Recently, my cousin (and roommate) and I were having a debate about opposites. The debate hinged on the premise of relative versus absolute.
He posited the theory that when you pull open a door, is it not the same as your fingers pushing the handle in the opposite direction, making the difference between push/pull a matter of relative position.
As the contrarian, I challenged him to push open a door with a rope. Until he could accomplish such a feat, I would refuse to give further attention to his claims.
This conversation forced me to consider the value of relativity and perspective, particularly in the opposing concepts of being an "insider" versus "outsider." Is it better to be an insider or an outsider? And are these terms absolute or relative?
Take the Japanese word gaijin for example - such a strange word. Literally translated as outside-person.
When I was living in Japan, I experienced this mysterious thing called gaijin-power, where gaijin are given preferential treatment. It was hard to admit that it did not exist when we received more generous welcomes into people's homes or better service at stores and restaurants.
Sometimes our Japanese peers would want us to exploit our gaijin-power to get the hookup for our whole group. It was tempting and we succumbed - often. Retrospectively, it still seems so perplexing that an entire culture could be wired to treat outsiders so well.
Think about how the concept of gaijin-power would work in America. It would not. It could not. Where would you even begin to design who was inside and who was outside? It would be near impossible to divvy all the various groups. What does this say about American culture in relation to Japanese culture? Do Japanese people put more value on outsiders or simply provide better treatment? Do we as Americans put more value on the insider? Do we even have insiders?
Again, is it relative or absolute?
Naturally, it is difficult to ascribe any given characteristic to a group and expect it to apply to each individual in the group, but it is my opinion that we Americans are obsessed with being insiders.
Tabloid magazines like In Touch or People thrive on our collective fixation with knowing the insider lowdown. On Facebook and MySpace, it's a badge of honor to have 500-plus friends or be in 20-plus groups.
Add to that the advent of the GPS-enabled iPhone 3G and other web-enhanced cell phones, and other people can be so "inside" that they can know precisely where you are at any given moment.
With college students and young professionals killing hours of time on the Internet, at home, at work and now on their phones, any of their friends can instantly know their status: "out to lunch," "cramming for biology" or "too busy to chat with you."
We are compulsively competing to be more and more inside. Ironically, broadcasting our insider information to everyone.
Nonetheless, sometimes it's cool to be an outsider too. We take pride in sticking out, having our own distinct individuality.
The complicating factor arrives when our position on the outside conflicts with the greater good on the inside. This can be minute, like when you are the only one with closed-eyes in a family portrait. Or it can be much grander, like when Iran recently rejected an economic incentive package presented by the European Union.
Ironically, when outsider status creates waves that affect the inside, it inherently forces the outsider in, creating an insider out of an outsider. This bring us back to the original question, is inside/outside status simply relative or definitively absolute?
I think these questions are very applicable to the current state of the JACL. As we address the challenges of membership decline, we are forced to consider the many dormant members who may feel as if they are outsiders to our organization. They may think their actions have no effect on our organization, or they may just wish to sit on the sidelines. Whatever the case may be, it is our responsibility to fuse the best of our joint Japanese and American heritage to reach out.
We can effectively extend ourselves to these so-called gaijin/outsiders of our organization, while simultaneously capitalizing on their inherent tendency to be on the inside. We need these outsiders on the inside.
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