From New Angles - Japan

In all my harpings to my friends and on this blog, it may seem that I hold a rather sardonic, if not downright negative view of Japan. I say this only because I realise that a lot of the time my writing can come across as exaggerated, not because said viewpoint is true of me.

As a Political Scientist, it is really my duty to take everything with a grain of salt, and to be critical (in a good and analytical way) about things, and the closer a subject is to me, the greater the scope of critical thought I can and will put into it.

So let me share with you a recent development in my critical analysis of the world and the massive shift in thinking it has allowed.

I have been job-hunting, as anyone who reads this blog already knows, and in between the rejections, non-responses, and applications, I find myself with time where I cannot amuse myself the usual way (ie outside entertainment) because it simply costs money that I don't have. But my brain works for free (though I really would like someone to pay me for it).

The "Evolution of Societies" or "Societal Evolution" is the name I have given to the new theory I am toying with. It should be noted that the word is "societal", and not "social", and the reason for the distinction I shall explain later. I promise.

But to the point for today, and where Japan comes into it::

I have identified a chain of evolution that any generic country could feasibly follow. Regardless of culture, language, race, or other such differences, this chain of stages appears to be a natural progression. I am still deciding what the final stage-names will be, but for now, I've been using these: Tribalism, Feudalism, Aristocracism, Preliminary Democratisation, Industrialisation, Capitalism, War, Full Democratisation, Hegemon, De-Industrialisation, Advanced Weaponisation, De-Democratisation, Downfall, (Repeat).

Like I said, I haven't decided the final names, because I want the names of the stages to reflect their relative developments.

The USA, and Western Countries today, would fall somewhere in the Hegemon-DeIndustrialisation stage.

Japan is still in the Feudal stage.

that was a big call, wasn't it??

Now ask yourself why does Tom think Japan is still Feudal?
And then ask yourself why I want to call this think "Societal" Evolution, and not simply "Cultural Evolution". The short and suspenseful answer is "Societal" is vastly more encompassing.

One more question for your alone-time with the lights off: Does a seemingly natural progression ALWAYS unfold the same for everything??

Stay tuned. I am going to flesh this thing out, and I'm going to use this blog to do a lot of it.

And the good news (apart from the coming political critical theorisation), is that this means that Japan can finally be seen as not just a stagnant culture that is whithering and dying, with absolutely not recourse or chance for redemption and revival.
It is now put into a broader context, and successfully related to the rest of humanity, as it bloody-well should be!, and given the opportunity, (regardless of probability) to change and redeem.

This should be good.

Suspense for now.

From The Tominator.