From NHK’s heartfelt program to Neil Young’s music and Japan’s markets, these past few days reveal 20 years of decline.
A collection of essays written from August 22 to 26, 2010. The author expresses his admiration for a documentary program titled "Mission" over conventional comedy shows, lamenting the decline of Japanese media. He points out the foolishness of people influenced by celebrities and the media's guilt behind the superficial "politics and money" issue. The piece keenly analyzes how the rise of the internet is revealing hidden truths about the economy and politics, leaving traditional media and government behind.
"Mission" with the four old men on NHK BS Hi was great.
2010/08/22
I was watching a program called "Mission" on NHK BS Hi. Midway through, a man was introduced as the "master," and I was sure he was that old man from Kesennuma, and sure enough, he was. He was great, too. I laughed so much more comfortably than I do watching those terrible comedy shows. It was a treasure trove of laughter. Oh, it felt so good.
What television is providing now is no longer a laughing matter.
2010/08/23
I was at Hankyu Ings, about to buy a Wacoal CW-X (high-performance functional athletic underwear). Suddenly, a woman's voice from behind me said, "It's the same thing Ryo-san is wearing..." I turned around to see three women in their 50s. People in their 50s calling an 18-year-old golfer "Ryo-san."
I've had a similar experience before this. At a nearby hotel bar, an elderly man and woman were sitting next to me. The woman said about a young golfer who was a rival to the one mentioned above, "XX has a bad attitude and is a bad person. Everyone around me says so..."
In the first case, I thought about how much of these women's lives have been a non-use of their own minds. How much they have lived a life where they couldn't express themselves. A life where they couldn't realize even a fragment of the diversity that everyone has.
That's probably why women in their 50s—homemakers—call a mere 18-year-old golfer "san." In the past, the Korean Wave boom did have the effect of softening Japan-Korea relations, but...
The problem is that a large number of people are heading towards the kind of thinking in the second case—what kind of intellect is that?
TV, it's time to seriously reflect and disperse to regional areas. This one-sided style of broadcasting exactly the same programs and lukewarm talk shows using useless celebrities should be stopped if journalism is the media's original mission.
Your sins have truly reached a point of no return... and it goes without saying that politics are being chosen at the same level.
Making terrible judgments about people based on appearance and TV presence... It's no different in essence from Germany 60 years ago... or Auschwitz.
Conversation.
2010/08/24
"You're smoking more cigarettes! You're just like a self-indulgent literary writer, with failed double suicides, eventual double suicides, and people in the burning house, etc.," I muttered to a close friend, who replied, "I was at a dead end, so that was the only way. That was how I settled it."
♪Long may you run♪
2010/08/25
I was so oblivious that I didn't realize until now that the song that played at the end of "Philadelphia," a film where Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington gave once-in-a-lifetime performances, was a Neil Young song. That movie seemed to have gotten all of its inspiration from this song and an aria sung by Maria Callas.
I went to bed much earlier than usual, woke up, and watched a live performance of "Western Music Legends" on WOWOW, and it was Neil Young.
He started singing "Philadelphia."
John Lennon once said, "The two artists I'm most into right now are Neil Young and Elton John... I can recognize a Neil Young song from a mile away."
Among his countless gem-like songs, he was now singing one of my favorites, "Long may you run."
In place of a goodnight, I send you all, "♪Long may you run♪"
If you look at these past few days, you'll understand the last 20 years.
2010/08/26
What is visible from the market these past few days?
It is a clear lesson that the Bank of Japan and the government have repeated the same responses over and over for the past 20 years.
The difference between 20 years ago and now is that the media, which has always been in the layer of people earning over 10 million yen a year and has been immune to the suffering of a recession, along with the critics and scholars dancing with them, used to puff on cigarettes and drink coffee in elegant dilettantism.
Now, with the rapid expansion of the internet and the massive increase in the number of people participating in the market through it, the public is overwhelmingly more aware of the trends and realities of the capitalist economy than ever before. The media's monopoly on knowledge in this field has long since collapsed, and the ignorance of the media and politicians has been revealed.
In this sense, too, people must be leaving the established media and political parties in droves.
It is the very essence of karma.
The market is now clearly showing us how they have lowered Japan and its national power.
There are no gods in the market, but it is broadcasting live across the country that whether a nation prospers or declines depends on the rulers of the time, or on the abilities of the people in the elite class who influence them, or on the abilities of the media.
If you look at the market and the responses of the government and authorities in these past few days, everything should be clear now.
It's natural for the eyes of the media—where the majority of employees are over 30 and earn more than 10 million yen a year—to be clouded. It's the worst way for a person to be, especially in economic competition. It's inevitable that they would fall into dilettantism.
It's also inevitable that the government and the Bank of Japan, which have treated the media and critics who have no anxiety about their own lives as "public opinion," have continued to repeat the same responses over these last 20 years, just like in these past few days.
