The good and the bad
The daily dose of paternalism is something that has been increasing lately I noticed. You have the government who’s always present to tell you to put on a helmet when you bike and give you recommendations on what to do and not to do. Besides from “Big brother”, you often have your boss whose making you feel like a character from “1984”. But he’s doing it “just to protect you”.
F A Hayek said something really brilliant once; humanities worse enemy is not the bad leader but the good leader. Hayek is right; by “protecting” citizens, you create unnecessary fears. That is what happened after 911, people got different recommendations from the government, something that increased their fear, unnecessarily, and created chaos.Japan is amazing in that sense.
The liberal market here makes you think that the Japanese government will let the citizens do whatever they please, but that’s wrong. Recommendations, rules and restrictions (se picture, taken from the boarding point of the train in Nara) makes me furious. I might be a tiny little woman, but I don’t need protection. The reported rapes in the media won’t scare me, since they’re only a few and there are other things I should fear.
People in Japan walk around with face mask in order not to catch any diseases on the tram. I guess that it's only a matter of time before people will walk around wearing helmets, just to be sure that nothing will happen to them. And THAT is something we should fear more.
posted by Diana Chavlah at 3:27 p.m.
3 Comments:
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Diana,
I agree that freedom is a very good thing and government shoul tend to err on the side of giving too much rather than too little freedom.
Regarding the female only train, I thought it was a reaction against men groping women on trains which often happens. If a private company ran the trains, they would offer this all the more because they do not want to be sued.
The Economist ranks Japan at the bottom with Italy for treatment of women in developed society. That has to be quite a change from Sweden which is ranked the highest in the world.
Japan is a very paternalistic country, and despite having a strong culture of capitalism and creativity, I think they still have some of the asian mentality that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. I have never been there, though.
Facemasks sound like a good idea! I always wish I were wearing one around all the dirty Americans. :-) Freedom is the freedom to wear facemasks or even burkas.
No matter how free your government is though, ultimately you are only free if you are a free thinker and can see past whatever propaganda people are throwing at you telling you how to live. Propaganda will exist no matter what. It is still your choice to believe in it or live by it. I think this was your point.
pace,
I agree with you on every point pretty much, but the reaction abotu men groping women at the train is just exaggerated. Sure, it happens and yes, it's terrible. But there is a cure to that;
If a man grabs a woman at the tram, she just grabs his balls, twist and pull them. Easy, it's suppose to hurt I've heared. Men will become afraid of grabbing woman and volà, problem solved!
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