[lit-ideas] Re: News via the web
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 16:34:29 +0900
On 2004/04/05, at 15:18, Omar Kusturica wrote:
> *You are perhaps correct to identify the market forces
> at work, though in China even the people working in
> state-run institutions tend to work long hours. But I
> would suggest that the effects might not be the same
> everywhere. "Not having enough time for relationships"
> could suggest, to one, having only non-committing
> relationships and distancing oneself from the family
> which is perceived as tiresome and demanding. To
> another, it might suggest relinquishing 'optional'
> relationships that are perceived as tiresome and
> demanding, thus settling with the family relationships
> and those with the immediate work/study environment.
> The market forces may dictate selecting relationships,
> but the selections made might differ culturally.
>
Of course. This is what makes looking at various contexts so=20
interesting.
>
>> One way to look at Japan is to see it as a place
>> that went to extremes
>> in becoming a modern society, one of whose defining
>> characteristics is
>> separation of home and work, with the wife staying
>> home with the kids
>> and the husband spending most of his days away at
>> his job.
>
> *A rather different kind of modernization, as we see,
> from that which took place in the Western societies.
>
Yes, and no. The difference is largely one of degree. Here is the way=20=
I developed the argument in my book, _Japanese Consumer Behavior_:
>>>
=A0
Jib Fowles was writing about America, but virtually every word =
in the=20
following description of industrialisation applies with equal force to=20=
Japan.
=A0
>
> Over time, production and consumption became ever more sharply=20
> delineated spheres. The production and consumption which used to be=20
> commingled on the far separated into two discernible activities,=20
> signalled by their new and distinct loci in time and space. The day=20
> became exactingly sectioned into work and nonwork time; work took=20
> place apart from the home, in a building especially constructed to=20
> contain it. The autonomous factory, where no one lived by many worked,=20=
> was virtually unknown before industrialisation but quickly became the=20=
> standard.
>
> (Fowles 1996:31)
=A0
As David Harvey points out, the process of industrialisation =
imposes=20
new disciplines on the worker. The production of commodities by wage=20
labour =91locates much of the knowledge, decisions as to technique, as=20=
well as disciplinary apparatus, outside the control of the person who=20
actually does the work=92 (1990:123). Alluding to Jeremy Bentham=92s=20
panopticon, a prison in which every cell is exposed to view from the=20
guard tower in the centre, Zygmunt Bauman describes modern society as=20
organised around two great panoptical institutions, industrial=20
factories and conscript armies. Because of the centrality of these two=20=
institutions,
=A0
> Most male members of society could reasonably be expected to pass=20
> through their disciplining treadmill and acquire the habits that would=20=
> guarantee their obedience to the order-constituting rules (and later=20=
> to enforce those habits on the female members in their capacity of the=20=
> =91heads of families=92).
>
> (Bauman 1999:22)
=A0
But now, he writes, the great majority of men and women are seduced=20
instead of policed into accepting society=92s goals. Advertising has=20
replaced indoctrination; need creation has begun to replace normative=20
regulation.
=A0
> Most of us are socially and culturally trained and shaped as=20
> sensation-seekers and gathers, rather than producers and soldiers.=20
> Constant openness to new sensations and greed for ever new experience,=20=
> always stronger and deeper than before, is a condition sine qua non of=20=
> being amenable to seduction.
>
> (Bauman 1999:24)
=A0
=A0
But here the theorist=92s analysis begins to strain against the =
images=20
that HILL research provides. There is something about that =91greed for=20=
ever new experience, always stronger and deeper than before=92 that=20
clashes with images of water skippers skating nimbly over society=92s=20
surfaces but never diving beneath them.
Perhaps in Ikari Tomohiko=92s generation, that =91burning=92 =
generation of=20
now-greying corporate warriors, that greed was still strong. There was=20=
something of it still left in rebellious members of the New Breed who=20
strove to construct new selves by creating new lifestyles. But the=20
Boomers, who would never be heroes, the Juniors who prefer =91silent=20
appeal=92, and now those water skippers: as in the case of modernisation=20=
theory, once again simply importing theory from the West seems to miss=20=
something in the Japanese experience.
Partly, I suspect, it=92s a matter of sheer intensity. When =
Sakaiya=20
Taichi claims that what Japan became in the 1960s is the world=92s most=20=
perfect modern industrial society, the proposition is plausible=20
precisely because Japan went further in pursuing modernisation=92s =
ideals=20
than its North American or European counterparts. Nowhere has the=20
separation of work and home been more radical, with a workday so long=20
that coming home to time with the family became an impossible dream for=20=
the men who found jobs as salarymen. Nowhere has the uniformity of=20
education and the media been greater, with competition so thoroughly=20
focused on internalising the norms of industrial discipline.
=A0=A0=A0Arguably it has been the radical depth of modernisation that =
has=20
shaped Japan=92s transition to a postmodern society where =91let me do =
my=20
thing=92 has given way to =91love me but leave me alone=92. The =
strongest=20
case in point is relations between men and women. Clayton Naff captures=20=
it for us in an anecdote all the more poignant for being only slightly=20=
exaggerated.
=A0
> Off in the distance, skyscrapers reached for the clouds, defying the=20=
> fatal logic of the quaking earth. All around me packs of young=20
> Japanese women promenaded in razor-edged, wasp-waisted jackets with=20
> epaulets and glinting brass buttons over miniskirts and knitted leg=20
> warmers. Some tottered on high heels that made their long, dark hair=20=
> swing wide of their narrow hips as they walked. Others, with hair=20
> bobbed and curled like flappers, clopped along in high-fashion=20
> calfskin boots. Giggling, squealing, shrieking, thrusting glossy=20
> fingertips over neon-painted lips, they swarmed about in twos, threes,=20=
> dozens.
>
> =A0
>
> Clearly they were the ones out for a good time. The businessmen, ties=20=
> askew, still in the suits they had worn to work, looked more like=20
> casualties than revelers as they stumbled homeward after a night of=20
> hard drinking. A small, red-faced man was vomiting wretchedly at the=20=
> curbside not far from me. Two policemen emerged from their sidewalk=20
> police box to save him from pitching headlong into traffic.
>
> (Naff 1996:9-10)
=A0
It isn=92t hard to understand why younger Japanese women observing their=20=
older sisters=92 efforts to achieve successful business careers by=20
emulating men have decided that a casual, take-it-or-leave-it approach=20=
is much to be preferred. Or, why many young men now favour feminised=20
lifestyles that combine part-time work with absorption in personal=20
appearance. It is hard to imagine a clearer case of consumerism=20
transforming =91modern=92 ideals.
>>>>
John L. McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama, Japan 220-0006
Tel 81-45-314-9324
Email mccreery@xxxxxxx
"Making Symbols is Our Business"
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