David Brooks: Gail, I don't know if you had a chance to see my column Tuesday, but China always gets me thinking big. I look at the long history and bright future of that civilization-state and suddenly you've got to chase me down with a butterfly net to impose the grip of reality on my grandiose and free-floating ideas. It's runaway Spengler Syndrome. But I do have one more Grand Historical Theory to spin out for you, and it involves thinking styles. Different cultures and groups have different styles of thinking, or to be more precise, the average behavior is different from one group to another. So is it possible that Westerners, on average, have thinking styles that make them ill-suited for the problems of the future while Asians have styles that make them better suited?
But I do have one more Grand Historical Theory to spin out for you, and it involves thinking styles. Different cultures and groups have different styles of thinking, or to be more precise, the average behavior is different from one group to another. So is it possible that Westerners, on average, have thinking styles that make them ill-suited for the problems of the future while Asians have styles that make them better suited?
