From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Sun 27 Oct 2002 - 09:41:43 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Spight" <bspight@pacbell.net>
Kenneth,
> > Just another drop- out, just another
> > failure, just another who fails society and our culture...and every-
> > body shuts up, no phone, no discourse, no information leaks out.
Bill,
> In Japan there is no such thing as "just another drop-out". People would
> notice. And talk.
> Before this phenomenon, the only widespread dropouts in Japan of which I
> am aware were housewives who left home, address unknown. I haven't lived
> there for a long time, but my guess is that they still do.
Kenneth,
> > In the program not a single one example was in anyway asked
> > by the local auhories, by the police, by teachers or by friends
> > for that matter to come back to school, neither a single autho-
> > rity forced those kids out of their room.
> > They all kept quiet and did nothing and that is the fact !
Bill,
> Of course not! Doing so would make waves, potentially cause discomfort,
> embarrassment, shame, loss of face.
I still don 't know Bill, what you wrote sounds contradictive to me though !
Doing something would mean embarrassement to both the parties involved,
parents would be discomformted by the fact neighbours would know, autho-
rities would be ashamed that something like hikikomori could exist within
their territory or in their country for that matter.
The former are the talk of the town like you presume but IMO the others
show than a great amount of keeping their nerves. Talking about something
by which the parents of those kids are kept in the blue shows a great deal
of restriction, respect also but you can 't keep it hidding forever.
Or of course, the parents simply don 't wanna know...
In the case of the latter, their attitude is connected with what is IMO
Japanese society, productivity, a high level of education, of prosperity,
manners and decency_ all who fails, all who wander are in the eyes of
the ones who won the battle with themselves, lost_ forever.
Taking care of those people, would makes waves, would mean in a
sense that you show signs of weakness yourself, of shame, that you
were to be embarrassed in some aspects of the society you live in.
IMO, with all do respect, I think you make the same mistake, that
is not the right term,... you take the same psychological approach
as those in Japan_ you just don 't wanna see the notion of the
survival of the fittest at work !
Your approach is in that respect naive, memeplexes of a higher
order have takin' over, in this case I would suggest_ economical ones.
The ' sane ' have an economical value, they can withstand stress,
they are usable within Japanese society_ the others are lost.
You act from a ' political correct ' point of view, having compassion
is a virtue, but not from the memes' their stance.
The same thing is happening here in Belgium, highway pile- ups
slow down the economical potential of the country, state, region.
So, politicians are doing everything what lies in their power to try
to get us drive savier/ slower_ 1500 people die each year on the
roads in Belgium.
But about the 2500 deaths by suicide they do nothing.....
About what can break the spine of a country, seen internal
as well external people do nothing, the token of Japan in
the outside world must be kept in place... those kids are
useless, they besmear, in a sense what Japan stands for.
Groupsbounding aspects/ affects come to mind, if you place
yourself for whatever reason on the outskirts of society you're
bound to be expelled. That is what is happening in Japan,
I think, the main difference with other examples is that the
group we' re talking about consist out of more than one
million people !
Regards,
Kenneth
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