Why does the East do change better?
In recent decades Japan, Korea and China have all managed massive change strategies with successful outcomes that have surprised Western commentators.
China, in particular, has transformed the standard and quality of life for hundreds of millions of people in a space of time unprecedented in global history.
Concerns are growing about the Western style of life to which the East Asian people appear to be aspiring, but an interest in the region’s tradition, history and culture suggests that the people of East Asia have skills in the management of change that can be directed to achieve other ends.
These could conceivably abruptly part company with the ideals of progress cultivated by Western corporate culture. Indeed, growing concerns about environmental sustainability, ecological balance and human health and well-being suggest that future ideals of human prosperity may well jettison much of today’s corporate activity. Aggressive profit seeking in military technology, polluting energy resources, synthetic pharmaceuticals and processed food is at the heart of America’s corporate world. The general commoditisation of life has added little if anything of value to human existence, even if it has been the source of large profits to individual corporations.
Given the power and dynamics of contemporary global commercial activity, however, this cannot be addressed as a simple task. The Confucian administrative tradition of East Asia, coupled with the Daoist emphasis on disciplined intuition and the Yi Jing’s subtle sensitising practices, equips the governing classes of East Asian communities with resources and skills that are rarely known or understood in the West.
There is much to suggest that these communities may again startle Western observers. This time, however, having mastered the commercial practices of the West, they may move in new directions to address many of the problems created by Western economic development.