Well, certainly, American weapons are the best in the world. It's all that repetitive upgrading and testing of the weapons they do on their own children and their neighbours' kids in homes, schools and colleges all across the country - and I'm not opposed to that kind of culling if that's what America does best inside it's own borders.
The USA, like many countries, does have population control issues.
I think it's probably a very good thing for everyone else on the planet for Americans to have more guns at home. It's an amazing nation in that way.
Unique. I'm not an American and so I do find American culture somewhat foreign and even perverse I guess, sometimes, but it's nothing personal; it's just a perspective from a foreign devil.
Thursday, 16 May 2013
To be Anti-China is basically the same as being Anti-semitic or Anti-Islam; it's just old fashioned Racism for the New Century. Old Habits die hard.
Many, many people in Australia, USA, and other basically Euro-pop places used to hate the Chinese because they were terrified of these millions of poor flowing in, in 'yellow hordes' , overwhelming them, over-whelming us all.
Now a lot of people hate the Chinese because they are doing really well and really don't fundamentally need anyone else to keep doing well, and we desperately need them.
Times have changed and yet Hate is Hate and the fear of China is now what it always was: Racism.
Now a lot of people hate the Chinese because they are doing really well and really don't fundamentally need anyone else to keep doing well, and we desperately need them.
Times have changed and yet Hate is Hate and the fear of China is now what it always was: Racism.
Post Tiananmen
The Tiananmen Square protest had many causes, the corruption within government, the cost of food, aspects of incompetence in time of famine, and especially the price of cooking oil, the growing disparities between rich government and poor people, and there were some bright pro-democracy elements, for sure. It was a multi-faceted, multi-polar uprising.
The interesting thing is that many of the protestors then have become able to send their kids to Oxford and Cambridge now, and own at least one house and are the most conservative Chinese around the place.
The suppression of the protest had many results, some negative, some positive, but in time it brought with it a degree of stability and indeed, right now, coming through time, a stoic crackdown, a Government suppression of corruption. The Chinese Government doesn't want people to be unhappy...goodness me...when the Chinese get really unhappy they throw the most bloody and vicious revolution imaginable.
They've done that in the past to rise above their foreign 'keepers' and they know how to do that now when necessary...but if things are okay, then they'd rather have a good job, a good income, push kids to excel in education and in careers, and buy an Audi.
The interesting thing is that many of the protestors then have become able to send their kids to Oxford and Cambridge now, and own at least one house and are the most conservative Chinese around the place.
The suppression of the protest had many results, some negative, some positive, but in time it brought with it a degree of stability and indeed, right now, coming through time, a stoic crackdown, a Government suppression of corruption. The Chinese Government doesn't want people to be unhappy...goodness me...when the Chinese get really unhappy they throw the most bloody and vicious revolution imaginable.
They've done that in the past to rise above their foreign 'keepers' and they know how to do that now when necessary...but if things are okay, then they'd rather have a good job, a good income, push kids to excel in education and in careers, and buy an Audi.
Japan, to beautify the future rather than the past
I don't know what Japan can do about it's history; this is up to Japan as a country and as a people. I wish Japan well and would love to visit there one day as time goes by. To me it is a culture of amazing distilling of beauty and order with a history of horror based upon an Imperial Certainty of Righteousness. It is not the only country with such a history; that's for sure, but for Japan to survive well in the very changed world, almost surrounded in a way by its old enemies who have done very well indeed, and will grow far stronger every day as Japan becomes less powerful and smaller, Japan too will need to change again.
Rather than seek to beautify the past, or forget it, perhaps it is wiser for survival to acknowledge the responsibility for the past, to hope for understanding and forgiveness from others, to repay what can be repaid now and as time goes by; perhaps this way Japan can beautify its future.
Rather than seek to beautify the past, or forget it, perhaps it is wiser for survival to acknowledge the responsibility for the past, to hope for understanding and forgiveness from others, to repay what can be repaid now and as time goes by; perhaps this way Japan can beautify its future.
Learning from Mishima, about Imperial Japan
My favourite writers remain Japanese; Yasanari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, and the, of course, greatest living English writer, Kazuo Ishiguro.
Yukio Mishima is a profoundly good writer and I expect the only reason he wasn't awarded the Nobel Prize was due to his passion, arrogance, and warrior blood zeal for the Japanese Empire. He took his own life in accordance with Shinto-Samurai traditions due to Japan's loss in WW2 and can be seen, in esoteric form, as what Jung noted as an 'archetype'...a 'representer' of an entire culture embodied in a human individual.
His writings are breathtakingly beautiful, deep, mostly dark, and certainly have a strong feature of violence from a position of utter certainty and righteousness. He was a disturbed man, and also, most likely, a very disturbing man to have around and get to know, especially if one was a woman; in the similar way that Patrick White, the Australian novelist, was brilliant and yet had a very vicious and spiteful destructive view of many friends and of most women, except Kate Fitzpatrick, the very accomplished Australian actor.
I still appreciate Mishima's writings; I appreciate his contribution to us all being able to have some small insight into the traditions he loved and lived by, whilst knowing him to be a deeply flawed and disturbed human. He was a man of his times, for sure, and his love for the Empire was without end and involved a total 'eternal' loyalty.
I kind of see him as the type of man who, no matter what country he is born into, will have a profound impact, and not necessarily a good impact.
The 'goodness' was in his ability to so clearly demonstrate and make real abiding literature of what the Japanese Empire actually was, and what it stood for, proudly, which was not its people but rather its Emperor God. In this way, his life was a total success as would have been the lives of military Generals in the Crusades, etc...but he wasn't a military leader, he was a writer. His legacy are profoundly beautiful works of art that jar against our current consciousness and consciences in many ways for many good reasons.
I think his disturbed and passionate nature truly reflects Imperial Japan, as it was, as a fearful shocking vicious enemy to pretty well everyone else...but by understanding his view, then one can begin to see why Japan is not very good at being sorry at all, especially now when they feel under real threat of not existing as a nation anymore. What is the noble thing for Japan to do now? The blade of Mishima's sword remains ready, and sharper from turning it upon himself.
Yukio Mishima is a profoundly good writer and I expect the only reason he wasn't awarded the Nobel Prize was due to his passion, arrogance, and warrior blood zeal for the Japanese Empire. He took his own life in accordance with Shinto-Samurai traditions due to Japan's loss in WW2 and can be seen, in esoteric form, as what Jung noted as an 'archetype'...a 'representer' of an entire culture embodied in a human individual.
His writings are breathtakingly beautiful, deep, mostly dark, and certainly have a strong feature of violence from a position of utter certainty and righteousness. He was a disturbed man, and also, most likely, a very disturbing man to have around and get to know, especially if one was a woman; in the similar way that Patrick White, the Australian novelist, was brilliant and yet had a very vicious and spiteful destructive view of many friends and of most women, except Kate Fitzpatrick, the very accomplished Australian actor.
I still appreciate Mishima's writings; I appreciate his contribution to us all being able to have some small insight into the traditions he loved and lived by, whilst knowing him to be a deeply flawed and disturbed human. He was a man of his times, for sure, and his love for the Empire was without end and involved a total 'eternal' loyalty.
I kind of see him as the type of man who, no matter what country he is born into, will have a profound impact, and not necessarily a good impact.
The 'goodness' was in his ability to so clearly demonstrate and make real abiding literature of what the Japanese Empire actually was, and what it stood for, proudly, which was not its people but rather its Emperor God. In this way, his life was a total success as would have been the lives of military Generals in the Crusades, etc...but he wasn't a military leader, he was a writer. His legacy are profoundly beautiful works of art that jar against our current consciousness and consciences in many ways for many good reasons.
I think his disturbed and passionate nature truly reflects Imperial Japan, as it was, as a fearful shocking vicious enemy to pretty well everyone else...but by understanding his view, then one can begin to see why Japan is not very good at being sorry at all, especially now when they feel under real threat of not existing as a nation anymore. What is the noble thing for Japan to do now? The blade of Mishima's sword remains ready, and sharper from turning it upon himself.
New Japanese Patriotism, the locking up of memory, and Mr Abe
Japanese people and culture and very good and creative and quite beautiful, but also their history remained one of profound and vicious race aggression until they were totally defeated in WW2.
The current renewed patriotism within Japan, and the attempts by Abe to 'beautify' the history are worrying, for sure and quite obscene when seen from the Korean and Chinese perspective, or from the perspective of anyone who suffered under their brutal rule of war anywhere in Asia.
But what is to be done now?
I think Trade Sanctions may help, more than anything else. Anyone can apply Trade Sanctions simply by not purchasing Japanese items, and by not going there.
I don't think war will help. It never really has helped. As time goes by, as China becomes even stronger and more profoundly stable for itself and for all of Asia, then the issue with Japan will still remain, I know, but it won't matter as much.
Already the Land of the Rising Sun is becoming the Land of the Setting Sun. In this way, perhaps time heals all wounds for Korea, China, etc. The only wounds remaining will be those of Japan, unable to acknowledge itself or reconcile its past at all, as it shrinks smaller and less significant than it was.
The current renewed patriotism within Japan, and the attempts by Abe to 'beautify' the history are worrying, for sure and quite obscene when seen from the Korean and Chinese perspective, or from the perspective of anyone who suffered under their brutal rule of war anywhere in Asia.
But what is to be done now?
I think Trade Sanctions may help, more than anything else. Anyone can apply Trade Sanctions simply by not purchasing Japanese items, and by not going there.
I don't think war will help. It never really has helped. As time goes by, as China becomes even stronger and more profoundly stable for itself and for all of Asia, then the issue with Japan will still remain, I know, but it won't matter as much.
Already the Land of the Rising Sun is becoming the Land of the Setting Sun. In this way, perhaps time heals all wounds for Korea, China, etc. The only wounds remaining will be those of Japan, unable to acknowledge itself or reconcile its past at all, as it shrinks smaller and less significant than it was.
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