Page 275 - Cultures and Organizations

248 DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL CULTURES

The agreement with statement 1 varied from 60 percent in Nigeria and
50 percent in the United States to 19 percent in Sweden and 15 percent in
Japan. On average, poorer countries believed more in absolute guidelines.

When the influence of wealth was eliminated, answers were correlated
with LTO-CVS. Respondents in high-LTO countries believed less in uni-
versal guidelines about what is good and evil and more in considering the
circumstances. 26

These differences are partly reflected in rates of imprisonment—the
share of the population that is locked up in a penitentiary institution. In
2002 this share ranged from 690 per 100,000 inhabitants in the United
States, to 140 in Britain, 85 in Germany, 65 in Sweden, and 45 in Japan. 27
Worldwide, rates of imprisonment relate primarily to national poverty
(they are higher in poorer countries), but this variable cannot explain the
huge differences between equally wealthy countries. We believe that these
differences are affected by what these societies consider the purpose of
punishment. The short-term solution is to protect society by locking crimi-
nals away. The long-term solution is to reform criminals and recycle them
into productive citizens. If good and evil are clearly separated, evil people
should be locked away. If good and evil reside within every person, those
who committed evil should learn to be good.
Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, and Taoism) are
separated from Western religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) by a
deep philosophical dividing line. The three Western religions belong to the
same thought family; historically, they grew from the same roots. As argued
in Chapter 6, all three are based on the existence of a Truth that is accessible
to the true believers. All three have a Book. In the East neither Confucian-
ism, which is a nonreligious ethic, nor any major religion is based on the
assumption that there is a Truth that a human community can embrace.

They offer various ways in which a person can improve him- or herself;
however, these consist not of believing, but of ritual, meditation, or ways of
living. Some of these may lead to a higher spiritual state and, eventually,
to unifi cation with God or gods. This difference in thinking explains why
Dr. Pradhan was so puzzled by the question about what he believed. It is an
irrelevant question in the East. What one does is important. U.S. mytholo-
gist Joseph Campbell, comparing Western and Eastern religious myths,
concluded that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam separate matter and spirit,
28
while Eastern religions and philosophers have kept them integrated. This
difference in thinking also explains why a questionnaire invented by West-