- After reading Harlan, Kentucky
While the first half of the book Outlier deals with 'opportunity', the second half of this book deals with the topics on 'legacy'. What is the meaning of legacy, then? Legacy is something handed down from the past, ancestors, or predecessors, which influences those who live in the present. The author says that, like 'opportunity', legacy from the past and its continuous accumulation is something that greatly influences the success. The story about Harlan, Kentucky is great example of this.
What happened in the town of Harlan is abbreviated into one phrase, "Die Like a Man, Like Your Brother Did!" The people of the two families, Howard and Turner, have confronted each other and fought for many years. Starting from small conflicts between the two families, the fight between Howards and Turners became very huge tragedy of the town. Since there was a prevalent mood within the society that people should respect 'culture of honor', the feuds between the families became more severe and more violent. Some people died in the fights, only leaving huge damages to both families and townspeople.
Funny thing was that it was not the only place where this type of tragedy occurred. Here, the author states that these events were quite frequent even in adjacent areas, and he calls this as a cultural 'pattern'. He attributes the tragedy between the two families not only as a small conflict between them, but also from the cultural aspects of these regions. Since these regions are not very fertile areas, farming was not very easy; therefore, the people of these regions became more aggressive and willing to fight to protect their properties. The author says that this cultural background contributed to the formation of 'culture of honor' in the towns.
I also agree with the author's opinion that some major events that occur around us are greatly affected not only by personal or environmental traits, but also by cultural background. For an easy example, China, Korea, and Japan each has very different cultural background due to the accumulation of their geographical, historical differences. And these different cultural backgrounds make some differences national characters of these nations or some different occurrences of events. I think the long accumulation of cultural basis is very influential factor in defining human's behaviors as well.
Good observations and thoughts about the chapter. The Japan/Korea comparison definitely applies, and we can even say the same about North Korea. It's a stubborn situation where honor and pride play a part, and if any conflict does occur we can probably trace it back to a less serious instance of aggression becoming more serious.
답글삭제I think you'll find the next chapter more interesting.