Re: [tlug] (OT) The enigma of Japan

[JC Helary <brandelune@example.com>]

On mardi 09 juin 09, at 23:28, Raedwolf Summoner wrote:

> > I started reading Dogs and Demons a week before the Enron scandal
> > started hitting the fan. When Enron was all over the place in the  
> > news
> > I closed the book. I thought it lacked a great deal of perspective.
>
> Books are necessarily limited in the scope of what they can even  
> attempt to accomplish. Sometimes, though, when we say that a book  
> "lacks perspective" it is a code for saying we don't agree with the  
> author, or that it was not written by someone who shares our  
> political biases. What better reason to read the book, especially if  
> it is widely read and discussed? If we read only what suits our own  
> biases, we surely limit ourselves.


My bias is that I don't consider Japan to be any more special than any  
other nation state. And his litany about Japan being so unorthodox and  
ineffective was a little bit overdone.

As far as human societies are concerned, I don't think there is  
anything like "orthodoxy" or "effectiveness". It is all messy and not  
by the rules.


Jean-Christophe Helary