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Like a color or a taste, some things need to be experienced and fiercly resist explanation or codification. The urge to turn everything into a set of rules or a
by nihonde 10y ago
Like a color or a taste, some things need to be experienced and fiercly resist explanation or codification. The urge to turn everything into a set of rules or a narrative can be a kind of sickness, or at least less productive than methodically testing what works and building on it over time without too much concern about some grand unifying theory. It's not easy but there is such a precious example of a society that does an OK job at it. Too many people leap at the negatives while ignoring what's working.
- cushychicken 10y ago>The urge to turn everything into a set of rules or a narrative can be a kind of sickness I agree with this, and I think that's the root of many of the social malaises Japan has that the OP was getting at: lack of intellectual independence and hikikomori, for example. Many of the Japanese folks I've met through work are very attentive to protocols and rules, and supremely uncomfortable without well defined sets of rules. That's a kind of sickness, isn't it?
- nihonde 10y agoIt's a balancing act and requires constant adjustment. I was suggesting that you won't find some rule book for Japanese society -- it's all unwritten conventions that do change over time.