“From the top floor we watched everything get swallowed,” 73-year-old Tsuyoshi Kinno said. “People relied too much on the order and bureaucracy. They became too obedient. In the olden times they would have just got straight to the mountains, to higher ground.”
[…]
… if you rely on government, its neglect may kill you, and having done so it will lie and deceive to obscure its actions and its responsibility for them. Salvation lies not in government but in making government conform to the wishes and needs of the people. Government is a poor master. But it can be an adequate servant, if forced to be so.
… hai!
Peace, order and a limited but obedient government.
Anjin san concurs.
Japan: 1918.
Our Enemy, The State.
“What also emerges is a country that has begun to question some of its oldest values.”
“Japanese have long revered the country’s bureaucratic competence, especially when it is contrasted with its political dysfunction.”
A long post here:
“Japan’s Nuclear Crisis: How It Spun Out of Control”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42133652/
…-
G-M here:
“Tsunami preparation leads citizens into low-lying death traps”
“When the tsunami warning buzzer rang out over this sleepy port on Japan’s northeast coast, people knew what to do because they’d practised for the moment all their lives. They calmly left their homes and made their way to the gathering places designated by the municipal government: City Hall; a community centre; the local gymnasium.”
“Of the estimated 1,000 people huddling in the three buildings, the only survivors were 100 people who made their way to the top floor of City Hall. The rest were swept away by a tide so high and fierce that it blew out the walls and windows on all three floors of the neighbouring shopping centre.
“People just relied on the bureaucracy. They became too obedient,” said Tsuyoshi Kinno, head of the neighbourhood committee in one of the districts of Rikuzen-Takata closest to the Pacific coast. “The administration made a mistake.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/tsunami-preparation-leads-citizens-into-low-lying-death-traps/article1943381/
In Canadian we say “Call 911 and die.” Same general idea.
At least they have had no reported looting. If the same were to happen in Toronto, I’m not confident we’d be able to do the same. I’m sure if Pickering starts to leak there will be rioting and looting all through the Beaches, the Annex, possibly Rosedale and Forest Hill…
So a society that loots in the aftermath of a disaster would be better than a herd of sheep waiting for instructions?
There seems to be no possible way to exist in peace and happiness on this totally screwed up planet.
Not what I meant, Abe.
The government is there to make sure the trains run on time and fix the roads.
The Japanese have held it together very well considering the circumstances. We’ve seen much worse.
Phantom, my comment was not directed at yours. I was commenting on the article that stressed not being so obedient and well-behaved.
I didn’t read your comment until after I posted mine. W may have clicked at about the same time.
I am a big fan of your comments. I have agreed (and been entertained) with pretty much everything you have ever stated here.
I do want to live in a society that is not controlled by government. That is a large part of the reason that fools like Obama and company want to impoverish Americans. It is easier to control a poor, badly educated, hungry society that a wealthy competent, resourceful and self-reliant one.
That is also why governments are alway working toward disarming their citizens.
To sum up … Governments all aspire to be sheep-herders.
The government taking control of our live in increments, and there is no pushback, kind of like this:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/17/proposed-federal-law-brakes-state-age-limits-teen-drivers/
Awesome quotes there Celestial J ….. really good stuff ….. really.
Let us not be gulled into the herd and crowded into the pen.
Never have truer words been said about government. Thanks for the first-class post, Cjunk.
Some of us who work for the Government agree completely with this essay.
Even if its in a minor way. The reality of human ineptitude, no matter how well co-ordinated, means more misery. Best folks handle something like this the old fashioned way. Run & don’t look back.
Never listen to “experts”, just skedaddle.
In a consensus building model as the Japanese have. Its good for long term planning but a nightmare in crisis.
JMO
Wise words which are always true no matter what country or what government. The lack of looting, riots and other negative behaviour that one generally finds elsewhere is due to Japanese values and culture rather than the Japanese government or police. Still I must say that the Japanese authorities are handling this terrible situation very well.
Neo-AGW Progress Report.
“With cold weather boosting demand for electricity,…”.
“the possibility of expanding the current rolling blackouts.”
“But Fujimoto warned that power demand may grow Friday because temperatures are forecast to drop.”
,,,-
“Japan: Govt Weighing Power Usage Cuts For Firms, Homes”
“Friday, March 18, 2011
Govt Weighing Power Usage Cuts For Firms, Homes
TOKYO (Nikkei)–With cold weather boosting demand for electricity, the government is considering mandatory power usage cuts for businesses and households to avert a major blackout in greater Tokyo.
“We may need to take compulsory measures in some cases,” said Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda at a news conference Thursday afternoon.
The ministry is considering setting mandatory quotas for each business sector to reduce power usage. Large companies could also face usage limits, and restrictions on the use of electronic signs may be introduced, under the Electricity Utilities Industry Act. The ministry also plans to discuss with utilities the possibility of expanding the current rolling blackouts.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) had raised the possibility of a widespread outage at 6-7 p.m. on Thursday due to a shortage of electricity. But actual power demand totaled 30.5 million kilowatts, less than the projected 40 million kilowatts, according to Tepco Executive Vice President Takashi Fujimoto. The utility’s current output capacity is 34 million kilowatts. A widespread outage was averted because railway operators and others cut power use at the government’s request.
But Fujimoto warned that power demand may grow Friday because temperatures are forecast to drop. Tepco projects that demand will reach 40 million kilowatts. The firm will decide as early as Friday whether to implement rolling blackouts over the three-day weekend, he said.
(The Nikkei March 18 morning edition)”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2690530/posts
This was an unprecedented earthquake and it spawned an unexpectedly high tsunami. Japan had made preparations for what past experience told them was a probable disaster scenario. The tsunami simply rolled right over the flood gates and break walls built to protect the coastal regions. Given this reality and the scant warning time before that wall of black water slammed the shore, I am not sure what even the most rugged individualist could have done differently. I don’t think there are any lessons to be drawn from this natural disaster about reliance on government. (The official handling of the nuclear power plant crisis could be a different story.)
So far I have been impressed with the civility with which the Japanese have treated each other. There are even reports of stores lowering prices on essential items knowing that their desperate customers have in many cases lost everything. There is a lot to be said for a homogenous culture — a fact I am sure our ardent promoters of multicult will ignore.
The natural end result of socialism: Japan.
…-
“Japan is a place where thing must happen just in time. Miss a connection and the consequences ripple on. It is like a watch; exquisite but dependent on a windup or battery charge to keep going. Let it run down and it stops. Dr. Hanson argues this is precisely the kind of society which planners — the smart controllers of all stripes — want to construct: complex, ordered, surveilled and refined. For Japan, complex systems were required for survival. For America, complex systems were required, not by need but the imperative to power; ambitious men who hankered after ant-heaps because they were born bureaucrats.”
“What Could Go Wrong?”
“When some fragile item may be damaged by a fall the best place to put it is on the ground. There it can fall no more. Since the “spontaneous evolution of an isolated system” tends to disorder and things fall apart, the most stable place to be is where things must come to a stop. Because “once the system eventually reaches equilibrium and stops evolving, its entropy becomes constant.” That’s to say things can’t get any worse. Something on the ground or at the center of a gravitational mass has nowhere left to go and stays there.
The enormous effort required to keep complex systems full of useful energy is at the heart of Victor Davis Hanson‘s observation that Japan is an example what happens when a complex system experiences a disruption.”
http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2011/03/15/what-could-go-wrong/
My brother is always fond of saying, “You’re more likely to be killed by your own government then by anyone else.”
I know 2 Canadians who were in Sendai harbour on a cruise boat when the earthquake struck. The boat immediately put in to shore. They met their Japanese friend who had his car in a parking lot by the harbour. Cars were not moving because the gate was powered by electricity and not going up. The Japanese just sat there patiently. The younger Canadian went to the gate and broke it open to the astonishment of the security guard. The Canadian simply said Tsunami, the cars all left and they got to high ground just in time.
Given a choice between the orderly obedient calm and patient behaviour of the Japanese and the violent chaos of New Orleans after Katrina, I’ll take the Japanese way any day.