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Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

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101–110 of 136 posts

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#101
post #46

The items he's using in that video don't look like they are 3 decades old. Searching a bit, I found a wiki with more info about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotobanari > Sotobanari had one human inhabitant, a eighty-two-year-old man named Masafumi Nagasaki, who had lived there in semi-isolation for three decades (1989 - 2018), nude, and bought food and water from a settlement an hour away by boat weekly with ¥1…

Well, that does make this less romantic, but personally that was a romanticism that I put over the situation from my own bias rather than anything in the article. That is, there are many stories with idealists that use no modern tools, but I don't see that Nagasaki made any such claims to be fully self sufficient, only that he enjoyed where he lived.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#102
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine some mentally ill person decides he wants to be at one with nature on your property... There's two (or more) sides to everything. The people who own the island have the legal right to kick him out. I get your perspective but if he really wants to get back to nature he should find a place where he is welcome to do so. EDIT: For all the people asking about the details of the property owners asking him to leave,…

> mentally ill Ah, and what is health ? We use this term to talk about physical health (infections, disease, cancer), mental health and also habits (eating healthy, or playing video games all day isn't healthy). This starts to get really ambiguous. You're now applying societal standards, maybe throwing a little happiness index in there ... We don't see living alone in solitude as healthy. Yet this man claims to be fi…

Health, like beauty, is averages. If you take a group of people and average them, the resulting person is very likely considered pretty and healthy.

https://leadingpersonality.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/avera...

https://leadingpersonality.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/average-...

There are evolutionary reasons for preferring averages. And the further you deviate from average behavior, the bigger the risk you run.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. What Kaczynski did was terrible, but he was obviously very intelligent and highly observant. Upon reading Industrial Society and its Future, it was hard for me to deny the validity(note the difference between validity and soundness) of many of his arguments. I would say it's worth reading if the reader can mentally-divorce ideas from their thinkers, and it's a fascinating read at that.

Kaczynski's lack a sense of history or worse a romanticized version of it. People were less free in pre-industrial society and more controlled not less. Despite the depictions it is important to remember that nature does not give a damn about you and life is accordingly harsh because of it.

That's true.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#104

There was another story few months ago - someone had made a Instagram account for a beautiful tree, it became famous and one day it was cut down. Moral of the story - if we find someone unique and if that someone wants to be left alone, then we should just respect their wishes and not publicize. I dread the day when someone finds and publishes the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto for you know, a "good story". I hope it d…

> I dread the day when someone finds and publishes the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto for you know, a "good story". I hope it doesn't happen

I hope this happen, but long after he is dead. Perhaps in some centuries.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#105
post #73
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From reading this article I didn't get the impression the owners of the property were at issue with him. I assume that wasn't the case, this narrative certainly was not "30 year pest finally eradicated from beach front." I made brief comment on what I believe the other side of the story would be; he was sick (suspected flue) and modern medicine could heal him. In most cases I would consider that a moral imperative, a…

There's another comment here in the article explaining the reason he was removed was at the request of the people who owned the property.

Easier to remove him while he is alive. If he died there it would create issues for the owners probably.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#106
post #86

If you haven't read 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley, you ought to add it to your list. Interesting parallels between this article and the world Huxley predicted nearly 100 years ago.

People always talk about Orwell and 1984, but it was Huxley who really nailed it imo. I think he appreciated the degree to which a stable dystopia required the consent and participation- even enthusiasm- of the general populace.

These 10 Adorable Kitten Pictures Will Make You Forget The Emptiness Of Your Life

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#107
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

People cite Law of Jante to be anti exceptionalism when in reality it is meant and generally used as a means of reminding high and low alike that we are in this together. We are different, but do not think that your view point on our difference makes you inherently better than me. We are both human, we both share this place called Earth, could we be productive and not turn life into a weirdly specific genitalia measu…

It is also used to keep the peasant in their place be good behave and pay your rent to the bourgeois land lord a common result after the many European revolutions.

There was a very Funny BBC comedy "Brass" satirising the gritty northern melodramas one episode had the Forman being seen as trying to be upwardly mobile as he had brought some bicycle clips - not that he would dare to think (or be able to afford) of buying a bicycle.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#108
post #60
post #45

Imagine feeling completely one with nature, making your position clear that this is where and how you would like to die. The time comes for you to wrestle with your mortality, you've worked for 30 years to do it with dignity. You've rejected man's system, because you know it's not right for you, and in your final moments it comes for you, steals you away, and forces you back into the machine. This isn't a morally imp…

Imagine some mentally ill person decides he wants to be at one with nature on your property... There's two (or more) sides to everything. The people who own the island have the legal right to kick him out. I get your perspective but if he really wants to get back to nature he should find a place where he is welcome to do so. EDIT: For all the people asking about the details of the property owners asking him to leave,…

If this happened in the US, it's likely that the island would be /his/ property under adverse possession law: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/adverse-possession-t...

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#109
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

People cite Law of Jante to be anti exceptionalism when in reality it is meant and generally used as a means of reminding high and low alike that we are in this together. We are different, but do not think that your view point on our difference makes you inherently better than me. We are both human, we both share this place called Earth, could we be productive and not turn life into a weirdly specific genitalia measu…

According to the book by Axel Sandemose which defines the "Law of Jante", it is a custom which the proletariat uses to keep each other down.

Re: Japan's 'Naked Hermit' Pried from Island Utopia After 29 Years

#110
post #60
post #45

Imagine feeling completely one with nature, making your position clear that this is where and how you would like to die. The time comes for you to wrestle with your mortality, you've worked for 30 years to do it with dignity. You've rejected man's system, because you know it's not right for you, and in your final moments it comes for you, steals you away, and forces you back into the machine. This isn't a morally imp…

Imagine some mentally ill person decides he wants to be at one with nature on your property... There's two (or more) sides to everything. The people who own the island have the legal right to kick him out. I get your perspective but if he really wants to get back to nature he should find a place where he is welcome to do so. EDIT: For all the people asking about the details of the property owners asking him to leave,…

> on your property...

What property? It's an island in the middle of nowhere. Nobody owns jack squat.

Humans are so arrogant.

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