Friday, January 10, 2014

Cain and soft power

"Why I like Asian culture" and "Why I found high school just OK" would have worked as titles for this entry. As Cain moved into the third part of her book, I knew from its title that reasons would be given to cover both topics. After having read it, I feel like I know those reasons all the better, though.

Soft Power is a curious thing. The idea is used to explain the hold that Japanese culture has on North America, but Cain looks at it on a smaller scale. Throughout this part of her book she investigates the high school experience in the predominantly Asian town of Cupertino, California and how graduates adjusted to college and university campuses that are primarily Caucasian.

This investigation is Cain's launching point into a broader look at the West's apparent extroversion and the East's introversion. Careful as ever to note the nuance beyond these generalizations, Cain's final pages on the topic once again implicitly point to an advantage for introverts. Their use of soft power (winning over rather than beating up) can help them to forge more genuine and lasting groups and impressions.

The fact that this conclusion is left more implicit than explicit is something I thoroughly enjoy. It's another element of Cain's book that really makes it clear that introverts are as much in her audience as they are her subject.

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