Ask Nathan Anything: Quarantine Edition

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'll bite:

As an S avatar, how do you interpret the non-democratic socialist powers of past and (perhaps) present? While acknowledging that your view of foreign policy is probably outside of the first standard deviation from the mainstream in either direction, how do you as an S avatar and small-d democrat believe we should (have) treat(ed) with them?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What does the future look like for "Yankee" identity and culture?

Bleak, although "Yankee" aesthetic--hay fields, fall colors, apple pie, gun-toting hippies--is as robust as ever.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Some great memes/reaction images, too. This one's my favorite:

This thing is amazing and I guarantee I've seen it before. You said "smart space epic". Sounds cool. Wonder if it's streaming anywhere...

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Do you notice that a lot of animes seem to have “beta” main characters? And if so, why do you think this is?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Do you notice that a lot of animes seem to have “beta” main characters? And if so, why do you think this is?

It makes them easier to relate to for the typical hardcore Japanese anime fan, who is not a socially adept person even to the limited extent that the typical hardcore Western anime fan is. (And yes, I'm including myself in that last remark.)

Ah, that makes so much sense.

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

Mostly the latter, with a few notable exceptions. The most famous exception is probably the omnipresent Jewish and Christian imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion and its various spinoffs and elseworlds, which by all accounts was thrown in to create an atmosphere of ~cool foreign occultism~ the way a Western show might throw in mandalas or something. Jazz in particular has been fully assimilated into the Japanese music scene (to the extent that when I was in Japan I actually got sick of hearing so much jazz over intercoms and store radios; even lots of Japanese classical and soundtrack composition--Hisaishi, Sakamoto--shows a jazz influence), and some of Shakespeare's and even Dostoyevsky's more #iconic plots and characters are quite well-known in Japan.

Yeah, NGE was one of my main references for that question, but also the jazz of Cowboy Bebop (the person who introduced me to it said it was made by "Westaboos") and Shakespeare references found elsewhere.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

@Nathan @Mikado I watched about an hour and a half of LOGH today. Liked it. No thoughts yet though except the seeming similarity to some 19th C Russian novel I’ve never read. Beautiful battle animation.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Also, are the integration of Western references—Jazz, Shakespeare, the Bible—in Japan-produced anime’s the result of a deliberate marketing strategy, or an organic cultural assimilation of Western works?

Mostly the latter, with a few notable exceptions. The most famous exception is probably the omnipresent Jewish and Christian imagery in Neon Genesis Evangelion and its various spinoffs and elseworlds, which by all accounts was thrown in to create an atmosphere of ~cool foreign occultism~ the way a Western show might throw in mandalas or something. Jazz in particular has been fully assimilated into the Japanese music scene (to the extent that when I was in Japan I actually got sick of hearing so much jazz over intercoms and store radios; even lots of Japanese classical and soundtrack composition--Hisaishi, Sakamoto--shows a jazz influence), and some of Shakespeare's and even Dostoyevsky's more #iconic plots and characters are quite well-known in Japan.

Yeah, NGE was one of my main references for that question, but also the jazz of Cowboy Bebop (the person who introduced me to it said it was made by "Westaboos") and Shakespeare references found elsewhere.

The thing about Cowboy Bebop is that its creator, Watanabe Shin'ichiro, is ideologically opposed to the nativist and ethnocentric aspects of Japanese society, and makes a conscious effort to depict culturally and racially diverse or "blended" worlds in his work (CB, Samurai Champloo, the more recent Carole & Tuesday, etc.). This is a minority view in Japan--mainstream opinion in the country is actively proud of the ethnocentrism and perceived homogeneity--but he's not totally alone in it.

That's pretty interesting, especially given the aforementioned apparent organic infiltration by Western culture.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

How comparable have Japanese and, broadly-speaking, "European" political structures been, pre-1945 (let's say going back to the 1600s or whenever)?  Additionally, was Japan more or less comparable than other notable contemporaneous non-European political organizations?

We of course use the term "feudal Japan", but I have no idea how accurate a characterization that is, and some (Barrington Moore Jr.) have even compared the late stages of Japanese militarism to fascism (though there is substantial reason to be skeptical).

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

How comparable have Japanese and, broadly-speaking, "European" political structures been, pre-1945 (let's say going back to the 1600s or whenever)?  Additionally, was Japan more or less comparable than other notable contemporaneous non-European political organizations?

We of course use the term "feudal Japan", but I have no idea how accurate a characterization that is, and some (Barrington Moore Jr.) have even compared the late stages of Japanese militarism to fascism (though there is substantial reason to be skeptical).

I tend to be pretty generous about drawing parallels between Japanese and European political developments, certainly more generous than with other Western/non-Western parallels. The way I was taught about medieval Japan indicated that the system there genuinely was very similar to European feudalism. You have the same structure of theoretical overall hegemon, de facto (i.e. armed to the teeth) political leadership of the country, lords, vassals, peasants, nascent urban middle class, and so forth, right down to the polycephalous moral authority-cum-power broker role of "the church"--although Japan had a diversity of Buddhist denominations as opposed to Europe's Catholic/Orthodox duopoly. One interesting difference is that in the producerist-inclined Confucian-ish class system the peasants were nominally "above" the artisans and merchants; however, in practice it didn't work that way.

I tend to refer to Japan's 1932-1945 period as fascist when speaking with non-specialists and ultranationalist (the currently-preferred scholarly term) when speaking with fellow Japan studies people. In my reading of the history involved, it had most of the same features as European fascism but with a stronger religious element (the religion of course being State Shinto, an unwieldy chimera with next to no meaningful theological resemblance to previous stages of Shinto's development) and (relatedly) without the claim to have broken from the more "traditional" hard right.

So it seems that "ultranationalist" Japan lacked fascism's "revolutionary" claims. There are a few other key points that I'd probably consider key to "fascism", not being an expert in it myself--namely, the idea of a mass-mobilizing party (a.k.a. the adaptation of reaction to the modern age of mass participation in politics). Was some form of this present in Japan?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

How do we reconcile the Judeo-Christian Fall of Man with the fact that, so far as we know based on history and evolution, the events in the Garden do not appear to have taken place? I think there's something to be said for, perhaps, the growth of independent consciousness, but I'd like the take of someone who's far more theologically minded than myself, and the defense there is probably flimsy.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Thank you. This was only vaguely touched on in my own religion classes and your explanation helps to round out the idea.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Nathaniel, last night, in a bout of insomnia, I believe I thought of a fantastic question for this thread. That said, all form or direction of it has been lost to my memory except something having to do with the intersection of politics and Lord of the Rings. So I guess I'll ask: what, if any, political takeaways can we get from Tolkein's epic trilogy?

(in the same way in which, say, the Human Instrumentality Project appeals to me emotionally)

Not the thread for it, but I never got anything close to a coherent enough piece of political or social theory from NGE to say what the HIP was beyond some weird mind meld (which I would of course be opposed to). This is in part because the last few episodes have one preferring to look at their phone rather than the screen, though I will admit I have not seen the movies.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Got dammit, Mikado, stop turning everyone in this thread into weebs!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Got dammit, Mikado, stop turning everyone in this thread into weebs!

LOL. I can't help it. LOOK at that poster. Doesn't it just scream Nathan to you?

I imagine so. But more to the point, this sh#t’s gonna corrupt anyone here who can appreciate A E S T H E T I C or illustration (I’m sadly in both camps here).

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Eff the moonmen, this is Earth, bay-bee.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

@Mikado those things look nuts. You got the hookup on viewing options? (And, as this has been discussed before, I did make what I felt was a good ways into LotGH; put it on pause for unspecified reasons)

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

@Nathan @Battista Not a question and sorry to interject, but beyond both having been in the Axis powers, the situation of Japan and Italy after WWII seems fairly analogous. Both were dominated by center-right parties, creating essentially what are called "single party dominant" party systems, backed up by (the perception of?) American intelligence operations and the (exaggerated?) specter of American military invention.

So I guess I can turn this into a question that Battista Minola is also free to address:

(a) How do we differentiate between these two systems from the late 1940s/early 1950s to the 1990s, given their superficial similarities?
(b) What factors allowed for Japan to maintain this party system after the Cold War while Italy's self-destructed?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

@Battista What alternative to the term "center right" best represents the Italian perception of DC? Or is it moreso a lack of ideology than a particular place on the spectrum?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

My inclusion of the phrase "intelligence operations" in the case of Japan was at least partly motivated by this tiny blurb:

Ishibashi stated that the government should endeavor to set up diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and his policy was popular among the people. Unfortunately he became sick and gave up his office only two months later.

For class last year we had a reading on Japan's relationship with the US (in trade terms) during the post-war era. Ishibashi had apparently also discussed looking to the Soviet Union as a potential partner, and Ishibashi's sudden illness in this context seemed rather suspicious. Whether real or imagined, I was surprised to find no mention was made in his Wikipedia article of potential CIA involvement in his illness. My (China-born) political economy prof implied as much, but said society was pretty closed then, so such might have just been kept quiet. Can you comment?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What's the deal?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What is your view on religious education in schools? From what I gather, it is considered a violation of the First Amendment in the US, so it is banned in public schools, but in the UK (where of course there is no separation of church and state) it is a compulsory subject in all schools. At my CofE primary school, from what I can remember, lessons were largely focussed on Christianity, but I quite enjoyed the subject at my nonreligious secondary school, where I took it for the first three years and it was titled ‘Religion and Philosophy’; there were standard religious studies topics examining the beliefs and practices of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, but there were also units on the philosophy of religion, including arguments for and against the existence of God and the Ancient Greek influence on Christian philosophy, as well as covering ethics from a more secular perspective. How does this sound to you, and would you, if it were possible, like to see something like this in US public schools? As I said, I enjoyed it and it was delivered in a fair, balanced way, but I can imagine that at Catholic or CofE schools the focus might lead to non-Christians feeling excluded.

I think a generalized education in philosophy that would include, but not specifically focus on, philosophy of religion could probably past First Amendment muster, and would likely do a world of good assuming it were taught by competent teachers. When I was in (private but nonsectarian) high school I actually had a conversation with my principal about the possibility of including something like that, but was told that it would be too controversial among The Parents. My earliest formal education in religion was actually at a Unitarian Universalist church, believe it or not; my mother knew I was interested in religion and had social relationships with people in that congregation so she had a wonderful Santa Claus-looking older guy called Mr. Reilly instruct me in the basics of the Bible (including confessional vs. historical-critical readings), world religions, etc. Perhaps something like that could also be tied into world history classes when topics like Classical Antiquity or the Reformation are covered.

How might this interact with a "sociology of religion"?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

To what extent can we compare the "old school" social revolutions of, say, France and Russia with the Cold War-era social revolutions of the Third World and more contemporary "urban civic revolutions"?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

To what extent can we compare the "old school" social revolutions of, say, France and Russia with the Cold War-era social revolutions of the Third World and more contemporary "urban civic revolutions"?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

...a bloody, popular uprising marked by extensive mob violence and an extremely politically active public...

Most distressing. Hopefully we have a base on that God-forsaken island and can dispatch the marines to restore the rule of law and good governance!