Babel: A Guide to the East-West Encounter, Ofer Grosbard, Amazon.com Services, 2020
What the heck is a "vector of the mind" and why should a person care about it? This book attempts to answer that question.
Those with an outward oriented vector of the mind have an eastern paradigm of mind, and emphasize the group, or consensus. Perhaps the best known example is the Japanese concept of "saving face." On the other hand, those with a western paradigm of mind have an inward oriented vector of the mind. The best example of this is the American emphasis on the individual. Dealing with someone whose paradigm of mind is opposite to ours creates a cross-cultural problem. Both of you might speak the same language, but you will have a hard time understanding each other.
It is normal to think that a person from another culture thinks the same way that we do. That is because we only know one way of thinking. Is it possible to "translate" from one to the other?
This book contains many examples of negotiations between America and Israel and its Arab neighbors. It also includes a questionnaire so that a person can assess their own vector of the mind. Is it possible to get away from being Politically Correct and acknowledge our differences?
Here is a very interesting book. The many examples of Arab-Israeli contacts also make it pretty easy to understand. This will get the reader thinking.
