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Joshua Reyer wrote:
If I may request that the truck be put in reverse for a moment, I fear some unnecessarily broad cultural generalizations are being made here. ..
"Hikikomori", ... It's prevalence in Japan has been distinctly overstated, ... "Parasite singles" are, IMO, a tempest in a teapot, ...
Bosozoku, ijime, and to a lesser extent kyoiku mama, I see as definite social issues that Japan faces these days. ... There's a tendency, I think, to make the fundamental attribution error on a cultural scale.
It's all too easy to look at some ephemeral social phenomenon and believe it says something about the culture in which it was born.
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I come from a tradition where "the least of these" are important in their own right, regardless of their absolute or relative number. But the pace and scale of spreading anomie is quite beyond historical precedent, especially in societies as unprecedentedly prosperous as ours are.
It is a problem larger than one culture, although the effects of the problems are felt differently according to culture -- and aikido lives in both of them. The margins of the nonadaptive are growing -- not shrinking. Thomas Sowell said it best: "Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late." The work of civilizing has been falling down on the job, around the world, for some time now. The canaries are not the miners but the miners had best value the health of the canaries -- as they value their own.
Quote:
Joshua Reyer wrote:
As for otaku, what is concerning about geek culture? ...
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Umm. "Beware Geeks airing miffs ..." ?