week 8 dq 2

According to the reading, in general eastern cultures have a different type of happiness than western. This is demonstrated by how a family raise their children. In many eastern cultures, the parents’ job and concept of happiness is to work as hard as they possibly can for 20 to 40 years, they have children, but those children are handed off to the parents of the adults to raise the kids. A natural emotional separation is created by the parents in effect by cultural rules of order, the parents are in effect not allowed to form close bonds with their children. They are not allowed to experience the firsthand joy of their children but are allowed to when their children produce children. They can interact and raise their grandchildren.

This creates a very odd mixture of emotions in the family structure in said cultures. Add to the facts that in some locations in the east, purchasing a place to live in so unbelievably expensive that loans have taken on a multi-generational aspect. Not unlike the construction of Cathedrals in Europe during the tail end of the medieval times. Notre Dame Cathedral took more than 300 years to complete. It took so long in fact, that portions of the building completed in the first 50 years of construction had to be replaced and rebuilt due to age and use before the building was complete. Which is in part the whole reason Dumas wrote his famous book “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. The proceeds of that book went to the reconstruction fund to fix what had fallen into overuse/disrepair over the centuries. For a while most of the city of Paris and smaller portions of the world community stopped whatever they were doing and focused their attention and emotions into that event in April 2019. Some found joy in the unified coming together, a hope to rebuild better. Other found joy and happiness to focus away from their troubles for a few hours to focus on something which actually mattered. Obviously, others felt different emotions over the 16 hours the flames raged. What I found joy in was not watching the flames but researching as much as I could about the history of the building itself. So, in that way during times of crisis in Europe like that buildings burning, the eastern cultures have a very similar reaction and mixed joy with pain. Similar joy concepts, each based on an entirely different structure and function of society.

What I found interesting is that the previous building which was torn down and replaced with that building was more than 2300 years old when it was torn down to make the Vatican and of course Islamic invaders happy. They found joy in the “Synagogue” which was what the building was originally designed to be was torn down and as much of the original history of the place was erased. That erasure process brings some in those cultures great and profound joy. How many people have been mass murdered/serial killed within sight of that building. Jacques de Molay, 18 March 1314 along with many others who were burned to death on a different island less than a mile from Notre Dame. His killers were enraptured with joy and happiness over their actions. I wonder how the officials in charge of different eastern cultures feel about the roles their citizens are forced to take which are from a western standpoint barbaric. But as illustrated, western culture is not exactly guilt free when it comes to barbaric actions. The emotions of suffering and joy from those barbaric actions, depending on what side of the issue is being presented. That is a huge question.