IP: Bushido

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Stewart Brand <sb () gbn org>
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 08:34:23 -0800
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Bushido

Two things struck me about Tom Friedman's column in the Sunday NYT.
One is, he said right out loud what no one else has acknowledged in
print, that the Palistinians are now winning, thanks to the suicide
attacks.  Two, he warned that if they succeed, suicide attacks will
proliferate everywhere and darken the world.  That's a compelling and
frightening piece of logic.

In the US my wife Ryan and I have been watching with horror the
growth over the last 15 years of what we call "the perfect crime."
Man comes home, kills his wife, kills his children, kills himself.
Man goes to work, kills some co-workers, kills himself.  Kid goes to
school, kills some adults, kills some students, kills himself.  We
seem to get a new one every week these days, and as with the
Palestinians, women are starting to do it.  There is no defense, no
retribution, no justice---it's the perfect crime, and copycats are
proliferating.

I'm amazed that no one is talking yet about Japan in World War 2,
where suicide bombers (kamikaze) and fight-to-the-death troops
outnumbered Islamic suicidal militants so far by somewhere between a
hundred-fold and a thousand-fold.  Japanese troops even persuaded
Okinawan citizens to commit mass suicide rather than be liberated by
US troops.

What did it take to overcome a suicidally inclined Japanese military
and citizenry?  Two nuclear bombs, used massively against civilians.
Suicidal effectiveness was met by murderous horror, which left a
century-long shadow over the world.

Japanese suicide was a blend of religious and aesthetic.
Bushido---the Samurai code---grew out of Zen Buddhism lending an
existentialist weapon to traditional Shinto.  Die mindfully and
beautifully in service of your master.

Militant Islam these days seems to be busy creating an aesthetic of
suicide, partly via desperate Palestinians.  One major difference
from the Japanese is that there is no Islamic Emperor to sacrifice
for, but also no Emperor to call a halt to suicidal practice.

                        --Stewart Brand




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