Individualism & Interrelatedness

I'm reading a book entitled Shame and Honor in the Book of Esther. In it, Tim Laniak, the author, points out that the Japanese word for "myself" is jibun, which means "my part", i.e. of the larger whole. It's an interesting insight for a person with a Western perspective.

In the West (especially the USA - the land of the rugged individualist), we emphasize the individual - his or her life, accomplishments, and rights. In the East that's not the case. The book I'm reading concerns the Ancient Near East, but many of the constructs still hold true in the Middle East as well as the Far East today.

We're often horrified by what those in the East will do to satisfy their notions of shame and honor as well as their apparent (by our Western standards) disregard for the individual. We cannot imagine that they would have anything to teach us. But I wonder...

Certainly, suicide bombers are pretty scary - and a result of the Eastern disregard for the individual. But anything when taken to extremes is unhealthy - even individualism.

For Christians, it's really not an option. 1 Corinthians makes our interrelatedness clear with the analogy of the body. What I do has an effect on the whole. Not only does it affect the whole, however, my part only makes sense in the context of the whole. For an American (rugged individualist) born into the "me generation" it's a thought that makes me go, hmmmm....