"John R. Yamamoto- Wilson" wrote:

> Kevin Gowen wrote:
>
> > I see that Ernie has joined the John Hyphen-Name school of source
> selection.
>
> What you don't see, though - or at least don't care about - is that such
> sources (Ernest's on chikan and mine on US imperialism) represent a
> perspective - not necessarily one to be espoused, but one which a body of
> people nevertheless believe.

Screw this, each person has their own opinion crap I encounter in Japan. The
scope of the chikan problem is what it is, and you simply aren't willing to
look for the answers yourself, and reject everything that you have not
PERSONALLY seen or experienced yourself. How convenient. I get this from war
apologists about WWII atrocities.

> Now, your attitude appears to be "we don't need to consider these
> perspectives because they come from left-wing or radical or loony sources",
> whereas I'm more interested in looking into how it is that people acquire
> these kinds of perspectives (and I'd have to say, to me, yours is just one
> more - often loony - perspective). Simply rejecting them out of hand because
> you don't like the source is unhelpful.

And so is rejecting it out of hand as you do, because you simply don't agree or
believe it.

> There may or may not be some
> substance behind their views. If there is, I'd like to know about it.

And how will you know, if you don't check it out for yourself? And I don't mean
by watching women on your train.

> If there isn't,

How will you know either way, if you don't check?

> and they've simply dug a hole for themselves, I'd like to see
> how they dug the hole in order to work out how to engage in effective
> dialogue with people with such views.

Please tell us when you've checked and found out "the truth" for us.