My friend Richard Laermer believes that President Obama’s lack of physical and visible anger is the direct result of being from Hawaii.

I am from Hawaii. Richard sees lots of similarity between the behavior of people he knows from Hawaii and the president — including me!

Maybe, however I also think it has a little to do with avoiding the “angry black man” label as well… sort of a hybrid.  The question is, why would growing up in Hawaii result in such behavior?

Well, I tried, below, to brainstorm some reasons, though it’s rough.  The long-story-short is that Hawaii is more influenced by the Asian social and cultural mores that state that one must do anything to save face and prevent shaming your opponent, allowing them an “out”  — and your foe must, as well, work hard to protect you from shame as well.

It is not that Hawaii locals, natives, and kama’ainas (localized haoles) don’t get angry, fight, and so forth — but the issue here is about shame.

It is about saving face and allowing your foe an opportunity to save face, too.

We (generally) don’t like to corner anyone — the mentality states that we allow other people to escape from a terrible situation with their pride intact and also demand that we’re allowed to do the same.

It is a little like this in the South as well, I have discovered.

And really WASPY people sort of play by some of these rules.

It is an Asian interpretation of “what goes around comes around” — by never cornering your enemy, you offer the best of both worlds while doing your best to prevent BBS (burnt bridge syndrome).

However, Asians; Hawaii locals, natives, kama’ainas; and the rest are not suckers or fools — this “lack of anger” is only temporary.

If the face-saver realizes that his foe has no desire to be helped and, worse, has not an open hand but a fist, this could get very messy.

So, we’ll see what President Barack Obama does at the end of the day — and what sort of “behind the back” plan he has…

Because, when the whole saving face thing doesn’t work out, the extension of this strategy is to stab your foe in the back.

And so ends my deep peering into my crystal coconut.