Comments on: The Google Dilemma, Part 2

By: The Google Dilemma. National Differences and Cross-Cultural Theory « Fourcultures

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:56:40 +0000

[...] more in part two, coming next… Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The Google Dilemma Part 3Do [...]

By: fourcultures

fourcultures — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:43:24 +0000

TOG, I'm trying hard not to be idiotic... This post may help.

By: theothergardener

theothergardener — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:30:19 +0000

People in the global investment class who still claim to be taking any matter from the point of view of nationalism are full of shit. Google is a multinational corporation, they couldn’t care less about all this. They agree to the demands of the Chinese government for profit. Don’t be idiotic. This is not about nationhood at all.
TOG

By: The Google Dilemma Part 3 « Fourcultures

The Google Dilemma Part 3 « Fourcultures — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:42:36 +0000

[...] Part 2 [...]

By: fourcultures

fourcultures — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:59:54 +0000

TOG, I support the line of Amnesty International on this, but I’m trying to examine my own biases. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights claims to be, well, universal. Is any regime exempt? If so, how so? If not, how not? If Google is having trouble with the concept of free speech via Chinese gmail accounts, why is this? How does the ‘universal’ nature of human rights get negotiated with a government that only recognises Chinese human rights? Can we even talk like this? Is there anything distinctly and appropriately Chinese in internet censorship, or is that just special pleading? To shine the spotlight back on the US, we could ask how this ‘freedom loving’ nation ends up executing so many of its prisoners (and how it comes to have so many prisoners in the first place). Is there something peculiarly and appropriately American that makes the penal regime so distinctive?
Cross-cultural theory seems to assume that we would want to fit in with another nation’s patterns of social activity in order to make our business relationships work better. But what if we really don’t agree with them? I’m concerned that to naturalise national cultures is to concede too much, and that we would be wrong to suggest there’s something Chinese about censorship and something American about lethal injections. But if we don’t make national comparisons, what kinds of comparisons can we make instead? That’s where grid-group cultural theory comes in, I’m suggesting.

By: theothergardener

theothergardener — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:13:16 +0000

All censorship is wrong and unnatural. You’ve lost it.
TOG