Culture Clash

I must have written something about this before in this blog, but right now I'm not inclined to check (it being 2:12am and all).

I was attempting to explain the primary difference between Japanese culture and Australian/Western culture.

The difference, in a word, is FREEDOM.
Romanticism aside, this should be assessed and evaluated in all possible ways you can think of. And once you've done that, think up more ways!
for now, I'll mention this one: In Australia, we have the freedom to be good people, and we also have the freedom to be arseholes. I will hold no punches when I say that most people where I came from have misassessed their freedom, and, be it through apathy or true evil (or anything else, really) they have chosen to be arseholes. This is the challenge I face back home.

However, for the last year I have been facing the challenges presented by the Japanese culture. Most important to say first is this: The Japanese are NOT free.
In Australia, we have a constitution that gives dictatorial (and quite undemocratic) powers to the Queen and, vicariously, to the Governor-General. But by conventions, unwritten rules that can not really be broken for sake of a potential political shitstorm, we are able to recognise and use our freedom.

Japan is apparently the opposite: In Japan, there is a written set of rules, a Constitution and what amounts to a Bill of Rights. They have their freedoms all neatly laid out, as it was when it was shoved under their noses back in 1947 by the US Occupation.
But the Japanese culture realistically prohibits freedom! Through conventions which are likewise unwritten and very difficult to break, the Japanese people achieve a polar opposite in their lives and lifestyles. They are not free, and the vast majority of them don't want to be free.
It is true that brainwashing, when started at a young age, can be quite effective. And it is true that conditioning remains highly effective if it is reinforced regularly. The Japanese culture and its brainwashing is reinforced every single day by the cultural structures set up here in this country, and those structures differ in absolutely no way wahtsoever from that of a slum-house in which all occupants live in the same room, and have nothing to occupy their time or minds other than the business of the other people they are crammed into that room with. Centuries of isolation in this psychological structure has morphed the general cultural capacity of the Japanese people to essentially grow up, learn life's lessons, and become realisticall free individuals. The society itself is one big chain-gang.

This would all be good and well for Japanese people if not for the irrefutable fact that all humans are born free and equal. At that very moment in which each and every one of us is dragged kicking and screaming out of the womb, we are all the same. Every damn one of us human beings. Even cases of birth defects, congenital diseases, all of us are the same, and all of use are really possessed of an inalienable right to freedom. The problem for Japanese people is that they are all, at every point in their lifespans, fundamentally fighting against this ultimate freedom, and repressing it themselves.

The Japanese government is not entirely to blame for this. Even the politicians and bureaucrats are yoking themselves. If ever there were a truly devious political Japanese mastermind, he could control the entire country instantly, and use it, its people, and its resources to whatever ends he wanted, and the people would never ever complain or rebel or revolt. ((by the by: that was what happened back in that period we call WORLD WAR II!!!!))

Some Japanese people see the freedom and want it, but are pressed from all sides in society to toe the line and "act normal". Some others see it, but have no idea what to do with it. And still some others are ignorant (thanks to the education system proving utterly ineffective in promoting inqusitive thought).
This presents a life of torture for those unfortunate few who see it and want it. It presents torture for those who meet and wiish to help all the others. ((that IS me, by the way, referring to my ex-girlfriend (who is Japanese, and doesn't know what the fuck she should do with Freedom))) .

The bad news is that there is really no immediate end in sight, and perhaps not even within our current lifetimes. It's going to stay like this, so their only option is to get the fuck outta Japan ASAP.
((some people emigrate for refuge from war. Japanese people have the unique position of being able to emigrate for refuge from cultural oppression!))

There is some good news, though::
All the aspects of a culture are linked, inextricably and quite closely (though sometimes cryptically...). And it should therefore be no surprise that what has led to this horrid and unenviable culural situation is also leading directly to the plummeting birthrate here in Japan. It will become its own demise. Of the three futures for Japan - Robots, Babies, and Immigration; Babies is NOT happening, and Robots leads to the end of humanity here on this cramped, mountainous isle. Immigration will be an unstoppable force for change on some very fundamental levels.
The Japanese culture is critically flawed, and it is leading to its own demise. It is self-destructive. I would order that all those who are intelligent enough to realise this and are already on the inside, GET OUT NOW and begin to enjoy life more in the West. For the rest of them, may their gods have mercy on their souls, because their gods and culture are not going to save them from extinction. And when the slow and painful demise is finally complete, the world will rebuild again. Because that's life, and you should never beat your head against the wall. The Japanese are, and look what's happening to them!

From The Tominator.