I haven’t updated in a while, and originally I didn’t plan to update tonight, but I just looked at chicago tribune’s website and saw yet another yet more reported homicides; this one was of a family of 5 – the two parents, 46 and 39 and their 3 children, 16, 14, and 11 – all killed allegedly from one man in Beason, IL. There was a fourth child of 3 years old who survived the attack.

Of course, reports of violence on t.v. is no “new news”, but my friend Anurag living back assured me that my observation of increased violence in Chicago lately is indeed true. I needed the confirmation because after the initial thought that violence had increased in Chicago, I stopped and asked myself if maybe the violence frequency was about the same, and it was only because I was in a different country that “amplified” the violence I saw back home. While my observation was indeed valid, I think being here in Japan has contributed to my shock factor of viewing it back home. I’m not saying this Japan is a utopia – far from…but, as far as violence goes, a lot closer to it than most big cities in the U.S or in Europe. I’m not even going to start to guess as to why there is more violence in the states than here; I’ll leave that to the criminologists …but, just for fun, one of my guesses would be that, unlike the U.S., Japan is 98% Japanese. When you have a society that’s been brought up with similar values (in Japan’s case, maintaining social harmony through at least a surface-level of conformation), I think there will be a lot less clashing of ideas and ideals (once again, at least on the surface.) This brings me to an appropriate quotation:

出る釘は打たれる – “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”

Societal scare tactics in Japan? Maybe… but every society has its set of acts that are acceptable and unacceptable. In Japan, if I was slurping my tea or soup in a public area, I would be one step closer to being Japanese; If I was slurping my tea in Chicago, I would likely get some looks of disgust and people might find another seat to go to (so they can study their “GQ” magazine in peace.) So maybe it’s not Japan having more societal standards than the U.S., but they just tend to take them more seriously because the all important societal standard of the one listed above… Of course, as an array of Japanese people from the young to the old I’ve talked have confirmed when I asked, “Times are changing. Things are changing.” All I do know is that, in general, most of the Japanese people I’ve met, although a bit shy with foreigners for obvious reasons, have been very warm, amiable, and very helpful. At the same time, I absolutely abhor generalizations. There indeed have been a few exceptions to those friendly people, but it can be difficult to read people’s emotions here at times…

Back to violence briefly…

We always put the spotlight on the violence. It’s exciting, there are emotions involved, and perhaps we think it’s an indicator of the future. Some people have grim outlooks for the future of this world. Perhaps it will change for the better, and perhaps for the worst…But, if I had to argue for the chances of a better, more peaceful future, I would point to the fact that our very own capacity to recognize violence as violence and not as normal behavior, and the fact that the “fight” for peace is still being fought, is a strong indicator that our future will be a more peaceful one.

I better get started working on my next report of my last several weeks here in Japan…It will be full of goodies, and will include pictures from my recent climb to Kita-Dake, Japan’s 3197m mountain, whose beauty that I wish you all could have witnessed with me.

Until then, and then after that…peace~~~

Be Sociable, Share!

•