Food for thought: "Harmony and the dream"

[Skybird]

I found this to be a good read:

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=15207937

If Asia's success reopens the debate between individualism and collectivism (which seemed closed after the cold war), then it's unlikely that the forces of individualism will sweep the field or even gain an edge.
For one thing, there are relatively few individualistic societies on earth. For another, the essence of a lot of the latest scientific research is that the Western idea of individual choice is an illusion and the Chinese are right to put first emphasis on social contexts.
(...)
The rise of China isn't only an economic event. It's a cultural one. The ideal of a harmonious collective may turn out to be as attractive as the ideal of the American Dream.
It's certainly a useful ideology for aspiring autocrats.

P.S. Let's play a game. On a scale on "social attitude" from -5 over 0 to +5, with -5 meaning "total individualistic, isolationistic attitude a la USA" (as understood in the essay's context), and +5 meaning a "total collective, social attitude a la China" (as understood in the essay'S context) - where would you locate yourself in your own subjective self-perception?

I was tempted to give myself a "0" as being balanced between both extremes, but then realised that I am not that balanced at all, but jump between extremes, constantly. So I would say I jump back and forth between -3 and +2 a lot, without the balance in-between, depending on the social situation I am in. Friends also describe me to be changing in social attitude like this , depending on the the situation they see me in.