[lit-ideas] Inner Moral :Law
- From: "Veronica Caley" <vcaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 21:36:23 -0400
I have been following this discussion with interest. I thought I would share
the content of a TV program I watched Sunday morning.
The segment showed Tokyo, a city of seven million people. There is one place
in the city where all items found are to be turned in. It showed thousands and
thousands of umbrellas. It also featured a number of people who had lost their
wallets. The norm here is that when the owner goes to retrieve it, all the
money is there. In one case, a fellow found almost $300,000 near a dump.
He turned it in. One man said he had forgotten to take the keys out of his
motorcycle three times in the several months he had lived there. The
motorcycle was never stolen.
They showed early elementary school kids having lessons in empathy. That is,
teaching that if you lost something or hurt someone, it would be bad if no one
returned it or hurt you. I found this quite interesting, in that the lessons
of morality are not based on a religion, and certainly not the Judeo Christian
version. I also was impressed with the fact that it was not based on fear.
Having said this, I don't know if this was taught to Japanese children before
the Japanese conquered and brutalized some of their neighbors. I assume it
was, but don't really know.
Veronica
Veronica Caley
vcaley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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