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Why no looting in Japan?

caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com

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Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#181

Post by mryan »

lurker19 wrote: post #179
geden wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That approach is a risky one: a) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6947744.stm b) You are directly trying to impose your value over someone else's value, with the assumption that you are correct. One has to be very careful sure you are not just projecting your frustration at the littering. What they are doing is completely correct for their worldview, which has a boundary round about where their clothing is.…

1. The murder in that news story was not triggered by the anti-litter. It seems highly likely that he murderer was already out for blood. 2. Litter travels beyond the boundary of the litterer's clothing, so I do not see the consistency of your model.

> The murder in that news story was not triggered by the anti-litter. It seems highly likely that he murderer was already out for blood

What makes you think that? From the story it seems clear that the confrontation took place due to the victim questioning the murderer's right to throw litter in to his sister's car.

Sadly, young men who would kill over such a minor thing as this are not uncommon in London.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#182

Post by lurker19 »

mryan wrote: post #181
lurker19 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. The murder in that news story was not triggered by the anti-litter. It seems highly likely that he murderer was already out for blood. 2. Litter travels beyond the boundary of the litterer's clothing, so I do not see the consistency of your model.

> The murder in that news story was not triggered by the anti-litter. It seems highly likely that he murderer was already out for blood What makes you think that? From the story it seems clear that the confrontation took place due to the victim questioning the murderer's right to throw litter in to his sister's car. Sadly, young men who would kill over such a minor thing as this are not uncommon in London.

I have difficulty imagining a person with the mindset "Violence is not the answer, excepting of course that I will fight to the death to defend a man's freedom to throw his trash in another person's car"

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#183

Post by BrandonM »

kragen wrote: post #167
dragons wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whatever the cause, though, people from the US almost universally think of lawbreaking as a common and often harmless activity, not something limited to the mentally handicapped or partially insane - something that many people would do if the law weren't restraining them. I don't think you're correct, that's certainly not a "universal" thought, although I suppose there may be subcultures that believe this. I live i…

> I live in the US, and I don't know anyone who thinks this way You don't know anyone who thinks of any of jaywalking, speeding, streaking, riding in a car without a seatbelt, smoking marijuana, and snorting cocaine as common and often harmless activities? Everyone you know thinks of all of them as activities limited to the mentally handicapped or partially insane?

Maybe the parent poster is from a rural area and hasn't yet reached driving age.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#184

Post by dctoedt »

coconutrandom wrote: post #173
bilbo0s wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, not trying to anger anyone or anything, I am genuinely interested. Where in the US was there a natural disaster of significant scale where there was no looting? I'm actually from Wisconsin, but was living in Cedar Rapids during the floods, and there was looting there. My neighbor was the cop chasing these guys down. I am just curious how other communities were able to avoid looting. BTW, Cedar Rapids is in Iow…

Not a disaster quite, but in Houston everyone evacuated from the hurricane and no one I knew reported any looting happening.

And people turned out to help, first to clean up their own blocks, then to help with citywide food banks.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#185

Post by mgutz »

Does not surprise me at all. I remember being in Japan in the service for only two weeks. Two things I remember:

1) I left a noodle restaurant and left a little too much for the bill. The owner ran me down on the street and handed me the change. She would not accept it as a tip even after I begged her to keep it for her honesty.

2) A policeman on foot simply has to waive an orange baton at you if you were speeding. Offenders just pulled over.

There is much to admire about Japanese culture. Really what it comes down to is, the USA is a ME-first culture. Japan is an US-first culture. I always say the way to get back at Japan and most of Asia is to westernize them.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#186

Post by eru »

StavrosK wrote: post #22
kstenerud wrote: post #6

Same reason nobody vandalizes vending machines, even when they're quite literally in the middle of nowhere along the side of an unfrequented road in the countryside. Same reason it's unthinkable for a Japanese to take fruit or berries hanging outside of someone's yard, even when it's falling off the branch and rotting on the ground, and yet they'd hardly think twice in their downtown drunken stupor to steal a bicycle…

I don't know about other countries, but in Greece the fruit that's in your garden (when a branch of the neighbour's tree extends there) belongs to you, and fruit on the branch in the street is public property. Just the fruit on that branch, though.

Should be similar in Germany.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#187

Post by Chi019 »

Population genetics, as it affects those parts of the nervous system involved in social behavior, together with geography and a long common history, predisposed the Japanese to strong ethnonationalism and social stability in a well-organized and well-supervised hierarchical order. Under premodern conditions this did not preclude intracommunal violence under codes widely understood and enforced; but in the affluent post-WW2 world, with good standards of health and education, and under imposed consensual government following certain highly salutary experiences, these old factors directed the Japanese to an exceptionally high level of nonviolent social cohesion and intense but benign racial-national consciousness.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/262162/people-want-know...

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#188

Post by Chi019 »

From a review of Wilson and Herrnstein's Crime and Human Nature:

    "Criminals tend to be young males who are muscular rather than thin, and who have lower-than-average IQs and impulsive, "now"-oriented personalities, which make planning or even thinking about the future difficult."
Is there any group other than the Japanese for whom that description would be less fitting?

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#189

Post by michaeldhopkins »

vacri wrote: post #159
michaeldhopkins wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they have not. Roman Briton was a different society than pre-Roman Briton. The Anglo-Saxons came about 1500 years ago and nearly completely replaced the Britons, genetically and culturally. The Norman invasion was about 950 years ago and greatly changed Anglo-Saxon culture, although not as much as the AS changed post-Roman Briton. There were several other invaders (Danes, etc.) as well. By contrast, the Japanese…

Egyptians have been a distinct ethnic group along the Nile river for longer than the Japanese have been where they are. Let's not attribute magical properties to long-lived cultures.

No, Egypt's domination by Islam alone was effectively a cultural reset. There were also other invaders, like Rome.

Re: Why no looting in Japan?

#190

Post by Keile »

But there is looting in Japan.

Andrew Sullivan on The Atlantic has articles linking to cases of looting, fraud, child molestation and hoarding.

The Japanese government itself just isn't very forthright with regards to collecting and releasing information about victims and events.

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