The impact is obvious. The question is, what to do about it.
Pot, Kettle, Black - yes indeed, they all need cleaning.
And EVERYONE is affected by EVERYTHING that EVER happened in the past - obviously.
Go fix the past if you can - if not, let's try to fix the future, starting with the present.
+1 Alien
Idealistic maybe, people hang on to the past, don't care to much about the future so bit of a tough one.
One thing about Japan's past bad times was so much got recorded due to military and reporters on the ground due to the rise of the camera. Will be a bit hard to forget when you can see it on your screen replayed over and over. Other slightly more distant crimes by other countries are easier to forget by the average person.
I'm not suggesting people forget things, either individual things or collective memories or writings or photographs, I'm suggesting they make an attempt to understand what they mean and what they don't mean. I think that's an important part of what education should be, an attempt to understand, and that is usually encouraged in some areas, discouraged in others, and handed out as Established Truth in others.
As for not caring about the future, I disagree - I think people care a great deal about the future, only they tend to focus on creating their individual futures, as if they were monads - separate marbles in a big box - and even if this were true, which it isn't, they still forget to look at the box, assuming it's 'human nature' or something. We need to think outside the box, or at least look at different boxes.
Sorry, Peter, I've gone a long way from your concerns.
A couple of excellent posts there Alien and not really off topic. Is China does start to go down the pan economically then the government will start to point the finger outside to avoid internal unrest....& that's where their stoking of nationalism & xenophobia in the press helps them but could badly affect foreigners living in China.
Hotwater, yes, if thats enough of a remedy, (i.e. the media), to make it work out, then its fine, personally I believe in this case the situation may need a bigger trophy/token.
@ Peter: I don't think media propaganda is necessarily fine, and I'm not quite sure what bigger trophy you're thinking about - my guess is that you're referring to military action of some sort, which is often a popular move by governments which are able to control the considerable material resources necessary, and when both internal- and externally-oriented economic control measures don't seem to be working in favor of those who seek to dominate economy, society & polity.
history is often "made" by winners, not losers. so some atorcities are "justifiable" by today's standard others are not. absolute power can brainwash its subject much easier. the Vietnam incursion in 1978-1979 was a fine example, result of internal politics. the army units that was perceived to be a threat to the central authorities was sent first and thus suffered heavy losses, just like the Korea War, in which it was the KMT units which surrendered earlier at the end the bloody civil war was sent in the war zone. that is why over 2/3 of the chinese soldiers captured elected to be repartiated to Taiwan after the ceasefire. Would the history repeat itself in china? i guess, it is an internal politics play again, given the recent round of games of musical chairs in the military. i am not booking my plane ticket yet but it is interesting time. :-)
And we can say that by now, the press/media is in 99% control. Those of you who wish to keep using the VPN might want to follow on the streets, if the "for rent" signs keep increasing. If they become too many the VPN will say "poof".
Increasing for rent signs because more and more people are buying online - and new shopping malls springing up.
Lets hope all goes well, vicar. A social experiment on over a billion people, is quite an experiment. Wow. It better work out.
