According to Freud's theory, people's mind can be divided into two parts: the conscious mind (or the ego) and the unconscious mind. The former is developed through the process of “growing up” via the form of education and life experience: people are taught righteousness, ethics,right/wrong, norms,rules of laws etc; the latter refers to the mental processes of which individuals make themselves unaware. So for the part of the development of the unconscious mind, people's race,religion,history,culture,or even food, all play big part in that process. In a broader sense the phrase “you are what you eat” says it all.
Freud's conscious and unconscious mind theory can explain lots of incidents in real life when people acted or behaved irrationally or even anti-socially, that is when there is a big discrepancy between the two minds, given certain circumstances people lose control of the conscious mind and resort into what the unconscious mind is telling them to do. The ways to make irrational rational, or to bridge the discrepancy of the two, are that you either change those factors forging your conscious mind, or change your way of life,the culture,etc to fit into the world with certain rules, or combination of both.
Do nations also have the unconscious mind? Well if they don't, it will be harder to explain the rationale behind numerous incidents while nations were acting irrationally.
So what can Freud's unconscious mind theory enlighten us in our discussion about NEAU here? I think first we can better understand the motivation behind many nations' drive for a multi-polar world, because the international norms and rules developed and forged chiefly by the UK/US,according to their sets of values, are no longer adequate to handle the reality that many nations like Russia and Japan are resurging and nations like China and India are rising.
Secondly, if the US understands Chinese unconscious mind, the US will know China is telling the truth that China does not want to be the world sole super power no mater how strong it is or will be. The Chinese people are not really interested in our people's affairs, (other people meas those people outside the traditional Chinese culture sphere), our ancestors even built a great wall in more than a thousand years to circle China.
Thirdly, even many American pundits agreed that the current internal framework actually benefits China a lot, even China repeatedly told the US China doesn't want challenge the US to overthrow everything, the US chose not to believe. Perhaps this irrationality can be explained by the state of the unconscious mind of the US.
Fourthly, what does Japan's unconscious mind tell it to do? Since I am not Japanese so I should leave it to the Japanese members to ponder. My observation, however, is that although Japan has undergone a hundred years Westernization Process, it keeps lots of old oriental values and traditions. That alone should mean something.
Lastly, put NEAU notion into this context, the biggest obstacle maybe from the conscious mind of the participants: China has a very different political system than the others. However, looking back 40 years in time, China has changed enormously and is till changing. Like Francis Fukuyama's book “The End of History and the Last Man”, the claim that China will not change will not hold up to the test of time. Thousands years of written history has proven that the Chinese people are very pragmatic people, we are capable and flexible to make adjustments when facing new challenges and problems. If this NEAU reaches the stage that all country needs to make some adjustments for it to happen, upon the valuation of the greatest good that it can bring, I am sure the descendants of the Confucius beliefs including China can do it again.
Like normal people at a crossroads, nations need to look back on the past in order to make wise decisions about their future path. In 1972, the world renowned Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni was invited by the then Chinese PM Zhou Enlai to make a documentary film about China. In his documentary named “China”, Antonioni recorded a true China through his camera lens and from his angle, which later earned him much criticism from the Chinese government, the film was labelled unti-China and banned. I remembered as a little boy about entering primary school in Beijing, we all chanted “安东尼奥尼,是个大坏蛋”- “Anotnnioni is a big bastard” for several years. In 2004, China government formally apologized to him and made the film to the public viewing for the first time. Nowadays this film turned out to be one of the most valuable documentaries about the real China in that era. When I watched it, I felt so real and had the feeling that those people in the film could be me, my family,my neighbours, my friends,or any people I knew.
...LMAO this is 21st century we're not in medieval. Union doesn't mean Japan will be merged with China to form a new nation but an organiztion to coordinate our foreign affaire to serve both our interests. I can understand why Vietnameses, Pinoys and Americans are so scare of this Union because they will not longer be able to exploite the different between China and Japan.
