I Hate Groupism, if Groupism had a heart I would stab at thee with Hell's Fury

I hate groupism for the same reason I hate 4x4 prams and bicycles with baskets on the front. Congestion.

Whilst I have a deep felt love of asian cuisine, xen philosophy, eastern design elements, asian architecture (traditional) etc. It is impossible for me to traverse Melbourne's CBD without getting flushes of pure unbridled rage at the Asian cultural imperative to do no task, no matter how trivial, without being in a group no smaller than 5.

Now I firmly believe that people are people, I don't believe there is any genetic trait that dictates someones partiality to groupism but instead it is a cultural meme. I know that pretty much the entire Japanese education system is dedicated to memetically reinforcing groupism, and this colossal waste of energy is why Japan currently has the worst economic outlook in the world (I'm sure others will catch up though). So groupism if I had to take a stab in the dark as to why it is so prevelant amongst asian cultures, I would guess it is a meme that survived because it keeps the general ublic weak and dependant on existing institutions.

But back to congestion, at my residential college we had tables in the dining hall of 8 places. 3 on the long sides and 2 seats at the head. This design floor had not taken into account the strong groupist tendancies of the students International House was committed to housing. Such that it was not an unusual sight to see three 'outsiders' (from the perspective of a given group) sitting at one practically empty table and 16 'groupies' sitting around a table of 8.

So too I witness a group of 5 people accompanying one person to borrow a library book. I see 6 people go into a store to buy one mobile phone. Most annoying of all though is the transit effect. Instead of just being able to meet in the QV food court, these groups seem to have to travel together, clogging up lane ways and escalators and so fourth.

Now everyone without exception bemoans the loss of community values in the modern age and the disconnectedness we have from our peers. I believe the true tragedy of this development particularly in city life in the western memetic sphere, has not given rise to self esteem.

The word, the mother fucking word is 'extrinsic' in the western memoplex living extrinsicly means aquiring status symbols under the dictates of taste. While consumerism is certainly rampant in the eastern memoplex, which I lengthily discussed earlier it doesn't have to operate under the confines of taste and refinement. That's because living extrinsically as far as I have read on the topic means drawing your esteem from the group.

I'm sure self esteem or living 'intrinsic' occurs in both cultural spheres because things like introversion and other personality factors that might lead to the development of self esteem must exist equally around the world. I do know that bullying is ingrained in both Japanese education, government and the work place to punish anyone who may want to go against the group.

The net effect though is that it makes me feel like a wolf amongst sheep. These groups I see everywhere don't strike me as a security convoy as such, being that there is generally no charismatic focus surrounded by a bunch of intimidating button men. Instead I just see 5 people that have the net worth of 1.

Now I must confess to failing the 'you cannot judge a man until you have walked 1,000 miles in their shoes' test, I have not even walked the 1,000 mile ordeal that is the time taken to even try to enter an established group. Nor could I call up my Balifornian buddies and said 'Hey guys do you want to get together and do... everything together?' as alas even though we were a 'group' back in highschool, we all each had our own very different lives.

I spent my weekends being introverted, had friends from the boarding house, from the public high school down the road, we didn't even have coordinated time tables.

The advantage we all gained from such loose affiliation is the power of choice, which groupism I feel crushes. It creates an artificial homogeniety. Japan being the extreme, because negative emotions are taboo and not to be expressed at any cost it is apparantly customary for everyone to order the same thing as the boss at the restaurant, unless you invoke the very real danger of 'order envy'.

So too must everyone dress the same, so too must everyone go see the same movie. I love my friends, but to be honest if I had to do everything with them, I would fucking kill myself.

Through my reading and development I have come to realise that in my lifelong quest of discovering universals, every effort I make to determine any makes them less likely to exist. I hate universals, and the artificial homogeniety of a group is firmly entrenched in universals.

Much of why fashion I believe is bullshit, consumerism a hollow pursuit, and anarchy the best political system all stems from my disbelief in universals. Whilst I believe if you have a moral code you should apply it universaly, I don't believe in a universal moral code.

(I infact think Dawkins discussion of Evolutionary Stable Strategies does a better job of explaining the coexistence of so many morale codes eg. Consequntialism vs Absolutism etc simultaneously than any philosophical offering, I believe people have a selection of morale codes that are applied context specifically.)

This is what I hate about groupism, in order for such an artificial identity to operate, the suprression of your own will and interests must be constant. If I may make an abusive analogy, it is the same as wind resistance - the larger the object, the more drag meaning the more important aerodynamics are. That is the more rigid the 'shape' has to be.

Again with Japan (sorry I actually observe more Malay and Chinese groups in Australia that spark my rage but Japan is the only culture where I have any insight) anything popular is 'universally popular' which is why when Ayumi Hamasaki brings out a new lipstick it's market penatration can be 100% within a week. 100% that literally means almost every teenage girl, every last one has the exact same shade of lipstick for however long the fad lasts. The sheer logistics, the gamble any other country would have to make on having such huge stocks make 100% market penatration impossible. The iPhone which might be seen as 2008's 'must have' accessory in Australia wouldn't even have 100% penetration.

Fucking facebook doesn't have 100% penetration. Mobile phones don't have 100% penetration in Australia. I would guess something becomes incredibly passe, guache or just plain faggy when it hits 30% penetration in Australia.

This is because for some reason in Australia once you have more than 2 people who are the same together (which can be explained by the phenomenon of 'twins' meaning you would extend the benefit of the doubt) it just becomes sad. Moreover you may also be understanding that in a small country town every guy and girl may literally go to the same hairdresser, and have to outfit at the same clothing store explaining country town trends, but my experience shows that even then country bumkins make efforts to do some shopping in 'the big smoke' once or twice a year.

That for me is the clincher. All I have to do to shake a groups resolve and have them questioning their security, is intrude. Walk between a group. Its like a 5 (or more) way baby snatching. The problem with motherfucking living extrinsicly is that it is unstable. Groupism is very different from 'team' a team is where you take individual strengths to compensate for individual weaknesses, much like a short speedy player can be complemented equally by a tall strong albeit slow player on a team. Groupism is repressing individual strengths to give an illusory sense of security that comes from reinforced weakness.

Perhaps the most poigniant example is that of relative language abilities. Not being able to speak english well is a weakness in the context of Melbourne, it is not particularly tourist friendly, with very little multi-language signage and few bilingual locals. In a group an ESL student can feel comfortable knowing that they have the support of several other bad english speakers, with whom they can converse fluently in not just their local language but often their local dialect. (My Chinese uni-pals are all from Wuhan in China and don't seem to associate with say Shanghai students).
The mutual weakness is reinforced rather than overcome, and it allows many international students to spend 3 years in a foreign country with little to no improvement in their English speaking ability.

As a case in point, Jerry was the only one of my Wuhan friends that was unable to get exempted from PSP (workplacement) semester at RMIT. While the rest of the Wuhan crew got to benefit of graduating with no work experience. Jerry was forced to endure alone at an outer suberb, very white, autowreckers business.

I was amazed that in 3 months Jerry's English took a quantum leap. He became 10 times better at public speaking and english conversation than his close friends, gaining confidence too. By forcing him to sink or swim on his own away from his group RMIT actually managed to further his education in one semester beyond what he had achieved in the previous 3 years.

It works in reverse as well. In my year 12 Japanese class I was the worst Japanese speaker out of 8. After a 3 month exchange where I had been painted into a corner where I needed to speak Japanese for myself I had improved dramatically, but one of my homestay buddies Brenton could speak Japanese at least 3 times better than I could and was miles ahead on day one.

Last year when I went to Japan, admittedly I had an advantage of having Japanese friends and a Japanese girlfriend in the interviening years since highschool, but Brenton who had been at that stage working in Tokyo for 6 months for an English speaking firm I was amazed to find could speak only shamefully poor Japanese, where whilst remaining illiterate, I could navigate the length of Japan with little or no assitance from english speakers. Having survived in the relative backwater of Takematsu where english speaking is a virtual non-event. (one of my favorite places in Japan as a result).

Self esteem is what is required to take the leap of faith out of your comfort zone and grow and develope. Groupism locks you firmly within a comfort zone as the world passes you by.

It is perhaps why every single eastern culture has only achieved their 'economic miracles' whilst playing catch-up and have universally (I know, I know) faltered at the very brink of becoming leaders like Japan in 1989 and China in 2008. COnversly Brazil seem to be the unspoken of hero's of development. They have a true functional democracy and I have read been developing steadily with none of the risk exposure that China, India and Russia have carried. They have even been trying to win on environmental fronts, as China and Russia race to claim oil reserves that are becoming accessable thanks to climate change melting of polar icecaps!

Brazil's democracy I kid you not shits all over Westminster and America, they have a president from a peasant background and actual choices on policy that Chomsky points out would be unthinkable in the west.

I just wish Universities would step up and institute 'group busting' activities, like primary schools used to change seating plans periodically (and even in highschool Brenton and I were forced to sit in chairs that placed us at the greatest diagonal distance possible in year 10 science) much as I wish lecturers would say 'Hey look kids, it's first year, it's a cakewalk. We just ask you to attend the classes and tutes, maybe a bit of studying the week before the exam, but other than that do us a favor and live your life'.