much in common. You have a right to choose your companions. Poets and wrestlers need not be friends. They choose different ways of expressing themselves about the values of life. This does not mean that either group has the right to condemn the other.
Why is judgment inimical? Since it is so much part of society, existing subtly, almost undetected, it appears innocuous enough. Read the rest of this entry »
What Is True Egalitarianism?
Posted by admin in Egalitarianism on August 14, 2011
Why did the founding fathers of the United States consider egalitarianism to be such a necessary value? True egalitarianism is based on tolerance for differences. It is a principle of integrity much more than a rule of law. The antithesis of egalitarianism is judgment. Judging others does not define them. It defines you.
My friend’s grandmother went to the same university in which Albert Einstein taught. Einstein had a friend who was a psychology teacher. This teacher made his judgmental and racists students do a very embarrassing exercise as a class assignment. They had to go up to student on campus that they disliked and say, “What about you don’t I like about myself?”
People often mistake judgment for prudence. Choosing not to hang out at bars with chronic alcoholics when you’re an abstainer is prudent. Condemning people for being alcoholics is judgment.
Of course, choosing not to judge does not mean associating with people with whom you don’t have much in common. You have a right to choose your companions. Poets and wrestlers need not be friends. They choose different ways of expressing themselves about the values of life. This does not mean that either group has the right to condemn the other.
Why is judgment inimical? Since it is so much part of society, existing subtly, almost undetected, it appears innocuous enough.
First of all, we never know all the facts. When someone is an alcoholic, for example, it is because they are seeking to bury a deep pain. Since we don’t know the story of that pain, we can’t really comment on it.
Judgment also does not help the judged; and it pollutes your own free spirit. It results in gossip, slander, and, if the judger is powerful enough, in persecution.
Second, our view of the world is not the only one that is correct. For a man of one religion, the church of another is not his sacred ground. As Arthur Schopenhauer put it, “Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.” Read the rest of this entry »