The Broken Window Theory, Reversed

(This post may take some of your time.)

A couple of years ago, I read Malcolm Gladwell's book, 'The Tipping Point', and was really struck by one idea, because it made so much sense to me, The Broken Window Theory. Basically, the idea is that if no else gives a shit, then why should I? One small disorder invites more and more disorder. If no one else thinks its important enough to fix that window, to give value to where I live and who I am, then why should I think anything of myself? It's a real easy concept to grasp, but a real powerful one too, I think.

The reason I bring it up, is because, after living a while in Japan, I have noticed that if there is a 'broken window' here, it is more often than not 'fixed'. Quickly. That part of Japanese culture really touched me when I came here, how much thought people put into things. Every day, for most of my students, there is a bento waiting on the table for them before they go to school. There's a man at my train station whose job is to keep everything clean...full time janitor. If someone says they're coming to pick you up at 730, they will pull around that corner at 730. It's just a part of the culture. But, again, there is a flip side to it. To a point, this type of attention to detail is good. But, when you have to call two weeks in advance to see if your friend wants to hang out, it gets to be a little much. It is unheard of to call someone on a Saturday night and ask them to go for a drink. Never happens. People spend inordinate amounts of time cleaning streets, bathrooms, parks. Committes are formed, neighborhood watches organized. What this inevitably leads to is a type of mass OCD, everyone incredibly (read: irritatingly) involved in every aspect of every one else's life. Everyone cares though, so it can't be a bad thing right?

Well, for me, sometimes, it is. Living by myself for most of the past six years, I've become decently (read: barely) self-reliant. And I think that this, at times, suffocating attention to detail is what drives so many Japanese to want to leave. Of course, they think, things are good at home, everything's in order, but damn, give me some space.

The person who lives in the city with the broken windows realizes that if he doesn't care about himself, no one will. He steels his will and becomes self-motivated, but also a little too hardened. The person who lives in the immaculate city realizes he doesn't need to worry, things are taken care of, he can relax in the knowledge that other people are there to help. In doing so, he unknowingly forfeits the chance to be able to do it by yourself, to become a self-reliant individual.

That's where I'm at now. How much attention to pay, how much to let slide. How much to pick up one person, and how much to let another person do his own thing.

Here is a video of Bill Strickland speaking at a TED conference a couple of years ago that indirectly relates to what I was talking about earlier. My favorite quote from it is this:

I think that welfare mothers, at risk kids, and ex-steel workers deserve a fountain in their life...It sets an attitude and an expectation about how you feel about people before you ever give them a speech.