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Coercive Culture

This story about phones being locked up by pre-installed apps for missing loan payments makes for sad reading. The culture of coercion leading to compliance allows for this to work. The same dynamics play out at the family and community level where no money has changed hands. People feel compelled to do things that they are not comfortable because they cannot withstand the coercive force of others that bears down on them. Weddings in India are a great example of this dynamic at work. Just about every move anyone makes is predicated by the amount of pressure applied on them by others. In the case of the bride's family it could range from the date of the wedding, logistics, the expectations of how lavish the celebration will be and so on. If the groom comes from a higher status family they hold all the cards and they can apply the force needed to bring the bride's family into compliance. 

The relatives of each side will similarly be subjected to pressures to perform and deliver. They need to show up, participate, spend time and money, see and be counted. Scores are kept to death any there are consequences for non-performance. You want you relatives to show up when you have a medical emergency, you best have done what they expected from you at the weddings of their children. The more points a person earns through compliance over the years, greater the latitude they receive for an occasional slip-up. But habitual offenders can and will be subjected to the equivalent of having their phone locked for default of loan payments. 

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