(Untitled)

[q_without_you]

1940's- Socialist reforms boost country prestige and revive a sense of nationalism and hope. Returning soldiers greeted with open arms, hailed as heroes, attempt to gain a sense of normalcy. Liberal democratic society deemed champion over fascism and communism and other extremist groups

Comments

[sokickmealready]

This sounds almost like something I would write. haha

But you can't forget what happened FOLLOWING your brief explanation of the time periods. Sure, the 1940s were marked by triumph over communism, and our fairly dogmatic response to Pearl Harbor. And yet, let's look at how our actions following the war helped to generate our current place in world society:

Both the Korean War (which you left out?) and the Vietnam War caused the Japanese economy to boom very quickly after the war ended. Their downtrodden economy managed to become one of the strongest industrial economies in the world, and is now contributing to our massive budget deficit. You see, we needed quick access to both Korea and Vietnam during the war times, and Japan was perfect. We promised to extend our military umbrella over their country in exchange for US bases to be stationed on their mainland. Skip a decade or two, and you now have an incredibly strong Japanese economy, with our umbrella still protecting Japan. Our occupancy and protection for Japan is costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars. We can't leave, because in that case Japan would be able to rip apart their Article IX, and nobody wants to see a military-enabled Japan. So what do we do?

Either way, I'm just pointing out that our generation does not even know the basic history about our current position, let alone how to deal with it.

How do we fix this? Educate the masses? We don't like realism. We like love, Christianity and 'freedom.'

[q_without_you]

Hmm is this your Model UN side coming out? What were you again? Little Belgium? haha anyways while I agree that Japan has prospered from the opening of their ports to U.S. trade and such, they also got bombed back to the stone age by us in the only military use of nuclear weapons. I also think that the introduction of western cultures and western ideals has hurt the japanese culture in the long run. How that goes to define that generation after world war II is beyond me but you bring up an interesting point. As to your last point, I think basically we just need to shut off the TV's. TV is probably the reason numero uno that kids our age are so complacent and why the power elites I mentioned are in such a dominating opinion. If you go to good schools and become educated you're pretty much shuffled right off to become a power elite yourself. The media has pretty much conditioned people to think that this is the "good life." That's why the african-american population is so subverted by our culture. The only ways they feel they can succeed is to engage in the things they see on the media. That's why there is such a staggering amount of white business leaders. The media is pretty much defining our generation for us. They aren't reflecting a cross section of society and society's interests, the collective media is creating what we should be interested in and creating those cross sections in society. We are becoming a reflection of what we see on TV rather than the opposite. Anyways, my American Legal Studies and upper level Socio-Political Philosophy courses are stimulating me to say the least.

[sokickmealready]

Actually, I represented the US in one of the biggest conferences we had. But thanks. hah

Anyways, why would you say that the introduction and immersion of western culture and ideals has hurt the Japanese culture? They are the MOST mono-cultural country in the world at this point. If anything, they have managed to retain their own identity even more than further isolated countries such as China have.

I agree to an extent with your television theory. Sadly, this is not realistic. And even in the event that it were, kids would simply turn to other stimuli such as the internet. Think any of them will be researching world politics and booking mercenary trips to downtrodden countries for fun? We enjoy being blind. Fat and happy, right?

Any other ideas?

[q_without_you]

Well I think I would just disagree with your assessment of Japan. Japan has been really Americanized by the introduction of our capitalist and consumption-minded value system. If anything, its serving to erode a lot of their cultural distinctions. I mean of course we haven't eliminated all of their culture, but they essentially a little America.

I like being happy, but I don't like being fat or blind. And "mercenary" trips? haha