Systems and Cultures

I've always (ok, not always, but came up within the last year or so) had this theory. In any modern society (let's not think too much about how we define society, or we'd get tangled in semantics all night - just what you'd normally think of as a society), there are two forces at play. One is culture, one is system. At least, those are the words I use. And they're always at war - very rarely do they go hand in hand. For instance, we all know that racial equality is an ideology of America that we're taught, and is reflected in our legislation. Hate crimes, employment discrimination, etc are against the law. However, I don't believe anyone would argue with me that racism and racial discrimination still exists in society. That's our culture, that's what gets internalized through visual and educational representation, that's what goes on beneath the surface of consciousness, and that's how people live every day.

I bring this up because I've been getting into a lot of debates lately about China's economic condition (ie: everyone seems to want to do business in China because the economy is booming), but I've been hesitant to believe that China's economic boom is sustainable. This is, of course, based on almost no research on my part nor any in-depth knowledge about the global economic climate and all the messy dynamics of. However, I recently found this article about China's economy (by Thomas Friedman), which seems to say a lot of what I feel. Not sure I agree with it completely, but it's an interesting read.

This is a theme I'm probably going to try and expand upon more in later posts, but for now, I'm underslept and, hence, underthunk, so more later.