Ed wrote:

> "Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
> news:3FBE1EDB.CE83D7B0@yahoo.co.jp...
>
> > What happened to you Ed? You used to be the guy who argued against the
> > existence of absolute morals. Now you suddenly discover (and care) that
> > "Japanese are not kind"?
>
> I still do. Morality doesn't "exst". It subsists upon intersubjective moral
> values. In other words, intersubjective morality exists because the culture
> exists and the morality "exists" dependent upon the culture. Take the
> culture away and the morality ceases to exist. True existence is not
> dependent upon anything other than existence. Kinda like a tree falling in
> the forest. It makes a noise regardless of no ears to hear it.
>
> But you asked what happened to me. I guess I've just gotten tired of the
> borg cube. The endless procession of stern-faced salarymen going to work,
> the hatchet-faced housewives who have spent their lives hating and refusing
> to believe anything that doesn't agree with their misery, the children who
> grow up with no more incentive than to buy the most fashionable clothes, the
> old hen-pecked grandfathers who have no conception of anything other than a
> life of frugality and misery, the grandmothers who have henpecked their men
> towards a goal of death and futility....

In Nagano, the paradise you've praised?

I don't like such crap in Japan, and here's what I'm doing about it. It is very
simple. Japanese think people can live their own lives, and make their own
choices, and that's just what I am doing. As with their recent change in
attitudes on homeless, eating junk or having university paid for, I am molding
my wife and children to be different from other Japanese people. It will be too
bad if there is some great untapped potential within my children, because I
can't do things for them like pay for violin or ice skating lessons or medical
school, but they are going to learn to be humble and thankful human beings like
my ancestors were, and how I grew up.

> I think Thoreau stated it best when
> he mentioned living lives of quiet desperation. I can live with the pain,
> agony, frustration, joys, hunger, fear, etc. of life. But I can't live
> without them.

I can and do. I piss some people off by telling them how easy my life is, and
pointing out that most of their stress such as that related to their jobs,
husbands and children, are the result of choices they continue to make for
themselves.

After spending time with the homeless I have realized that I (not my family)
would be able to live as a homeless myself. I would also be able to maintain my
caloric intake on perhaps 5,000 yen a month, if I had to spend money at all. I
would of course, be more efficient than any homeless I have seen, by living as
if I were backpacking, not having to carry entire futons or shopping bags full
of crap everywhere I went. I wouldn't be as dirty or smelly as some, either. I
can wash, even in cold water in winter.

It has become a great comfort to know I can lead a very simple life, as it
frees me from the stress many Japanese foolishly put themselves and their
children through. No money for college? The kids can work. No money for a new
house (even if I were willing to tolerate the depreciation)? I'll buy used, and
remodel cheap for cash. No money for retirement? I'll keep on working as long
as I am healthy, even if I have to grow my own food. No money for my medical
expenses if I become seriously ill? Maybe it's simply time for me to die. If my
kids get sick . . .

Oh, speaking of which. There was a young man from the neighboring city of
Onomichi, who needed to go to the US for a heart transplant. His mother and
other supporters used to stand in front of Fukuyama Station with collection
boxes and a small signboard describing their plight.

At the time the president of the support group ran off with the donations, they
had gathered over 64 million yen.

And after the president was arrested, and what little was left over from his
months long spending spree recovered, the family donated it all to other
families raising money for medical procedures, because they could no longer ask
supporters for their trust.

Perhaps this single act condemned their son to certain death. But those donors
and that family demonstrated their kindness.