tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post8397320876484886919..comments2023-10-20T18:03:01.821+09:00Comments on GlobalTalk 21: Ozawa, for Better or Worse and Other Hatoyama ThoughtsJun Okumurahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-20204734520477822552009-09-06T08:28:00.153+09:002009-09-06T08:28:00.153+09:00Matt: If more journalists had half your drive to a...Matt: If more journalists had half your drive to always go to the source—heck, I wish I did—instead of relying on conventional wisdom, anecdotes and a interview or two to cobble their reports together, the public would be better informed. After all, they’re getting paid to do it.<br /><br />The slapdown of Hatoyama’s article in the Western media was near-unanimous, so I don’t think that he will be seeing revisiting the <i>yūai</i> scene any time soon. Beyond his essay, though, it’s important to keep in mind that, more broadly, blaming the U.S. for the financial and economic crisis and seeing Japan as a middle power trapped between two titans resonate through a wide ideological swathe of the Japanese public. They are not uniquely Japanese formulations; it’s the tightness of the bilateral relationship that gives them a peculiar piquancy that I do not understand well enough to explain less rhetorically.Jun Okumurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00291478225274759649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32776756.post-39012125972013114312009-09-06T05:39:50.035+09:002009-09-06T05:39:50.035+09:00A lot of fascinating thinkers came from Austria du...A lot of fascinating thinkers came from Austria during the early part of the 20th century. Two of my favorites Karl Popper and F.A. Hayek are from Austria at that time. Freud, of course, is from Austria. The famous philosopher, Wittgenstein ... many others. Given all this, and that Count Richard N. Coudenhove-Kalergi was not only from this environment but relevant to Japan, I wanted to read his book, _The Totalitarian State Against Man_. So I did. (I read the English edition.)<br /><br />It does not methodically enumerate any clear or specific doctrines I think, but deals in big ideas. At times his ideas are almost so big that they unintentionally tend towards the vacuous. Sometimes I was left thinking, "what's he talking about?" Nevertheless, he was a very astute thinker, and a lot of what he says is downright prescient. He was clearly an Anglophile. It's not a bad book at all, and I enjoyed reading it. He notes Germany's National Socialism is *not* fascism as it's racially based. I've known this but his explanation is quite well done. He also notes fascism and nazi-ism were at least to some extent a reaction to fears of Russian style communism ... lots of neat political observations abound.<br /><br />I feel fairly certain the Count would have seen through Hatoyama in about 5 seconds. At least I hope so.matt at anarchyjapan.comhttp://www.anarchyjapan.comnoreply@blogger.com