Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an unblockable replacement

Re:Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an ... by pdb123 on Sunday January 19, 2014 @11:17AM (#7084823)

As another American, I completely agree that this is wonderful. We both like this behavior because it's in accordance with our culture and values. But the example of Asian culture that you bring up is interesting.

Japan (and to some extent China) are undeniably successful countries/cultures. Yet I'd guess that if a student acted this way there, he or she wouldn't be able to find a job. How do we know that having undue respect for hierarchy is objectively a bad thing?

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Re:Yale censored a student's course catalog site. I made an ... by slurry on Sunday January 19, 2014 @12:35PM (#7085086)

How do we know that having undue respect for hierarchy is objectively a bad thing?

I'd say China in the late Qing Dynasty would be a good data point for it being a bad thing. Or a compare-and-contrast of Spain and the Netherlands in the early modern period.

With respect to Japan, yeah, we think of it as super-hierarchical. Then again, Japan had two major hierarchy-toppling social revolutions pretty recently. First the military-imperial apparatus toppled the feudal nobility during the Meiji Restoration. Then General McArthur toppled the military-imperial apparatus during the American occupation. So, perhaps the slope of the long term trend line is as important as the current value?

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