David Brooks hits another one out of the ballpark in his article about Mitt Romney: The Crowd Pleaser.

In the article, Brooks talks about how Mitt Romney rarely talks about his roots, where he comes from, or his family history. Mitt never had an industry that he fell in love with, choosing instead to invest in diverse industries and to specialize in “management of management.” Mitt seems to be pure marketing and sales, and many people, including conservative pundits, think that maybe that’s all there is to him.

But outside of the political talk, I found interesting Brooks’s discussion of David Riesman’s “The Lonely Crowd.” I hadn’t heard of the book, but this was very interesting:

The agricultural economy nurtured tradition-directed individuals. People lived according to the ancient cycles, customs and beliefs. Children grew up and performed the same roles as their parents.

The industrial era favored the inner-directed personality type. The inner-directed person was guided by a set of strong internal convictions, like Victorian morality. The inner-directed person was a hardy pioneer, the stolid engineer or the resilient steelworker — working on physical things. This person was often rigid, but also steadfast.

The other-directed personality type emerges in a service or information age economy. In this sort of economy, most workers are not working with physical things; they are manipulating people. The other-directed person becomes adept at pleasing others, at selling him or herself.

There’s probably a great deal of truth in this. A few weeks ago, I blogged about What Cultures Value, saying that Koreans value diligence and consistency among other things, while Americans value entrepreneurship and salesmanship. This might make sense in Riesman’s/Brooks’s context, as America is mostly a service economy these days, while Korean remains an industrial powerhouse.

This looks like an interesting book. It even has its own Wikipedia entry, which says:

Riesman’s book argues that although other-directed individuals are crucial for the smooth functioning of the modern organization, the value of autonomy is compromised. The Lonely Crowd also argues that society dominated by the other-directed faces profound deficiencies in leadership, individual self-knowledge, and human potential.

(pic from here)

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Seeking Asian Female Trailer from Seeking Asian Female Documentary on Vimeo.

Got this from Alpha/Mojo. I couldn’t tell if it was real or acted, but it looks like it’s real. It’s premiering at South by Southwest. As much as I question supporting this kind of thing, it does look from the trailer that it will work out fine. Dude seems nice enough. Older, but nice enough.

Here’s the description from their website:

Seeking Asian Female is an eccentric modern love story about
Steven and Sandy – an aging white man with “yellow fever” who is
obsessed with marrying any Asian woman, and the young Chinese
bride he finds online. Debbie, a Chinese American filmmaker,
documents and narrates with skepticism and humor, from the early
stages of Steven’s search for an Asian bride, through the moment
Sandy steps foot in America for the first time, to a year into their
precarious union. Global migration, Sino-American relations and the
perennial battle of the sexes, weigh in on the fate of their marriage
in this intimate and quirky personal documentary.

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This isn’t a formal review, but if it were, I’m not sure how I’d categorize it. Hornby uses sharp language, and his writing is infused with that cheeky British humor that Americans love. The book, through the character of Will Freeman, captures the slacker culture that was big in the 90′s–and even bigger now. Marcus, the boy whom Will befriends, was intriguing because of the numerous issues that came his way. Overall, a fun read.

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It was absolutely delicious. I was, however, surprised that the Sriracha sauce isn’t as spicy after cooking, and I wish I’d put in that “Asian chili flakes” that Kai said would “burn your ass.” The older I get, the more I find myself craving extremely spicy food.

Anyway, the Superbowl is known a lot for its commercials, and in keeping with the tradition, GOP Senate hopeful Pete Hoekstra ran the following ad saying that his opponent was spending too much money and borrowing from China. It depicts a Chinese woman riding a bike in the rice paddies and telling Americans how China is reaping the benefits of jobs and money from bad American policy. “Your economy get very weak, ours get very good.” Yeah, watch out for those Chinese women in the rice paddies–they’ll give you an earful about politics and economics if you let ‘em talk! Actually, I’m not sure what a woman in the rice paddies is talking about anyway…are the Chinese stealing jobs from American farmers growing rice in China?

The actress is clearly an American without an accent, but in keeping with the tradition, she’s gotta fake one. And this is one of the worst Chinese accents I’ve ever heard. Alexandra Wallace had a better accent.

Oh well, logic was never the forte of some of these politicians–at least not when talking to the American people. Hoekstra, according to his Wiki, is an immigrant himself, born in the Netherlands. So he can’t be racist! Err..right.

On a happier note, some black ministers in Detroit have gotten involved and have called on Hoekstra to apologize. At least Hoekstra is bringing the minorities together.

“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect,” Williams said in a statement Monday. “If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”

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bigWOWO rating: Popular Fiction Gold

The problem with fiction reviews, especially with popular fiction, is that the reviewer can only give away so much without ruining the ending. As a result, I read American Dervish and expected a simple story of unrequited love and betrayal. Instead, it was much more. Ayad Akhtar uses this story not only to describe forbidden love and lust, but also to describe what it is like growing up Muslim. Check out this video where the author explains why he wrote it (he uses the “love story” description himself):

“American Dervish” Video Statement from Ayad Akhtar on Vimeo

The story is about a young Pakistani American man named Hayat Shah who reflects on the death of his mother’s oldest friend Mina from Pakistan. Mina comes to live with Hayat’s family, and she shares the Muslim faith with the young twelve-year-old Hayat, who embraces Islam and finds himself in love/lust with his Aunt Mina. Mina herself falls in love with a young Jewish doctor, and Hayat responds with a act of vengeance that destroys the lives of everyone involved.

I couldn’t put this book down. It was 352 pages, and I finished it in two and a half days. Akhtar wrote a very brave novel. Not only does it tell a story of forbidden lust in a coming-of-age story, but he uses the story to recount what it’s like growing up Muslim in America–a story that we hardly ever hear, even though it is as relevant as it has ever been. Growing up exposed to hypocritical religious fundamentalists myself, it was eye-opening to read a similar perspective from another religion. I’m sure people will read this and think, “No way, that can’t be how it really is!” but I hope people will read with an open mind. Check it out!

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David Choe

Man, this Facebook IPO is going to be making some people a lot of bank. Check out this Times article here: From Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches. The guy pictured above is David Choe, a graffiti artist who painted the walls of Facebook’s first headquarters. For Mr. Choe’s artistic services, Sean Parker offered to pay him either thousands of dollars or Facebook stock. Choe took stock instead of money. His stock is expected to be worth upwards of $200 million after the IPO.

Although Mr. Choe initially led a rough life including run-ins with the law, he is wealthy even without the Facebook offering. (It is unclear whether he sold any portion of his Facebook holdings on secondary markets.) Now a very successful artist with gallery shows and pieces exhibited in major museums, Mr. Choe declined requests to be interviewed for this article; he said he wanted to maintain his privacy. He has, however, published an obscenity-strewn book of his art, “David Choe,” which includes images of the multimillion-dollar murals at Facebook.

Mr. Choe’s page on Facebook shows the life of a modern-day renegade artist. Among the images of his graffiti, there is a trail of images of him partying with scantily clad women and spending large amounts of money on alcohol. In recent weeks, Mr. Choe promoted photos of a $40,000 bottle of alcohol; a single shot, he boasted, costs $888.

And who says art isn’t a lucrative field?

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Oh wow, I had no idea American Pastoral won the Pulitzer. I think I must have read an earlier edition before the prize was awarded.

American Pastoral is a story in two parts. The early part is a first-person narration by a character by the name of Nathan Zuckerman, who recounts his young life and infatuation with an older Jewish boy named Seymour Levov who goes by the nickname “Swede.” They called him “the Swede” because he had blonde hair, different from the other Jewish boys. He was a star athlete, and Zuckerman, who is now an older and unmarried writer, gets back in contact with the Swede right before a high school reunion. The rest of the book is about the Swede himself and about his daughter who commits an unspeakable crime.

There were many things that I loved about this book. Roth has a great way with language, his ability with dialogue is amazing. I like how he uses dialogue to bring out his characters, putting entire conversations into single paragraphs. It works very well. What others may like most about this book was the way Roth describes the assimilitive process of his Jewish characters, how the Swede is trying to make it even after being a star athlete turned successful businessman, and how his daughter Merry has become the most American of Americans by rebelling against everything she has been taught. Roth is an amazing storyteller.

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Thanks to Eurasian Sensation, who posted this article: The One-Shot Society. The article is about the educational system in Korea, where students cram like mad for one college entrance test, a test which determines the career that they will have for the rest of their lives. In Korea, as the article mentions, people rarely change jobs, so it’s imperative that students get into the best university and then into the best company. We’ve spoken about this trend in Korea and how it limits their opportunities to make decisions later in life, which is why many Koreans try to become doctors.

I think this system is reflective of what Koreans value: intelligence, diligence, preparation, and consistency. This system will greatly help Korea in many ways, but of course, there are side effects as well. I like how the article mentions the tech entrepreneur who can’t find employees because he’s not Samsung. In the U.S., that guy would have no problems recruiting (especially with our high level of employment).

I can’t really say whether their system is better or worse than ours–they don’t seem to have the stagnation or unemployment that we do. What I would like to say is that America has an ambiguity problem. I think we like to think that we value education, but we really don’t. Whereas Koreans value intelligence, diligence, preparation, and consistency, Americans value selling and entrepreneurship. I remember one of Robert Kiyosaki’s books where he tells a novelist that if she wants to be a well-known writer, she should learn to sell, so that she can sell her book. Even our most powerful citizens, the politicians who run this country, spend much if not most of their time selling themselves to voters.

I think that’s ultimately our problem these days. We’ve got great salespeople and a great culture of entrepreneurship and sales communication. Outside of the low-cost computing innovations, we just haven’t invested in creating great new technologies to sell. Whereas in the past we were going to the moon, taking on nuclear technology, or miniaturizing transistors, we no longer invest as much in the new technologies that we need: green technologies, alternative energy, etc. We need to shift more of our resources into research, so that we have great new technologies to sell to the world.

Related to this topic, Shark Tank is back. Today, there was a great episode in which a manufacturing entrepreneur told the sharks he wanted to keep jobs in the U.S. and refused to outsource to Asia. The sharks told him he was being stubborn and short-sighted. One shark told him that he should follow Apple’s example. Another said that even though it was not cost-effective to manufacture in America, it would still create jobs here since they would eventually need sales and marketing people! So you can where our nation’s focus is.

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Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids was recommended by a friend. I was interested in the major thesis–that nature is more influential in a child’s life than nurture, and that we worry too much about our kids for no reason, since they’ll mostly tend to turn out just like us. Caplan even quotes Steve Sailer on page 3! (I’m assuming it’s the same Sailer dude who helps the loons navigate the world of HBD.)

It’s a breezy read. The “nature” thing was going on all kinds of illogical tangents with twin and adoption studies, such as the “fact” that adopted Korean kids of rich white folk don’t go as far as biological kids of rich white folk (because, you know, adopted Korean kids naturally fit into the family just as well as the kids who look like the rest of the family), or that parents who taught their kids to read often have adult children these days who don’t read (as if blogs and the internet have no effect on this). But at the end of the chapter, Caplan hedges by saying that’s what he believes and that the studies have limitations, such as the fact that the adoptions were mostly middle class families. He also relieves himself of the Sailer extrapolation by saying kids in the ghetto might not stay in the ghetto if given the opportunity.

Aside from the main reason I picked it up, the book does have some interesting economic observations about the price of kids and our investment/recuperation of our investment. For example, he writes about grandkids, and how when we get old, we often want nothing more than to spend more time with our grandkids, and that we can increase our chances of having grandkids by having more kids. He lists some interesting statistics about child safety, and how children today are safer than ever despite the media stories, and he says that the best way to influence how your kids turn out is to choose your mate wisely.

One problem that my friend who recommended the book brought up was the whole idea about your kids turning out just like you. As my friend said, “But what if you’re not happy about how you turned out?” Maybe that’s the mate selection. Marry a doctor so you can say, “My Son, the Doctor.”

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For those of you who like historical movies, or for those of you who are hungry for yet another AF/WM movie, check out The Lady with Michelle Yeoh. I read about it on 8A. Check out the blogger’s thoughts, and also check out the opinion of the commenters.

I agree with the commenter xxxtine, who writes: “It is through the help of her husband Michael Aris, on the outside in England, that got her the recognition and ultimately the Nobel Peace Prize. No one would’ve known about her otherwise, or cared to hear if he wasn’t trying to get his wife freed.” What is true of Amy Chua is true of Aung Sung Suu Kyi and is true of Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan–if there isn’t a White man involved with the subject matter, the Western world often doesn’t give a shit. It’s sad but true.

As for Aung Sung Suu Kyi, I like what she stands for, and there’s no doubt that she has some powerful tenacity and personal strength, but I wonder if she’d really make Burma a better place or whether she’d burn the place to the ground and mess it up worse than the military government ever could. Historically speaking, the U.S. government doesn’t always do the best job of picking leaders of other countries.

Anyway, the movie looks well done. And Michelle Yeoh really looks like ASSK.

Edit 5:30: Awww, fuck. I didn’t read the full DailyMail article before posting. You too, Michelle Yeoh?

Michelle Yeoh with her fiance

Michelle gradually fell in love with her subject with whom she had so many similarities. Like Suu, Michelle went to school in the UK; her Hong Kong based parents moved here when she was 15 and she attended the Royal Academy of Dance. She is also in love with a Westerner. The actress was briefly married to Harvey Nichols billionaire Dickson Poon but has been engaged to French Formula 1 boss Jean Todt for five years.

Her huge engagement ring sparkles as she describes how, like Michael Aris, Jean gives her the freedom to do as she chooses.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2084268/The-Lady-Michelle-Yeoh-brings-story-Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-big-screen.html#ixzz1jll8wdpk

That’s another thing the Western world does. Equates Whiteness with freedom.

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