tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528686231765021097.post5525589710182929339..comments2023-09-12T16:52:48.733+09:00Comments on Antisthenes' corollary*:: Hard to get worked up to defend Japan's women, when its women won't.Ἀντισθένηςhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199983680204710885noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528686231765021097.post-65151568863408047852014-06-27T13:35:28.897+09:002014-06-27T13:35:28.897+09:00Yup. You don't get rights. 'Inalienable&...Yup. You don't get rights. 'Inalienable' means they already belong to you. You take them!Ἀντισθένηςhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06199983680204710885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528686231765021097.post-42318016348050691462014-06-27T08:46:59.818+09:002014-06-27T08:46:59.818+09:00Ahh, and there you have hit the nail on the head, ...Ahh, and there you have hit the nail on the head, sir;<br />' yet women have had the vote since the American Occupation gave it to them'.<br /><br />You see, you can't 'give' people democracy. You can't give people social modernity. They have to *earn* it for themselves, like most western countries did during the industrial revolution; the struggle of the worker for rights and representation, and all that.<br />Except....<br />Japanese workers have been hit by the double whammy of not going through the democratization process during their own industrialization (hardly a 'revolution' when the whole thing is imported by the the Meiji Oligarchy), and then being given the 'hated peace constitution' by the occupying US (not that I don't agree with the occupation). But the end result is that Japanese women never fought for their vote, it was given to them, which is why they don't value it.<br /><br />A few years ago it was fashionable for Japan specialists to point to the US occupations democratizing effect on Japan as evidence that Iraq had a bright future. We in Japan knew better. Now the world must be looking at Iraq, then at the specialists, and asking 'what went wrong?'<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528686231765021097.post-57949566005000971332014-06-25T12:19:22.967+09:002014-06-25T12:19:22.967+09:00The word repudiates the world view they've bee...The word repudiates the world view they've been steeped in. Few westerners are Existentialist enough to say, 'Fine, fuck that, what I was taught was wrong. I'll find my own way to live in good faith.': fewer Japanese are.<br /><br />"One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years, thought Bernard Marx, who was a specialist on hypnopædia. Sixty-two thousand four hundred repetitions make one truth. Idiots!" <br />- Aldous Huxley, 'Brave New World'<br /><br />Japan won't change, by them or by us. I can't say I wouldn't care if I were a single man here, though I can say I would care a great deal less than I do with a wife and children, both of them 'hafu' and one of them a girl. Japan's only changed when its 'elites' found it to their advantage to change certain things, to their advantage. Not so different than 'the West', except the population requires even less to be satisfied: Nietzsche would call it a 'slave culture', and I couldn't argue.Ἀντισθένηςhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06199983680204710885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528686231765021097.post-45463114456179196422014-06-25T11:06:18.749+09:002014-06-25T11:06:18.749+09:00The status quo in Japan is such that most people (...The status quo in Japan is such that most people (like in many countries) believe that "Japan is for the Japanese". Fair enough. This means that all change has to come from within if it is to be to the satisfaction of the Japanese. You and I bear zero responsibility when it comes to this, which could suck for someone not Japanese raising a family here. <br />It's funny, but I've been told by a few Japanese people that their least favorite word in the English language is 'Justice.'Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8528686231765021097.post-27426357006561072752014-06-25T00:24:41.419+09:002014-06-25T00:24:41.419+09:00I got sick of being told by Japanese women that I ...I got sick of being told by Japanese women that I was "lucky" being from a country where women are given some rights. Like some benevolent god had thrown them down from the sky or something.<br /><br />Unfortunately, things are going backward here and, from what I've seen, in other Western countries as well. I'm not sure what Japanese women want - if you want a career after marriage, instead of whinging about lack of childcare, do something about it. The country is riddled with retired folk. Surely some of them have it together enough to take on childcare duties, or maybe look at some kind of student nanny arrangement.<br /><br />I guess if you start standing up for your rights, you run the risk of no longer being *kawaii*. Kathrynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08699328937978331608noreply@blogger.com