Posted by sigismund on March 18, 2011, at 16:50:27
In reply to Re: Japan » sigismund, posted by obsidian on March 18, 2011, at 13:30:21
I feel so sorry for the Japanese people. They are so dignified and intelligent.
Two things I remember from Japan. Smoking is discouraged in the street but permitted in restaurants. I take this to be because they value the public space. And people never use mobile phones on trains. Going out of Kyoto I saw a woman use one and a man came over and spoke quietly to her and she immediately put it away. There is so much we can learn from a more collectivist culture like this.
And my son was there for it.
In our societies there seems to be an endless cycle of individualistic behaviour and endless crackdowns.
The latest ones from here is the proposal to ban a range of plants from angels trumpets to wattles because they contain psychoactive substances, and the proposed attempt to analyse human waste to form a picture of illicit drug use suburb by suburb. Meanwhile every new toilet block is put to the torch. The gap between the discourse of the governed and the governing widens and hypocrisy is a requirement of office.
It's fun, isn't it.
poster:sigismund
thread:980588
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20110111/msgs/980686.html