Like Trump, though, he seems in some ways to be what he's campaigning against: a child of wealth and privilege. In Japan, it's generally seen as a bad sign for someone to be employed in a variety of different fields throughout their lives. Kamiya majored in math and science in high school, got a humanities degree in college, and then taught English in high school before taking a job as a supermarket manager in one of the stores owned by his parents. That looks like an unambiguously downward path for a rich kid. Few supermarket managers could've done what he did next, which was to then spend four years in law school, obtaining a Juris Doctor degree. Despite his experience as an English teacher, he apparently cannot speak English, judging from interviews with foreign press I've seen with him.
Ironically, given that the loss of seats for Prime Minister Ishiba's Liberal Democrat Party were likely due in part to criticism over his handling of tariff negotiations with Trump, the rise of nationalist far right parties in Japan would likely push Trump into taking an even harder line on tariffs, or make him feel more confident in what he plans to do regardless, considering how he attempted to use rice imports as a wedge issue. If he can portray Japan's national pride over its signature crop as an affront to the spirit of fair trade, he can certainly cite caps on foreign residents as another justification for tariffs, among other policies of Kamiya's party.
But maybe Trump will be deposed before the August 1st tariff deadline. I mean, I doubt it, but he certainly seems to be in hot water over the Epstein thing. This is the thing that has finally nudged so many MAGA supporters into noticing what Trump has so obviously been all along: a tacky, greedy landlord who only looks out for himself.
In America, in Japan, throughout the world, I do feel this plague of ignorant populism is caused by a long, inexorable devaluation of art. Yes, you may as well blame a decline in critical thinking but where do we hone our skills in critical thinking if not in contemplating works of art, either visual, auditory, or printed? You can analyse the news cycle which won't produce much variety from day to day or you can be exposed to the length and breadth of human experience you find in a literature course. I listened to an interview yesterday about the death of English literature in which one of the interviewers actually said he didn't see the justification in offering something as an academic field that should rightly be called entertainment. While students of literature may find the matter entertaining or otherwise pleasurable at times, generally speaking, the student does not choose the texts, which means a literature course exposes students to, and compels them to contemplate, perspectives they might never otherwise have sought for pure entertainment value. These perspectives may not only come from perspectives different to their own but, crucially, from authors of greater experience and insight whose works might instruct the student in ways of using their own critical faculties.
As for entertainment value--let's not sell it short. There may be people who go through their lives feeding at the trough of reality TV or shallow blockbusters never knowing that art can touch them on a more personal level, can produce a transcendent experience that makes their pitiless workweek more bearable. Isn't it incumbent on us to pass on the knowledge of how the next generations can enrich their short lives?
No comments:
Post a Comment