| The Dignity of the Nation Summery Fujiwara
Masahiko Chapter 1 The Limits of the Modern Rational Spirit 1. Modernity was hijacked by the West 2. The West was a barbaric 3. Mathematics was also in a bad way 4. Developed countries going to the dogs 5. Crime, disintegraion of the family, and education collapse 6. The failure of the modern rational spirit 7. Fine words in the covenant of the League of Nations 8. Communism and meritocracy : Both products of logic 9. All-out meritocracy is a mistake too 10. The triumph of capitalism is an illusion 11. Do companies belong to their shareholders? ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 1. Modernity was hijacked by the West A look back at the last five centuries of modern and contemporary history leaves one with the overwhelming impression of a period that was hijacked by the West. The decisive fact is that Renaissance, the Reformation, the scientific revolutio, and the industrial revolution all happened in Europe. The industrial revolution in particular has every claim to be regarded as the most important event in world history. It was the industrial revolution that enable the West to dominate the world. With the powerful weapon created by its manufacturing industry, even a feeble white man, who had never before picked up anything heavier than a pencil, could take down a Masai warrier who was strong enough to kill a lion with a single spear thrust. Thus it was that the world came to be lorded over first by Europe, and then by the United states, which inherited Europe's mantle in the twentieth century. Great Britain, the pioneer of the industrial revolutions, controlled the seven seas through force of arms, and then was succeeded by the United States. 2. The West was a barbaric Let us have a look at the Middle Ages, the period from the fifth to the fifteenth century. America was as good as non-existent on the stage of world history, while Europe played host to a succession of battles between monarchs and aristocrats about small patches of territory. The whole region was a colorful collage of ignorance, poverty, and war, and Europe was a motley crew of savage tribes. By contrast, Japan of the same period already had a culture of considerable sophistication. If we focus on literature as one indicator of the degree of culture refinement, then we come up with the Manyoshu, the Kokinshu, the Makura no Soshi, the Tale of Genji, the Hojoki, the Tsurezure-gusa - the list goes on and on. A comparison of the works of literature produced over this ten-century-long period shows that Japan, Japan alone, is superior to the whole of Europe in terms of quantity and quality. Europe in those days was not up to much. Serious literary enthusiasts asides, I suspect few people could name three works of literature that originated in Europe between the fifth and fifteenth century. English literature these days is very full of itself, but what did it produce from the dawn of history until 1500 ? I bet the only thing that comes to mind is the Canterbury Tales. 3. Mathematics was also in a bad way This dire situation was not limited to literature. Mathematics in Europe of this period was also at an astoundingly low level. The mathematics of eleventh and twelfth century Europe lagged behind Ancient Greece. It is a classic example of the fact that civilization can make steady advances, while culture goes backwards. In the Middle Ages, the Middle and the Near East had the upper hand in mathematics. Then, in the thirteenth century, the exchange of knowledge between East and West resulted in the Mongol dynasty becoming number one in the world. Europe was stagnant in literature, mthematics, in almost all aspects of culture. Indeed, pinpointing the year 1500 reveals that few of the regios's countries were even unified. Neither Britain, Russia, Italy, nor German was unitied, while Japan had been a single, unified country for ages. For ten long centuries Europe was extremely backward, but then, through the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the scientific revolution brought about by Galileo and Newton among others, reason was finally set free, and Europe got its hands on logic and the modern rational spirit for the first time. This must be called a triump for Christianity. To paraphrase Newton, who was the driving force behind the scietific revolution, whereas the Bible was written in ordinary language, the universe was written in the language of mathematics; since God created the universe, it stands to reason that it should be beautifully written. This can only be called a bias of the most egregious sort. From this preposterous notion, Newton conceived the idea of applying mathematics to the study of astoronomy. In the eyes of Japanese and other Buddhists, this represents an unbelievably warped leap of the imagination. In the age of Newton, Japanese were actually using mathematical work that, in part, surpassed Newton. Seki Takakazu, for instance, had discovered matrics and was actively using them ten years before the purported Europe inventor, Gottfried Leipniz. 4. Developed countries going to the dogs Japan is often said to be on the road to ruin, but the same is true for all the world's developed countries at the moment. Let us take nuclear weapons as an example. Nobody anywhere likes nuclear weapons, but there is no doubt that they are becoming widespread. Everyone was horrified when Pakistan and India got nuclear weapons, but now even a destitute country like North Korea has them. I expect the number if countries possessing nuclear weapons to increase rapidly in the future, the reason being that a country with nuclear weapons is at a clear diplomatic advantage. It makes no difference how passionately nuclear- armed countries like the United States and Russia urge other countries to stop nuclear developement, arguing that nuclear proliferation is a threat to the peace of humankind. The argument has no force to it, Their meddling is unpersuasive, tricked up though it may be in fine-sounding phrases. The same holds true for environmental destruction. No one actively wants to destory the environment; we all want to live amid greenry and soft breezes. Despite this, the environment is being steadily destroyed all over the world. 5. Crime, disintegraion of the family, and education collapse Similarly, crime and terrorism, through detested by everyone, are also growing more widespread. Society is far from safe. Terrorism is generating fear on a global scale, while the spread of drugs and AIDs shows no sign of abating. The disintegration of the family and the collapse of education are phenomena common to all developed countries. The decline in academic achievement, the juvenile delinquency are all problems produced by the collapse of education, and they can be witnessed in all the developed countries. Although the same set of unsettling problems is afflicting all the world developed countries, nobody knows what to do about them. Right - thinking people everywhere know that they " have to do something " to deal with this widespread decay, but still they make no headway. All we can do is look grave and diagnose it as a " disease of civilization ". What then is the true cause of this societal decay ? 6. The failure of the modern rational spirit To me this decay represents the failure of Western logic and the modern rational spirit. These two things are the foundation that underpinned the industrial revolution. The industrial revoltion in turn led to the dominance of the world by Europe and Amerika and the creation of a science-and technology-based civilization. Logic and reason enjoyed a spectacular triumph as the driving forces behind modern civilization. In consequence, the world ended up putting far too much faith in them, convinced that if one trusted logic and reson, there was nothing to fear. Logic and reason are extremely important. But the present time makes it clear that they alone are not enough for people to live their lives by. Nearly all the different ideologies that have colored the modern age were the products of logic and the modern spirit of reason. The bankruptcy of all such ideologies has now become apparent. At one point in history there was an age of imperialism. Imperialism and colonialism are both based on neat logic that runs something like this: " You are inferior races, and inferior races are unable to manage their own countries properly by themselves. If we leave you to your own devices, internecine fighting and epidemics will run riot, and some will undoubtedly die of hunger. Therefore, we, the superior British people, will condescend to take charge of things on your behalf, the inferior race." The logic basis was truly benign. Why was it that they were willing to accpt something that later generations regard as unjust, simply because it made sense at the time ? 7. Fine words in the covenant of the League of Nations After World War the 1st, the convenant of the newly established League of Nations was agreed upon at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Those sections of the covenant that deal with mandates describe the business of governing people incapable of governing themselves as the "sacred mission of civilization." " The sacred mission of civilization......" What a fine- sounding phrase ! During the Paris Peace Conference, Japan tried to get a clause on racial equality inserted in the covenant, but it was turned down. The United States, which discriminated against blacks and Japanese immigrants; Britain and France, both of which had colonies bu the armful; Australia with its White Australia policy - all opposed it. It was well and good for white people to all be equal, but they were hostile to equality with the people of Asia and Africa. The Asian and the African were disappointed at this rejection, but Japan, the only non-white top-tier country, developed a profound grudge. In fact, this resentment became one of the undercurrents that fed into World War the second. Looking back on it now,colonialism and imperialism are founded on nothing but arrogant logic. At the time, however, everybody went along with these concepts as they made logical sense. It was only after World War the 2nd that imperialism was finally recognized as something fundementally wrong. For some time after the war the British and the Frence proved to be bad losers and made persistent, if futile, efforts to keep hold of their colonies. 8. Communism and meritocracy : Both products of logic Surprisingly enough, Communism is the same as colonialism and imperialism, at least in terms of " making beautiful logical sense." In communism all the people own all the means of production in common. They all share in the products that are so created. And the result is the creation of an equal, fair, and contented society with no division between rich and poor. The logic is so beautiful it almost makes you giddy. The same is true with the doctrines that are now taking over the world, like the competitive society and meritocracy. I concede that competition- based society and meritocracy may well be fine thing for the prosperity of organizations. The best thing for any organization to do is to have its staff compete aggressively with one another, fire useless employees, retain only the most able people, and keep hiring able newcomers. Undoubtedly, this makes perfect logical sense. But when I see that sort of logic starting to overrun our whole society, I feel compelled to yell; " Hey, wait a minute. This is mistake !" 9. All-out meritocracy is a mistake too What would happen if the meritocratic system were put into practice on a comprehensive basis ? First of all, co-worker would all become rivals of one another. Experienced worker would never share their knowledge with new recruits because if they did, they would end up being pushed out. The result would be a society where the individual was surrounded by enemies and never able to let down his guard and relax. Everyone everywhere seems to approve of all-out meritocracy, so I have no choice but to be opposed to it. I believe in a society based on lifetime employment and promotion through seniority. Of course, promotion through seniority alone would be problematic. There should be fast-track promotion for exceptional people, and they should receive special treatment in terms of pay and other benefits. We have actually had a system like this in Japan for a long time. When based on such arrangements, society as a whole has a gentle and stable atmosphere. Social sability is the foundamental strength of a nation. 10. The triumph of capitalism is an illusion The wholehearted implementation of the pilosophy of the survival of the fittest will certainly make organizations stronger, but it will also result in the serious destablization of society. The United States furnishes a good example of this. The number of lawyers per head of population in the United States is twenty times the Japanese figure, while the number of mental health counselors is between fifty and sixty times. Captalism also makes wonderful logical sense. In capitalism, individuals motivated by self-interest and greed work to maxmize their profit. This doctrine has recently taken a step forward and turned into " market fundamentaalism". Maximize efficiency by leaving everything to the market. Keep state interference to a minimum. Market fundamentalism is based on the premise of everyone " fighting fairly." After a fair fight has taken place, the winner takes all the spoils, that is, "winner takes all. Since the outcome is the result of a fair fight, goes the logic, there is nothing wrong with the victor getting everything. Accoding to the philosophy of the samuari, this logic would be called " base". It is base for someone big to pick on someone small, it is base forsomeone strong to bully someone week. This is what the samurai spirit teaches. 11. Do companies belong to their shareholders? The shareholder-centricity spawned by market principles is the same thing. I find the idea that a company belongs to its shareholders a terrifying piece of logic. A company belongs to the staff who work in it - that goes without saying - and the shareholders are just one group amoung many stakeholders. Whether it's a week, a month, or a year, shareholder always buy and sell their stakes in short fimeframes. Most shareholders want capital gains from a rise in the stock price and have no special feeling for the company. By contrast, the employees of many Japanese firms work there for many years, so they are always thinking and doing what's best for the company. What is theoretically correct and what is good or bad are problems of different dimensions. I think it is clear that a focus of shareholders makes society less stable. To : Index To : Chapter 2 Logic alone will drive the world to ruin |