Saigon...

近藤紘一は「サイゴン陥落十年目の春」に書いた「サイゴンのいちばん長い日」の「文庫版のためのあとがき」で、
「今後、ベトナムは立ち直れるのか。あるいは半永久的に東南アジアの最もだらしがない国の地位に自らを置き続けるざるを得ないのか。
国内的にみれば、再生のとりあえずのステップは、南北民族の真の和解の達成であろう。サイゴン陥落のあの朝あらためて感じた北と南の人びとを隔てるミゾは、十年後の今日、さして埋まっていないように見える。むしろ、南の民心は一九七五年四月三十日のあの解放の時点より、さらに北指導部から離反してのではあるまいか」と分析する。

この文章が書かれて間もなく、ゴルバチョフ登場と時期を同じくして、ベトナム政府は「ドイモイ（刷新）」政策を開始し、経済の開放を進めることになる。現時点でのインフレと物価上昇は暮らす人たちを苦しめてはいるが、それも企業進出や不動産開発という開放政策のひとつの結果だ。ドイモイが全体的な生活水準を押し上げたことは確かのようだ。しかし、急速に経済発展する国に共通の「カネカネカネ」思考がはびこり、弱肉強食が広がっているようにも見える。「コーヒー代」の土壌がある土地のこと、この風潮も不思議ではない。

表面的には落ち着いているホーチミン市。また、訪れたくなった。日本の援助を得て改築されたタンソンニェット空港は、そう遠くない昔、戦場の一部だったのだ。（市内の目抜き通り「ツゾー通り」はいつ「ドンコイ通り」と名を変えたのだろうか。）

No More Saigon

1975年４月30日。

「ようすがおかしくなりはじめたのは午前八時ごろからだ。
人びとがどんどんサイゴン川の河岸に集まり始めた。最初は、大通りにそれと気づかないうちにどこからどもなく人の流れが生じた。ついでにこの流れに吸い出されるように、あちこちの路地から住民がゾロゾロと姿を現した。みんな、手に手に、いっぱいつまったスーツケースや合切袋をぶら下げ、河岸へ河岸へとやってくる。……
三十分後、通りの景観はもうすっかり変わった。辻々の屋台は姿を消し、車やモーターバイクの往来もほとんど途絶えた。河岸の遊歩道路はすでに何万人という人、人、人……。まだ、あとからあとからやってくる。街中が文字通り、サイゴン川の水際まで追いつめられ始めた感じだ。」（「サイゴンのいちばん長い日」）

「河岸の遊歩道路」。自分が歩いた場所だ。改修中で長い遊歩道路ではなかったけど、今ではのどかに遊覧船が停泊している。衝突事故を起こした海上自衛隊の艦船はかなり離れて落ち着いていた。著者の妻（「黄色いアオザイの美人」）の実家は、フォングーラオ（Pham Ngu Lao）通りにあって、そこは自分が宿泊していたゲストハウスからすぐ近くだ。

本書は南ベトナム消滅に至る瞬間を追っていく。政治史や外交史を冷たく記録する歴史書とはまったく異なり、その時、その場に生きた人間の物語だ。

Those Who Totally Lost Ethical Sense

NPO法人の「消費者支援機構関西」が、英会話スクール「グローバルトリニティー」の運営会社フォートレスジャパンに対し、不当勧誘行為を止めるよう求めて大阪地裁に提訴した。昨日のスポーツニッポン（電子版）によると、「大学生らに“大人なんだから自分の意思で決断できるでしょ”“この場で決断しなさい”などと契約を迫り、事務所から帰さないといった不当な勧誘をしているという」。どっかで経験したことのある勧誘方法。あの業界、まだこんなことやってるのか？スクールなのに学習能力なし。残党がいるんだな。一度失ってしまった倫理観、輩に取り戻せと言ってもムリか。

Three New Books

昨日、「他諺の空似」（米原万里）「サイゴンのいちばん長い日」（近藤紘一）「沈まぬ太陽」（２・アフリカ篇・下：山崎豊子）を買ってきた。そして、「沈まぬ太陽」の第１巻を終えて、「他諺の空似」を始めた。万里さんは期待を裏切らず、シモネタで笑わせてから、世界の状況、日本の姿勢を遠慮なく批判する。その主張は、Chomskyのそれと通じるものがある。日本語をひとつ学んだ。「膾炙」……。読めなかった、意味の類推さえできなかった。

「サイゴンのいちばん長い日」も待ち遠しい。今年１月に初めて訪れたサイゴン（ホーチミン市）。その後２回の訪問で、合計１カ月以上をあの地で過ごしている。はっきりとした戦争のキズは見当たらないが、年老いた物乞いや宝くじを売り歩く幼子を抱きかかえた若い母親、また５～６歳かと思われる花売りたちを見ると、発展の止まないような都市で格差が広がっていることが窺われた。インフレを逆手にして儲けている輩も多いことだろう。

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これまでのところ、「沈まぬ太陽」にあんまり共感しない。東京オリンピック以前から始まる話で、当時のカラチ、ナイロビでの勤務や生活に、今の基準を当てはめるのは間違いだろう。だが、海外駐在員からプンプン漂う「現地に日本を期待する」姿勢に大きな差があるとも思えない。会社組織内部の政治や枠や序列を基本に物事を考えるから、そんな傲慢とも言える態度が発生すると言っては言いすぎだろうか。「世界を見たい、その地を知りたい、楽しみたい」という態度が欠落している。会社の辞令だからイヤとは言えないなんて自立した個人とは思えない。「日本村」がそんなに恋しいか。

No Party-Chief Election? Look at Your Coalition Partner

朝日と産経の電子版が報じているが、民主党の鳩山由紀夫幹事長が、
「麻生さんや古賀さんは（小沢代表の無投票３選が確実な）『民主党は開かれていない』と批判するが、公明党だって代表の続投を決めている。あの政党はこれまで選挙をやったことがない。ご自身が連立を組んでいる相手に言ったらどうか」と言ったらしい。まったくの正論だ。「あの政党」の「支持母体」とやらが発行している新聞には自画自賛と「裏切り者」への罵詈雑言に満ちている。

I'm Still Alive Thanks to Her Help

My face became very much distorted with tears coming up. I’d be long dead without the help of the doctor. Profound appreciation to her.

"Japanese Style" Restaurant, "Kyo Momoyama" at The Central

Clark Quayのショッピングモール「The Central」に行った。初めて行ったわけではないが、中をウロウロしたことはなかった。「和風料理・京桃山」という名の店を発見した。時間が早かったせいか、客の姿は見えなかった。繁盛してほしいと少し思った。「京桃山」だから。しかし「和風料理」ってどんな料理？

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「あの頃の南海ホークス」ブログで画像ばかりを検索している人がいる。最近、「復刻ユニフォームばやり」で、資料にされている可能性あり。Yahoo!オークションにも、今まではほとんど考えられなかった76年、77年の南海ユニフォームが出品されている。でも、どれもデザインがちょっと甘い。

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I ran out of Cymbalta a few days ago and only today got a new prescription from the doctor, who has been very nice to me. I tried the two pharmacies at T.B. Plaza and they didn’t have it as I expected. At both places, I was told “It is expensive…” I deposited S$20 at one of them, where it may cost less. That funny electrical sensation to my limbs is appearing but it seems I got used to it because by now I know it’s not something I should be worried about.

"Climbers High"

どういうわけか、徹夜して「クライマーズ・ハイ」を読みきった。1985年８月12日に発生した日航ジャンボ機墜落事故の取材と報道を巡って、群馬県の地方紙「北関東新聞（北関）」の事件全権デスクに任命された悠木和雅が考え抜く葛藤を描いた作品。かなり「濃い」。

北関にとって、東京から大阪に向かっていた日航123便が航路をはずれて群馬と長野の県境付近に墜落した事故はいわゆる「もらい事故」だ。もし、長野県側に墜落していれば、北関の対応はずいぶん違ったものになっていたはず。悠木は、販売局、広告局との衝突や編集局内での派閥、また「大久保連赤」時代を知る幹部、さらに群馬３区を二分する福田と中曽根の各支持者への対応を迫られる。潰された現場レポート。幻に終わった「隔壁」スクープ。

県内の御巣鷹山で発生した未曾有の航空機事故の真っ只中で、地方紙の役割は「詳報すること」にあると決心する。社内の汚れた仕事を引き受けた「山屋」の安西や息子・淳などとのかかわりが、それに絡む。

記者と呼ばれた時期をもつ自分としては、自らの小ささを実感させられた。当時も感じていたものだが、取材対象を深く追求して記事を書くという姿勢は実現不可能な状況で、編集局整理部が行うべき紙面割りまでやっていたのでは、「記者の心構え」などというものが成立しなくても当然だろう。お決まりの文章構成でありきたり極まりない文章を書く。それが、現地発行紙の役割なのだろうか。この国の風土では、それもまた仕方のないことなのだろうか。

しかし、悠木は懲罰人事を甘んじて受け、書き続けるためにサラリーマン記者であることをやめなかった。解雇が現実のものになりそうな状況で、
「自分を嘲笑った。
もう四十だというのに……。
悠木は無為に重ねた年齢を呪い……」とある。既婚。子供が２人。

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「クライマーズ・ハイ」の後、“Language and Politics”に戻らず、「沈まぬ太陽」（アフリカ篇・上）の導入部分を読んだ。こちらも主人公の恩地元は40歳。既婚で子供が２人も同じだ。

Beijing Olympics Baseball Over...

北京五輪の野球で日本がメダル取れずに終わった。勝った方がよかったに決まっているが、負けたからといって大きな思いはない。勝ったり負けたりするのが、試合だから。それより、ジム・ラフィーバー（元ロッテ）が中国監督で、米国監督がデーブ・ジョンソン（元巨人）だったことがなつかしく、うれしかった。今回は違ったけど、歴代の台湾監督には李来發（元南海）や郭泰源（元西武）がいたなぁ。李来發時代にはドン・ブレイザー監督の南海で同僚の高英傑がコーチだったなぁ。李も高も育て方がよければ日本で大成したかもしれないのに、残念だった。

US Imperialistic Mindset, and Japan's Double-Track Diplomacy toward N. Korea

Beijing Olympics baseball: Japan 2-6 Korea (final)

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Do those NATO aspirants, Ukraine and Georgia, belong to the North Atlantic region?

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You have made many very persuasive and moving indictments of American imperialism in Vietnam. Could you spell out the reasons why the United States went into Vietnam?

… If you read the State Department’s propaganda of 1950/1951, you will find that their intention then was to give sufficient support to the French to enable them to re-constitute French colonial rule and to eradicate Communists (in Vietnam).

When the French proved incapable of carrying this out, the United States imply took over. Dean Acheson made it clear that when China was “lost,” the United States would not tolerate any further disturbance to the integrated world system it was attempting to construct and revolution in Vietnam was seen as an erosion of that system. Now it is perfectly true, as many people point out, that the United States can survive without Vietnam as a colony, that the United States does not need Vietnamese rubber or anything like that. But I think the very fact that Vietnam is so unimportant in this respect show how desperately necessary it is felt to maintain an integrated world system. They are willing to make this great commitment even to hold a marginal, peripheral piece of their empire.

If one looks into it even more deeply then one discerns other things going on. For example, the United States fought the Second World War, in the Pacific theatre, primarily in order to prevent Japan from constructing its own independent, integrated imperial system which would be closed to America. That was the basic issue which lay behind the Japanese-American war. Well, the United States won. The result is that now it must develop a system in which Japan can function effectively as a junior partner. That means the United States has to grant Japan what it needs as a partner, namely markets and access to raw materials, which for Japan, unlike the United States, are desperate necessities. Now the United States can very well survive without Southeast Asia. But Japan cannot. So of the United States wants to keep Japan securely embedded within the American system, then it has to preserve Southeast Asia for Japan. Otherwise Japan has other alternatives. It would turn to China or to Siberia, but that would mean the United States had lost the Second World War, in its Pacific phase. Once again a substantial industrial power would be carving itself out an independent space which, taken to its logical conclusion, would be separate and partially scaled off from the American world system. (P. 106, “Linguistics and Politics (spring 1969),” “Language and Politics,” Noam Chomsky)

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朝日新聞（電子版）によると、自民党の山崎拓議員（福岡）が北京市で行った北朝鮮関係者との会談（19日）について、「先般の日朝実務者協議を踏まえ、（日朝交渉を）確実に前進させるために話し合った」「現在停滞している核申告の検証問題が打開されれば、一気に進展する」と述べたらしい。こんな二元外交がどうして放置されているのだろうか。

"JC" & "JK," "Saku-Saku," "Bari-Bari" & "Pari-Pari" and How His Mind Works

最近、ネットのスポーツ紙で見つけた略語に「JC」「JK」がある。それぞれ「女子中学生」と「女子高校生」。日本では当たり前に使われている略語なのだろうか？

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「パリパリ」「バリバリ」「サクサク」の違いは？

サクサク：大量の粒状のものが踏まれたり混ぜ合わされたりする連続音。野菜や布などを大まかに粗く切る音。粗く大ざっぱに織ったり編んだりするさま。
バリバリ：薄くて固いものが砕けたり、裂けたり、はがれたりする連続音。布などの糊づけが強かったり、凍ったりしてこわばっているさま。
パリパリ：歯切れよくものをかむ音。（衣服などが）まあたらしいさま。

以上、広辞苑から。

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Can you tell us something about your technique? Is it a matter of plugging at a problem?

No, I’m usually working on quite a number of different things at the same time, and I guess that during most of my adult life I’ve been spending quite a lot of time reading in areas where I’m not working at all. I seem to be able, without too much trouble, to work pretty intensively at my own scientific work at scattered intervals. Most of the reasonably defined problems have grown out of something accomplished at in an early stage.

How does a new problem arise for you?

… While I’m reading about politics or anything else, some examples come to my mind that relate to the problems that I’ve been working on in linguistics, and I go and work on my problems in the latter area. Everything is going on at once in my mind, and I’m unaware of anything except the sudden appearance of possibly interesting ideas at some odd moment or the emergence of something that is relevant.

Would it be fair to say, then, that you have the problems you’re working on in the back of your mind all the time?

All the time, yes, I dream about them. But I wouldn’t call dreaming very different from really working.

Do you literally mean dreaming?

Yes, I mean it literally. Examples and problems are sort of floating through my mind very often at night. Sometimes, when I am sleeping fitfully, the problems that I’ve working on are often passing through my mind.

Do they pass through your mind in a dream in the same form in which you were working on them?

Well, as far as I know, in exactly the same form. The dream life doesn’t seem to have a different framework or to involve a different approach. So it’s just a sort of slightly less concentrated and conscious version of the same thing as during the day.

How did you ever become interested in linguistics as a scientific field?

… [When] I got to college, I was much more interested in radical politics than anything else. I became involved with Zellig Harris in connection with left-wing Zionism (more accurately, radical alternatives to Zionism). He was the professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, and I had a lot of personal contact with him. I was really a kind of college dropout, having no interest in college at all because my interest in a particular subject was generally killed as soon as I took a course in it. And that includes psychology, incidentally.
I went to college with great enthusiasm, and I was interested in everything. But as soon as I took a course in some subject, that took care of that area. By the time I was a junior, I was perfectly willing to quit college and go to a kibbutz of something of that sort. Then I ran into Harris. He was the first person I’d met in college who was in any sense intellectually challenging, and we became very good friends afterward…

What do you mean that you were getting somewhere?

I was able to explain about things about the language. For example, if you look at English, there are some funny curiosities. Take the formation of questions. When you form a question from “John will come tomorrow,” the corresponding question is, “Will John come tomorrow?” On the other hand, when you form a question from “John reads a book” it is “Does John read a book?”, not “Reads John a book.” On the other hand, you say, “Is John here?” not “Does John be here?” which would look like the analogue of “Does John read the book?” Now you can look at this as some crazy fact, but I was able to show that if you formulate certain fairly general principles, generative principles of language, then it had to be that way and exactly that way. In many areas it has been possible to show that we just know intuitively, as speakers of the language, the curious forms that sentences have because of some very general principles we have internalized and use quite unconsciously… (pp. 89-97, “The Creative Experience (winter 1969),” “Language and Politics”)

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公明党代表、無投票再選へ。この党でかつて代表選挙が実施されたことあるのかな？

When You Can't Use Force, Control Beliefs by Other Means

Alongside the violence there is the rise of massive propaganda, the rise of the public relations industry, to try to control attitudes and beliefs. Apart from that, there is something quite simple: the disciplinary effects of the way life is organized… Part of the reasoning for arranging education so you come out with heavy debt is so you are disciplined. Take the last 20 years – the neo-liberal years roughly – a very striking part of what is called “globalization” is just aimed at discipline. It wants to eliminate freedom of choice and impose discipline. How do you do that? Well, if you are a couple in the U.S. now, each working 50 hours a week to put food on the table, you don’t have time to think about how to become a libertarian socialist. When what you are worried about is “how can I get food on the table?” or “I’ve got kids to take care of, and when they are sick I’ve got to go to work and what’s going to happen to them?” Those are very well-designed techniques of imposing discipline. And there are costs to trying to be independent. Take, say, trying to organize a labor union. If you are the organizer, there are gonna be costs to you. Maybe the work force will gain but there is a cost to you. We know there is, we know what that cost is – not just in energy and effort, but in punishment. People living in fragile circumstances make a reasonable calculation, they say “Why should I take the cost when I can just get by?” So there are many reasons why normal instincts and attitudes don’t come out although over time they often do. After all that’s how we have social change for the better. (pp. 232-233, “Interviews with Barry Pateman (2004),” “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

In theoretical political science we can analytically identify two main conceptions of anarchism – a so-called collective anarchism with Bakunin, Kropotkin and Makhno as main figures and which is limited to Europe, and, on the other hand, so-called individualistic anarchism which is limited to the U.S. Do you agree with this theoretical separation, and in this perspective, where do you see the historical origins of anarchism in the U.S.?

The individualistic anarchism that you are talking about, (Max) Stirner and others, is one of the roots of – among other things – the so-called “libertarian” movement of the U.S. This means dedication to free market capitalism, and has no connection with the rest of the international anarchist movement. In the European tradition, anarchist commonly called themselves libertarian socialists, in a very different sense of the term “libertarian.” As far as I can see, the workers’ movements, which didn’t call themselves anarchist, were closer to the main strain of European anarchism than many of the people in the U.S. who called themselves anarchists. If we go back to the labor activism from the early days of the industrial revolution, to the working class press in 1850s, and so on, it’s got a real anarchist strain to it. They never heard of European anarchism, never heard of Marx, or anything like that. It was spontaneous. They took for granted that wage labor is little different from slavery, that workers should own the mills, that the industrial system is destroying individual initiative, culture, and so on… [The] same is true of other popular movements – let’s take the New Left movements. Some strains related themselves to traditional collectivist anarchism, which always regarded itself as a branch of socialism. But U.S. and to some extent British libertarianism is quite a different thing and different development, in fact has no objection to tyranny as far as it is private tyranny. That is radically different from other forms of anarchism. (pp. 234-235, “Interview with Ziga Vodovnik (2004),” “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

Two Cheers to Myself, and Kiyohara Retires

On Saturday, I collected the two TESOL certificates I had been waiting for some time. And today (Monday), I received an E-mail that said my EP application had been approved. Soon after, I checked the MOM phone information service to find… well yes it was approved on 14th. Now I only have to wait for an approval letter from the Ministry. Two cheers.

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そして、清原引退発表の報あり。「あの頃」の西武ライオンズで現役は横浜にいる工藤だけ。その工藤ももしかすると……。

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武蔵野大学がアメリカの研究所との共同研究で、ターメリック（ウコン）に記憶力を高める効果があると発表した。（読売新聞電子版）

つい最近、カフェインに記憶力向上の効果があると、どっかで読んだような気がするけど……。コーヒー飲んで、カレーを食べる。これ、記憶力向上法。

Two Gold Medalists, and "Kill Them"?

ハンマー投げの室伏広治が５位に終わった。数年前、編集長だった頃、アテネで金メダルを獲得した彼とマラソンの野口みずきの会見にそれぞれ出席した。室伏選手はもともとの金メダリストが失格になって、繰り上げられたのだったが、そのことについて質問すると、「日本のマスコミはいつもそのことをきく」と笑った。会見の後、しばらく談笑する時間さえあって、「（読みが）おんなじ名前ですねぇ」と話し、「いっしょに写真を撮りましょうか」とも言ってくれたが、遠慮した。好青年。同日行われた野口選手の会見では、彼女の「小ささ」に驚いた。チッチャ～！イヤな顔を見せず、まぐろ好きなことを小生に聞かれて答える人だった。彼女は今回欠場してしまった。ただ、「NHKのど自慢」シンガポール大会で優勝したという通訳はトンデモなかった。４年間の調整が直前の故障となって現れ、欠場することになるなんて。悔やむべきか、納得すべきか。

バドミントン女子ペアの日本X中国の試合中に、中国ペアの応援で「殺！殺！」が聞こえたという。日本ペアを「殺せ」と言っていると誤解している日本人がいるらしい。シンガポール人の友人が指摘してくれた。バドミントンで「殺！」は中国語で「スマッシュしろ！」の意味だ。

Chomsky Books in This $$$$$ Country

Beijing Olympic baseball: Japan 3 – 5 Korea (final)

Olympic games… a rare occasion when one can be “nationalistic” rather openly and in a healthy manner.

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Another strange thing about this $$$$$ country is that books by and of Noam Chomsky are readily available.

A Day of Meetings, and a Democrat or Aristocrat?

金曜日午後、地元の「芸能プロダクション」と打ち合わせ。来月、当地に日本から来る歌手のステージ組み立てに通訳としてお付き合いすることになった。熱くてホコリの多い「現場仕事」は製鉄所で経験済み。どちらかというとそんな環境が好きだし、 何とかなるだろう。夕方は、「牛肉」資料の質問について打ち合わせ。

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The (“tough love”) rollback campaign on the social, economic, political, and ideological fronts exploits opportunities afforded by significant shifts of power in the past 20 years, into the hands of the masters. The intellectual level of prevailing discourse is beneath contempt, and the moral level grotesque. But the assessment of prospects that lies behind them is not unrealistic. That is, I think, the situation in which we now find ourselves, as we consider goals and visions.

As always in the past, one can choose to be a democrat in Jefferson’s sense, or an aristocrat. The latter path offers rich rewards, given the locus of wealth, privilege and power, and the ends it naturally seeks. The other path is one of struggle, often defeat, but also rewards that cannot be imagined by those who succumb to “the New Spirit of the Age: Gain Wealth, forgetting all but Self (ideals depicted and denounced by the working class press of the mid-19th century).”

Today’s world is far from that of Thomas Jefferson or mid-19th century workers. The choices it offers, however, have not changed in any fundamental way. (p. 209, Goals and Visions (1996), “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

Castro's "Robbery" of a "Ripe Fruit"

… In the real world, Castro’s Cuba was a concern not because of a military threat, human rights abuse, or dictatorship. Rather, for reasons deeply rooted in American history. In the 1820s, as the takeover of the continent was proceeding apace, Cuba was regarded by the political and economic leadership as the next prize to be won. That is “an object of transcendent importance to the commercial and political interests of our Union,” the author of the Monroe Doctrine, John Quincy Adams, advised, agreeing with Jefferson and others that Spain should keep sovereignty until the British deterrent faded, and Cuba would fall into US hands by “the laws of political… gravitation,” a “ripe fruit” for harvest, as it did a century ago. By mid-twentieth century, the ripe fruit was highly valued by US agricultural and gambling interests, among others. Castro’s robbery of this US possession was not taken lightly. Worse still, there was a danger of a “domino effect” of development in terms that might be meaningful to suffering people elsewhere – the most successful health services in Latin America, for example. It was feared that Cuba might be one of those “rotten apples” that “spoil the barrel,” a “virus” that might “infect” others, in the terminology favored by planners, who care nothing about crimes, but a lot about demonstration effects. (p. 200)

[The] standard proof that the command economy was a catastrophic failure, demonstrating the superior merits of capitalism… The argument is scarcely more than an intellectual reflex, considered so obviously valid as to pass unnoticed, the presupposition of all further inquiry.

… [To] evaluate the Soviet command economy as compared with the capitalist alternative, we must compare Eastern European countries to others that were like them when the “experiment” with the two development models began. Obviously not the West; one has to go back half a millennium to find a time when it was similar to Eastern Europe. A proper comparison might be Russia and Brazil, or Bulgaria and Guatemala, though that would be unfair to the Communist model, which never had anything remotely like the advantages of the US satellite. If we undertake the rational comparison, we conclude, indeed, that the Communist economic model was a disaster; and the Western one an ever more catastrophic failure. There are nuances and complexities, but the basic conclusions are rather solid.

It is intriguing to see how such elementary points cannot be understood, and to observe the reaction to attempts to explore the issue, which also cannot be understood. The exercise offers some useful lesions about the ideological systems of the free societies. (pp. 201-202, “Goals and Visions” in “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

August 15..., State/Religion Separation Stressed by this Religiopolitico Party & Water Lady

敗戦記念日。

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公明党代表が閣僚は靖国神社参拝を控えるべきとの考えで、その理由のひとつが「政教分離の観点」（産経新聞電子版）だそうだ。何と大胆な意見。世の中にいろいろとフシギなことはある。しかし、公明党代表に「政教分離」を説く資格があるのか？？あるわけない。チャンチャラおかしい。

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On Wednesday, I acted as the interpreter for an interview session with the “Water Queen (or Water Lady as she claimed)” of Singapore conducted by “Japan’s BBC.” It is of course hard to judge someone’s personality in an interview, but she seemed a very nice person.

Souka Folks! Keep away from Me!! & Anarchism as a Sociery Organized with Free Minds

向かいのブロックの「そうか」のみなさん、静かにしてもらえませんか？

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I was attracted to anarchism as a young teenager, as soon as I began to think about the world beyond a pretty narrow range, and haven’t seen much reason to revise those early attitudes since. I think it only makes sense to seek out and identify structures of authority, hierarchy, and domination in every aspect of life, and to challenge them; unless a justification for them can be given, they are illegitimate, and should be dismantled, to increase the scope of human freedom. That includes political power, ownership and management, relations among men and women, parents and children, our control over the fate of future generations (the basic imperative behind the environmental movement in my view), and much else. Naturally this means a challenge to the huge institutions of coercion and control: the state, the unaccountable private tyrannies that control most of the domestic and international economy, and so on. But not only these.

This is what I have always understood to be the essence of anarchism: the conviction that the burden of proof has to be placed on authority, and it should be dismantled if that burden cannot be met. (p. 178)

Is anarchism a philosophy for people’s power?

I’m reluctant to use fancy polysyllables like “philosophy” to refer to what seems ordinary common sense. I’m also uncomfortable with slogans. (p. 181)

One of the main achievements of the Spanish Revolution was the degree of grassroots democracy established… Is it a coincidence to your mind that anarchism, known for advocacy of individual freedom, succeeded in this area of collective administration?

No coincidence at all. The anarchism that I’ve always found most persuasive seek a highly organized society, integrating many different kinds of structures (workplace, community and manifold other forms of voluntary associations), but controlled by participants, not by those in a position to give orders (except, again, when authority can be justified, as is sometimes the case, in specific contingencies). (pp. 181-182, “Anarchism, Marxism and the Hope for the Future”)

(Photo: Singapore's "NEWater," recycled household effluent, "pure enough" for drinking)

Noisy & Clamorous Japanese Consumers

食の安全を「消費者がやかましいから」徹底していくという太田誠一農水相（福岡）の発言。この大臣の日本語能力が低いのだろう。そうでなければ、立場をわきまえる能力に欠けているのだろう。

Nagasaki Anniversary

長崎原爆投下の日（９日 and the 43rd birthday of the country here）。

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On the matter of common sense and freedom, there is a rich tradition that develops the idea that people have intrinsic rights. Accordingly, any authority that infringes upon these rights is illegitimate. These are natural rights, rooted in human nature, which is part of the natural world, so that we should be able to learn about it by rational inquiry. But social theory and action cannot be held abeyance while science takes its halting steps towards establishing truths about human nature, and philosophy seeks to explain the connection, which we all sense exists, between human nature and rights deriving from it. We therefore are compelled to take an intuitive leap, to make a posit as to what is essential to human nature, and on this basis to derive, however inadequately, a conception of a legitimate social order. Any judgment about social action (or inaction) relies upon reasoning of this sort. A person of any integrity will select a course of action on the grounds that the likely consequences will accord with human rights and needs, and will explore the validity of these grounds as well as one can.

(Note that Chomsky says “any authority.” It does not matter North or South, West or East, Americas, Europe, Africa or Asia. And am I a person of integrity? I have been a silent sufferer and protester.)

According to one traditional idea, it is a fundamental human need – and hence a fundamental human right – to inquire and to create, free of external compulsion. This is a basic doctrine of classical liberalism in its original 18th century version, for example, in the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt, who inspired Mill. Obvious consequences were immediately drawn. One is that whatever does not spring from free choice, but only from compulsion or guidance, remains alien to our true nature. If a worker labors under the threat of force or of need, or a student produces on demand, we may admire what they do, but we despise what they are. Institutional structures are legitimate insofar as they enhance the opportunity to freely inquire and create, out of inner need; otherwise they are not. (p. 173)

(Am I freely inquiring and creating out of inner need? Or am I one of many that should be despised?)

The more we investigate, the more we discover that basic elements of thought and language derive from an invariant intellectual endowment, a structure of concepts and principles that provides the framework for experience, interpretation, judgment and understanding. The more we learn about these matters, the more it seems that training is an irrelevance and learning an artefact, except at the margins. It seems that mental structures grow in the mind along their natural, intrinsically determined path, triggered by experience and partially modified by it, but apparently only in fairly superficial ways. This should not be a surprising conclusion. If true, it means that mental organs are like bodily organs – or more accurately, like other bodily organs, for these are organs of the body as well. Despite conventional empiricist and behaviorist dogmas, we should not be startled to discover that the mind and brain are like everything else in the natural world, and that it is a highly specific initial endowment that permits the mind to develop rich and articulate systems of knowledge, understanding and judgment, largely shared with others, vastly beyond the reach of any determining experience. (p. 175, “Containing the Threat of Democracy”)

(When one thinks about something, no matter how abstract the something is, he/she thinks about it in a language or a combination of languages. Without language, there is no intelligence.)

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I’ve been noticing that HMV, Heeren, has Mahler’s 8th with Georg Solti and Chicago Symphony. The same recording as what I bought more than 20 years ago (perhaps), a 2-CD set. The new remastering version has only one CD. Provided the sorry condition of my old CDs that the fucking humidity caused here, I got the new package tonight.

Beijing Olympics, Some Electrical Tweaking & War in Georgia?

The Olympic Games in Beijing officially opened.

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I connected the sound output of the DVD player to the CD player’s auxiliary input so sound comes out from the CD player speakers, achieving much better experience than with small TV speakers. Why have I not done so much earlier?? It required only a little tweaking of electrical cords. Now, I don’t need to wear earpieces to enjoy DVDs, music or movies.

The first DVD disc I’m playing now is Giuseppe Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem” by Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Leontyne Price (soprano), Fiorenza Cossotto (mezzo-soprano), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass) and Herbert von Karajan (conductor, artistic supervisor), recorded in Milan in 1967.

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Russia is sending troops to Georgia over the conflict in South Ossetia.

Thought Control in Democracies and Ron in Japan

[Scottish philosopher, David] Hume (1711-1776) posed his paradox for both despotic and more free societies. The latter case is by far the more important. As society becomes more free and diverse, the task of inducing submission becomes more complex and the problem of unraveling the mechanism of indoctrination becomes more challenging. But intellectual interest aside, the case of free societies has greater human significance, because in this case we are talking about ourselves and can act upon what we learn. It is for just this reason that the dominant culture will always seek to externalize human concerns, directing them to the abuses of others. Fame, fortune, and respect await those who reveal the crimes of official enemies; those who undertake the vastly more important task of raising a mirror to ourselves can expect quite different treatment, in any society. George Orwell is famous for Animal Farm and 1984, which focus on the official enemy, or could at least be interpreted in this light. Had he kept to the more interesting and significant question of thought control in relatively free and democratic societies, it would not have been appreciated, and instead of wide acclaim, he would have faced silent dismissal or obloquy. Let us nevertheless turn to the more important and unacceptable questions.

Keeping to governments that are more free and popular, why do the government submit when force is on their side? First, we have to look at a prior question: to what extent is force on the side of the governed? Here some care is necessary. Societies are considered free and democratic insofar as the power of the state to coerce is limited. The United States is unusual in this respect: perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, the citizen is free from state coercion, at least, the citizen who is relatively privileged and of the right color, a substantial part of the population.

But it is a mere truism that the state represents only one segment of the nexus of power. Control over investment, production, commerce, finance, conditions of work, and other crucial aspects of social policy lies in private hands, and the same is true of articulate expression, largely dominated by major corporations that sell audiences to advertisers and naturally reflect the interests of the owners and their market. (pp. 156-157)

… It is noteworthy that the fact is now tacitly conceded; the instant that the “great communicator” was no longer needed to read the lines written for him by the rick folk as he had been doing most of his life, he disappeared into total oblivion. After eight years of pretense about the “revolution” Reagan wrought, no one would dream of asking its standard bearer for his thoughts about any topic, because it is understood, as it always was, the he has none. When Reagan was invited to Japan as an elder statesman, his hosts were surprised – and given the fat fee, rather annoyed – to discover that he could not hold press conferences or talk on any subject. Their discomfiture aroused some amusement in the American press: the Japanese believed what they had read about this remarkable figure, failing to comprehend the workings of the mysterious occidental mind. (pp. 157-158, “Containing the Threat of Democracy” in “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

A Dream from Which I Did Not Wake Up from

けさの夢、よかったなぁ。いい夢っていいなぁ。起きるのがイヤだった。話の前後は記憶にないけど、高校３年生の時に「あこがれマドンナ」だったYHちゃんに会えた。彼女は言葉を交わさずとも小生の気持ちを理解していてくれていた。左手に透明のビニール傘を持った小生は彼女を抱きかかえてどこかに向かっていた。途中で彼女は自宅に帰って制服から私服に着替えていた。

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Professor Chomsky’s “The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism,” an interview by the BBC in 1976, is the perfect introduction for anarchism.

Hiroshima Anniversary

広島原爆投下記念日。

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職業上、言葉に敏感にならざるを得ない。「上司の人」や「概要（できるだけ詳しく）」といった表現に出会うと愕然としてしまう。「上司の人」は「上司のイヌ」など人間以外の上司が存在することを前提にしてのみ可能だし、「概要」と書いておきながら「できるだけ詳しく」と追加する人は「概」が「概略」、「要」が「要約」だということを理解していないようだ。

コンピューターの個人利用が当たり前になり、変換して使用できる漢字の数が常用漢字の枠を超えることもあって、文部科学省の国語委員会が常用漢字の数を増やすことを決めたのは数日前。「常用」と認められる漢字の数が増えることに異議はないが、それ以前に基本的な日本語の使い方も問われなければならん。それは「檄を飛ばす」といった少々難しい表現の意味を誤解しているといった話ではなく、あくまで基本的な日本語、あるいは漢字の知識の問題だ。（「檄文」という表現を知っていれば「檄を飛ばす」を誤解することもないのだが。市ヶ谷で檄を飛ばして自決した三島由紀夫は悲しんでいると思う。）

別の問題だが、変換可能な漢字の基準をプログラマーはどうとらえているのだろう。Windowsならツールバーの「Insert」から「Symbol」を選択すると使用できる「IME Pad」で、手書きするように線を引いて複雑な漢字も得ることができる。

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I still take “Cymbalta” tablets. Yet, given my current condition, a funny thing happens when I take it, which means almost everyday. It used to be that if I failed to take it for a few days for whatever reason, that electrical shock went through my body from head to limbs. Then, nowadays, that same shock visits me if I take it. I suppose my brain is saying to me, “Man, you have a sufficient amount of serotonin up here. Do not try to increase it.”

Anarchism & Antihumanity

Predatory capitalism created a complex industrial system and an advanced technology; it permitted a considerable extension of democratic practice and fostered certain liberal values, but within limits that are now being pressed and must be overcome. It is not a fit system for the mid-twentieth century. It is incapable of meeting human needs that can be expected only in collective terms, and its concept of competitive men who seeks only to maximize wealth and power, who subjects himself to market relationships, to exploitation and external authority, is antihuman and intolerable in the deepest sense. An autocratic state is no acceptable substitute; nor can the militarized state capitalism evolving in the United States or the bureaucratized, centralized welfare state be accepted as the goal of human existence. The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival. Modern science and technology can relieve men of the necessity of specialized, imbecile labor. They may, in principle, provide the basis for a rational social order based on free association and democratic control, if we have the will to create it. (p. 114, “Language and Freedom” in “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

（世紀の代わった今、もっと問題は大きくなっている。）

… There have been many styles of thought and action that have been referred to as “anarchist.” It would be hopeless to try to encompass all of these conflicting tendencies in some general theory or ideology. (p. “Notes on Anarchism” (1970) in “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

（やっぱりそうか……）

If one were to seek a single leading idea within the anarchist tradition, it should, I believe, be that expressed by [Mikhail Aleksandrovich] Bakunin when, in writing on the Paris Commune (1871), he identified himself as follows;

I am a fanatic lover of liberty, considering it as the unique condition under which intelligence, dignity and human happiness can develop and grow; not the purely formal liberty conceded, measured out and regulated by the State, an external lie which in reality represents nothing more than the privilege of some founded on the slavery of the rest; not the individualistic, egoistic, shabby, fictitious liberty extolled by the School of J.-J. Rousseau and the other schools of bourgeois liberalism, which considers the would-be rights of all men, represented by the State which limits the rights of each – an idea that leads inevitably to the reduction of the rights of each to zero. No, I mean the only kind of liberty that is worthy of the name, liberty that consists in the full development of all of the material, intellectual and moral powers that are latent in each person; liberty that recognizes no restrictions other than those determined by the laws of our own individual nature, which cannot properly be regarded as restrictions since these laws are not imposed by any outside legislator beside or above us, but are immanent and inherent, forming the very basis of our material, intellectual and moral being – they do not limit us but are the real and immediate conditions of out freedom. (pp. 121-122, “Notes on Anarchism” (1970) in “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

Solzhenitsyn Dies, and Anarchism & Libertarianism

Solzhenitsyn has died at the age of 89. I don’t know how his political philosophy should be described in a few words. A symbol against the Stalin type of Soviet totalitarianism and for Slave solidarity, he vocally advocated the freedom of men. But it certainly did not mean to applause and accept the society of the West.

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赤塚不二夫も亡くなった。自分が「黒柳徹子」を知ったのは、赤塚作の「おそ松くん」のおかあさん役声優としてだった。あんまり関係ないけど、京都「バル・ビル」近くのスナック「あるまじろ」でときどき会った府立医科大病院の先生が赤塚不二夫の風貌に似ていたので、勝手に「赤塚さん」と呼んでいた。20年以上前の話。

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The word, “anarchism” gives me some negative connotations perhaps because of the few anarchists who were the philosophical pillar for those young soldiers who plotted to topple the parliamentary democracy before the war. However, reading Chomsky, I belatedly realized that anarchism is closely related to libertarianism, even though both thoughts are hard to define. A few things that can be said about the two are deep suspicion toward “authority” and a strong advocacy for individual freedom. If this is true, my own attitude, and sadly not action always, conforms to them. The popular labels attached to anarchism are those of extreme left-wing and attached to libertarianism to conservatism (right or left and I don’t know where I got this idea), which confuses us as Ronald Reagan, an arch-conservative and believer of strong defence, fervently advocated in smaller government, personal freedom and capitalist society.

Chomsky talked long about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the themes of Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” and Koestler’s “Scum of the Earth,” both of which I read some time ago. I’m still very much jejune in understanding the intricacies of the revolution, and anarchism.

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「元田昌義」で検索して、このブログに到達した方、何とも「マイナー」ですね。でも、先日の「宿痾の指揮マネ病」と同様に「同志」のような気がします。ありがとうございます。

（写真：漬物になる前のセロリ、ピーマン（赤、黄、緑）とにんじん。あんまりうまくない……。）

Mahler, an Illicit Drug

I listened to/watched Mahler’s 1st (Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Klaus Tennstedt) yet again. I’ve listened to this piece, and others of his, countless times since my high school days. Mahler is like an illicit drug. When you got hooked to it at your adolescent age, you will never forget its high. Even after so many years of no use, just a moment of the sound is all that you need. It’s almost a crime for a youth to listen to him. And especially the youth would suffer some in his later years. “You have to suffer to do Mahler.” (Klaus Tennstedt)

Ghost Month Starts

Ghost Month started and burning smell is around.

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Since around the time when I returned from Vietnam in late June or when I updated my browser, Firefox, it has been impossible to download update files for the anti-virus program. Today, I was ready to download another anti-virus program and pay for it when I found the reason why it was not possible. A virus. Ha! A virus was affecting and controlling the anti-virus program. Does it mean that the program is not doing its job??

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For a glimpse of what may lie ahead, consider [McGeorge Bundy’s lecture]. Bundy urges that more power be concentrated in the executive branch of the government, now “dangerously weak in relation to its present tasks.” That the powerful executive will act with justice and wisdom – this presumably needs no argument. As an example of the superior executive who should be attracted to government and given still greater power, Bundy cites Robert McNamara. Nothing could reveal more clearly the dangers inherent in the “new society” than the role that McNamara’s Pentagon has played for the past half-dozen years. No doubt McNamara succeeded in doing with utmost efficiency that which should not be done at all… (p. 75, “Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship” in “Chomsky on Anarchism”)

And in “Notes (p. 100)”…

To mention just the most recent example: on January 22, 1968, McNamara testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that “the evidence appears overwhelming that beginning in 1966 Communist local and guerrilla forces have sustained substantial attrition. As a result, there has been a drop in combat efficiency and morale….” The Tet offensive was launched within a week of this testimony.

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A rather sad thing is that Chomsky mentioned Honda Katsuichi in “Notes” for this article. Honda’s credibility has already been destroyed irreparably in Japan because of his reportages on, among others, “Killing Competition by two Imperial Army soldiers” and the "Nanking Massacre."