East Asia has discovered the joys of mediocrity, quitting and going boneless. Tang ping (China), sampo (Korea), satori sedai (Japan).
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Anyone able to help me find a translation of this tang ping manifesto? We must bring this important cultural phenomenon to the west.
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If I had more energy and ambition I’d get my mediocrity posts translated and become famous in China, Korea and Japan.
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Replying to
Curiously, I don’t think this exists in India because it’s always been the default. Though there are of course as many insanely competitive test-prep types, the culture as a whole is default mediocrity oriented. Strivers stand out, slackers don’t bother pretending to strive.
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For this phenomenon to exist, the culture has to be default-striver, and built around “everybody is a striver” optics. I think striver/slacker ratio is about the same worldwide (20-80 to 30-70 range) but some cultures pretend to be wholesale striver to prop up national narratives
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National archetypes everybody pretends to conform to:
US: Temporarily embarrassed millionaires
Europe, Japan: Living the good civilized retired life
UK, Korea: We’re not retired yet!
China: The Middle Kingdom shall rise again
India: Eternally slouching along in mediocritopia
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