The Dignity of the Nation　　　　　　Fujiwara Masahiko 　　Chapter 6　　Why Are Emotions and Forms so Important ? 　　　　1. 　Universal values 　　　　2. 　Globalization rampant 　　　　3. 　The world is becoming standardized 　　　　4. 　The twenty-first century is the age of localism 　　　　5.　 Food self-sufficiency reconsidered 　　　　6. 　Keeping anthropocentrism in check 　　　　7. 　A means to stop war 　　　　8. 　The immidediate goals of the human race　　　　 　　　　9.　 Japan's holy mission 　　　　1. 　Universal values Let us examine Great Britain as an example. All the nations of the world take note of what Britain has to say, despite the fact that Britain today is not that impressive a country. Why is it that the whole world is willing to listen to what an economiccaly and militaly insignificant country like Britain has to say when no one will lend an ear to Japan ? I believe it is because of the respect people feel for the universal values that Great Britain fathered. The system of parliamentary democracy, for example, is something that Britain created. In literature they have shakespeare and Dickens; in mechanics, they have Newton; in electromagnetics, James Clerk Maxwell; Darwin in the study of heredity; Keynes in economics: all these men are Britons. Moreover, computers, jet engines, and rader all originated in Britain. Flipping the argument around, this means that even if Japan remains an economic powerhouse for the next five hundred years, it will still not be enough to win the respect of anyone anywhere. To win international respect, a country has to cerate universal value. 　　　　2. 　Globalization rampant The globalization that has been running rampant since the final decade of the twentieth century is nothing more or less than an American strategy for world domination. But globalization is also a historical mistake that the rest of the world must stand firm against and resist. Since the end of the cold war, the American-style free market economy, American management with its license to restructure, the doctrine of shareholder-centricity, and American accounting standards have been force-fed to other countries in an attempt to achieve the total Americanization of capitalism. Economies have changed completely, and the gulf between rich and poor is widening rapidely everywhere. Mega- cities are expanding while the countryside declines at an equally torrid pace. When a hurricane hit New Orleans, most of the victims were poor and black because well-off whites don't live on low-lying land. The victims were people without even the means to escape in a car, and long distance bus tickets were out of their econimic reach. 　　　　3. 　The world is becoming standardized The free market economy is the core ideology of globalization. It is a mechanism that divieds society into a clear minority of winners and majority of losers. Money-worship has become all the rage with children: they do not want to study anything unless it helps them make money. The results have been catastrophic : among children in all developed countries. Globalization originated in the economic shere, but it is corroding our society, our culture, and our education on a broad front. The greatest problem with globalization is that it simultaneously Americanizes and homegenizes the world. It does not end with the economy; culture and society are also homogenized. 　　　　4. 　The twenty-first century is the age of localism The efficiencies that globalization creats are wonderful in certain respects. It is not a bad thing for the world to proceed on the same system and so become more efficient. But what happens if you push this logic all the way ? If you truly wanted to create a world that was efficient economically and in other senses, one way to go about it would be to start teaching English to all the babies born anywhere in the world. The world would be wonderfully efficient in every way, well beyond the fields of politics and economics. Efficiency is a fine thing, but the culture, traditions, and emotions that have been evolved and flourished in different counties, regions, and people are far more valuable. We must never forget the mantra; " It's only the economy." The tulip is undoubtedly a beautiful flower, but to blanket the whole world with tulips, and nothing but tulips, would be a terrible mistake. When I call the twenty-first century the age of localism, what I mean is this: people everywhere must have a mutual respect for the traditios, culture, literature, and emotions and forms indigenous to different countries, regions, and people, and they must nourish them. This localism will be buttressed by the universal values of the different countries. 　　　　5. 　Food self-sufficiency reconsidered A person will regards it as absurd to encourage agriculture in a country as small as Japan; it is far more efficicient to import every kind of cheap foodstuff from China or the United States than to grow them domestically. The WTO is seeking to put agricultural produce into a free-trade framework. On the other hand, someone who has a firm emotional sense of pathos of things would respond quite differently. Put the farmers out of biseiness and their fields will grow wild. But beautiful paddy fields are one of the sources of Japan's aesthetic emotions and of the culture and traditions to which those emotions give birth. This emotion is infinitely more important than mere economic advantage. The person with a firm emotional sense would believe we must protect the farmers at all the costs and would propound the need for a high rate of food self-sufficiency. An individual's overall capacity to judge things changes completely depending on whether he possesses a sense of the pathos of things, sensitivity to beauty,and comapassionate empathy. These things change one's whole caliber as a human being. 　　　　6. 　Keeping anthropocentrism in check " A human life is more precious than the whole world" is just a piece of hypocritical rhetoric spawned by anthropocentrism. Anthoropocentrism is a philosophy that comes from the West. The logic and reason cultivated in the West are certainly of value, but the reverse side of this coin is our arrogance as a speies. Beauty-based emotions keep this human arrogance in check and teach us humility. They help us understand that humans are no more than a tiny part of naure's magnificence. When dealing with issues like the environment, humility of this sort will become increasingly important. And that is not all. Humankind finds itself in coflict with nature as a result of anthropocentrism. And from this conflict springs modern people's inexplicable sense of being trapped and the pervasive lack of vitality in society. This conflict with nature has led to the loss of our emotional response to beauty, which in turn has undermined our spiritual strength. An emotional response to beauty heals the turmoil of our hearts and gives us strength in gloom and depression. Beautiful emotions function like a stabilization device in our hearts. 　　　　7. 　A means to stop war Finally, beautiful emotions are a means of bringing an end to wars. History proves that war cannot be prevented by logic and reason alone. In every region, in every era, and in every war, both sides have had their rationale. They can devise any number of logical arguments to justify their behavior because, based on the starting point they choose, they can put together whatever case they please. A study of history makes one aware that logic is actually a very convenient tool for self-justification. If humankind grew wiser with the passing of the ages, at some point it would be able to stop fighting wars. But the wisdom and the insights of one generation are never passed on intact to the next generation, hence the wry observation of the English historian A.J.Toynbee: "Human beings are animals that do not learn from history." 　　　　8. 　The immidediate goals of the human race　　　　 What happens at the outer limits of the universe ? What was there before the universe came into being ? How does the brain work ? It would be wonderful to know and understand everything, but I really don't know whether or not the illumination of truth is the ultimate aim of the human race. Things are clearer when it comes to our immediate goals. There are: to avoid provoking another major war and to avoid being dragged into a major war. A major war would mean the end of everything. We have to do all in our power to prevent it. Logic and reason are not enough to prevent armed conflict, but the beautiful emotions and forms of the Japanese can acts as a powerful means to prevent war. 　　　　9. 　Japan's holy mission People who despise baseness will not invade amall, weak countries; people who posses compassionate empathy will not unleash an aerial bombardment on a town populated only by women, children, and the elderly, nor will they drop a nuclear bomb. Nor will they crush under their heel the culture, traditios, and history of a defeated foe when they occupy his country. People who are sensitive to beauty know that was turns everything to hate, and so they will not start a war, for any reason. People who weep as they think longingly of home know that people from other countries are subject to the identical emotion, so again they will not start wars. The whole mental structure of Westeners is based upon conflict. For Westerner, nature is something that has to be subjugate to secure the happiness of the race, while other religions and different value systems are there to be eradicated. For the Japanese, by contrast, nature is something divine, and humans are integrated into it as one part of the whole. This different view of nature is a fundamental difference between Western and Japanese people. It is because the Japanese have always lived in harmony with nature that they have never sought to wipe out other values and religions, barring the Anti-Chistian Edict of 1614. They have always accepted such things and "Japanized" them to harmonize with everything else. As long as conflict and opposition have a place in people's minds, there will be no end to wars and other, lesser kinds of struggle. The harmony with nature that is the wellspring of the beautiful emotions of the Japanese people will be the key to help the human race achieve its long- cherished dream of abolishing war. The Japanese must communicate this to the rest of the world, must explain the essence of things. That is Japan's sacred mission. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　to : 　Index　　　　　Chapter 7 :　The dignity of the nation