One of the most remarked-upon facts about the triple disaster in Japan, as a catastrophic earthquake was followed by an even more catastropic tsunami and a potentially disasterous nuclear accident, is the Japanese population's sanguine reponse. No looting; no riots; no panic. Yes, supermarket shelves are stripped, but only after orderly shopping, not looting, and only because distribution networks have broken down. Refugee centers are models of selfless cooperation and self-governance; in Tokyo the nihilistic consumer culture has given way to austerity and self-sacrifice.
It's nothing like the fantasy of dystopian collapse depicted by far-right collapsitarians, who keep up a constant drum-beat of fear. They predict that U.S. economic policy will soon lead to the collapse of the dollar and the economy, followed by widespread panic and the complete collapse of civilization. And they have been predicting it for years.
Hasn't happened yet. And the Japanese disaster shows that it might never happen.
Today news came that plutonium has been found in the soil near the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. It only has a half-life of 25,000 years!
Anybody panic yet? Haven't seen it.
At this point, I'm wondering just what would happen if there were, say, a dirty bomb terrorist attack. Certainly the immediate area might be devastated. Depending on where the bomb was deployed, the casualties might be high. And it would be a terrible tragedy.
But would it be so much worse than what's happened in Japan? After up to 20,000 casualties from the quake and tsunami, and weeks of alarms from the Fukushima nuke plant, I think people are getting a little bit used to the idea of disaster. One might even venture to say that the Japanese nuclear disaster has done us something of a favor of innoculating the world against such an incident.
While the Japanese government -- or rather, the business-political oligarchy that runs the country -- has shown massive incompetence in certain aspects of the management of the disaster, the Japanese people have done themselves proud. No panic, no rioting, no drama. Instead, a quiet sense of mourning mixed with resolve, patience, and self-sacrifice. It's an example we can all learn from.
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Comments
Why does any society do what they do? Ours is known for over-reacting to just about anything and everything, and accomplishing very little in the process. The Japanese have shown a great deal of restraint in the face of apocalypse. Perhaps its thousands of years of history as a people, of which we certainly do not have even a smidge or an iota. Good question Mark. I'll come back to see others responses.
www.mediaite.com/tv/european-tv-stations-now-pulling-simpsons-episodes-involving-nuclear-jokes/
(Since the show's opening sequence shows Homer throwing a radioactive bar out the window of his car, isn't that every episode?)
The Ancient Greeks seemed to get it with that whole "moderation in all things" understanding, so that's what I tend to strive for -- something well between the extremes of a Japan and a US.
Being orderly depends on not having a sense of fighting with other groups for scarce resources. Our sense of group identification is spotty in the U.S. But the military is a good example of, of all things, racial and even gender harmony. When American troops are under fire, they don't fight among themselves because their training produces a sense of cohesion. Perhaps that's something schools should be providing, a sense of being in the same boat.