How interesting - I have a very different take on it, as my immediate thought was that the pressures of being seen to conform to society views and hold society's values in order to be part of the community was the problem here.
The problem with any community is that it defines itself by "we" and "notwe". Our Korean chap was clearly treated as "notwe". This may have been because he was Korean, or it may have been for other reasons e.g. for all we know he may have had bad body odour. The reason matters little, the point is that he was excluded by a group that he so desperately wanted to be part of. If that society was based on individualism then firstly it would have been more likely that some people would have taken to him (less community = less pressure to conform to the community views = freedom of choice to a larger extent), and secondly he would be less likely to feel the need to belong in the same way in the first place.
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Date: 2007-04-20 08:34 am (UTC)The problem with any community is that it defines itself by "we" and "notwe". Our Korean chap was clearly treated as "notwe". This may have been because he was Korean, or it may have been for other reasons e.g. for all we know he may have had bad body odour. The reason matters little, the point is that he was excluded by a group that he so desperately wanted to be part of. If that society was based on individualism then firstly it would have been more likely that some people would have taken to him (less community = less pressure to conform to the community views = freedom of choice to a larger extent), and secondly he would be less likely to feel the need to belong in the same way in the first place.