I watched a video about the history of Christianity in Japan. I had never really thought about it before. I get offered quite a few Japanese things in my algorithm and it seemed worthy of 30 minutes. And indeed, it was a very interesting film that made me think quite a bit. Here is the video.
If you would like to study more about the subject, you can click here as a general starter.
Christian mercenaries in Japan
The topic I wish to speak about is not necessarily the spread of Christianity in Japan or even Japan’s desire to attempt to isolate themselves from the west. It’s about the act of including oneself for one’s organization into the lives of others and what that organization does.
The interesting thing about the film is the level of graciousness offered in the beginning versus the actual contemptuous actions towards the end. The Christian Church was not going to be denied. When there were great manners and difference and the Japanese people were open and respectful, the Christians were gentle with them but got their deals and their compromises. When things started going wrong, the game became a little bit more serious but the Christians persevered. Even in the end when we have this mass murder done as a public statement against Christianity, you still have the residue of Christianity behind. Not so much those who truly believe on the inside that they are still Christians, just the act of dealing with the existence of Christianity is the thing that remains.
At the end of the day, the change that took place was not that there was some thought about Christ and how to properly abuse oneself to prove that there is no thought in your head except for God and the totalitarian reactions that were necessary. Before this time, I suppose people pay their taxes and I suppose there was terrible corruption and the world was not great. But at the same time, I don’t think there was a lot of screaming about one’s soul or what goes on other than the work you do. That’s sort of a staple of Japanese culture in that the thing that you do is the thing that is more important than what you are. This is not true of royalty of course but we’re talking about the general mass of human beings. You do a good job, you act politely, you control yourself at all times.
I’m not sure that it was completely necessary to have anything other than men who were willing to charge when ordered. If they were thinking of something else but would charge when ordered, I don’t think anybody cared anymore about that. But don’t think the Japanese were ever very big about caring about people’s feelings, I’m just saying that nobody was asking about anybody’s soul. Everyone just wanted the job done and that’s all.
So I think a lot about American culture these days. The elections are upcoming again and I seem to be on the wall of every post office. I still feel I am the same person as I was before in that I can’t help noticing things that disturb me sometimes. I’ll give you some examples.
Stammering. I don’t know where it began that people started to go um ah oh while they were saying something. It’s that self-efacing business where you are too modest to say it so you stammer to your conclusion. What did you do with that girl? Well, um, you know, I – I – I just… Um…. You know. I don’t remember when we all started doing this but I think it was significant that suddenly in order to be fashionable as an American, we all had to have a problem expressing ourselves. You couldn’t just say that you took her to a movie and then brought her home. It has to be something unsayable?
I also remember when suddenly there was a trend towards respecting the military at baseball games. Suddenly we were singing God bless America in the seventh inning and remembering the military and being good to soldiers was essential to the baseball experience. I am sure that I’m being a complete terrible person and a traitor to say that I am not really so fond of slapping murderers on the back. I’m not saying that you can’t justify being a soldier or patriotism, I’m just saying that the guys that are okay pulling the trigger and killing people are not necessarily the ones I wish to promote. If countries have to murder people, it has to do with suppressing crime against us the state. That’s the whole point of security and war for that matter. But considering the level of economics that the United States puts people in, I guess you have to expect a little backfighting. Again, I say we are not supposed to kill as a species. I don’t think people get a free pass because they chose to get paid to be killers and accepted the job happily. And I’m sorry, I really don’t believe we need to be wasting all of these resources on all of the invalids we create on both sides by military actions. We shouldn’t be making these people in the first place.
When did we start doing this as a collective understanding? Cancel culture. When did we start doing this as a matter of our thinking process? When was this double think given to us?
Now I have Russia going into the schools and teaching military history including the Russian side of the story concerning ethnic cleansing and genocide in Ukraine. This is propaganda. This is the essence of propaganda. But it’s more than that. It’s a part of this absolute totality of soul and agreement that is being sought out by all sides.
When the Christians started expanding themselves and bringing all of the good diseases with themselves, what they were spreading was not necessarily the idea that God had a son through the Virgin Mary and that he agreed that the Romans were correct to kill him is not a hit single. It’s literally a chicken in every pot. It’s the point that the argument must be dealt with in perpetuity. You are not allowed to simply say what you want to say or do what you want to do because there is this argument on the table.
Another cultural noticing is how Americans talk about religion. I’m not religious but I’m a spiritual person. I am a Christian. I am Jewish but I don’t practice. I am a Christian but we don’t really go to church. I go to the church and I study all the time. I am not religious. I just believe in spirituality. That’s what everyone says. It’s not that we are individuals in our beliefs. This gets as entangled as listening to the non-binary community work with their levels of self-description. It is all unnecessary double talk that we have been given and it is something that, pardon the pun, gets rammed down our throats no matter what you do. You can’t just be, you have to agree to your identity. You have to agree that you have been segregated and explained to a higher unseen thing. You have to agree to be a slave in your soul.
I think this is the essence of Christianity really. It’s not really about the dogma of the Bible or whether one believes or wants to believe in the story of Christ. This would also include the story of Moses by the way or of Muhammad or of the Buddha. It isn’t really essential that the legend be fully read and understood. It is that we agree that this is how we segregate ourselves from others and this is a universal.
Another odd example that comes to mind is writing about the indigenous people of Western Russia. Moscow dealt with them by allowing them to continue to live in original culture. They were free to fish and live in yurts and do whatever it was that they did to live. It was just how much money they got that meant something. They literally had to stay out there and they could not mingle with modern culture. All of this seems fair enough except that the garbage and pollution of the modern culture was killing all of the hunting and fishing grounds and siphoning off all of the kids who just really liked the lights and perceived freedom of town.
Even in my own wretched situation, I have this group of people literally suffocating me because this is the way they do what they do. Once they chose me as an object, the day that I complained and they decided to get nasty with me for complaining, it was a 100% to the death experience. I needed to give them my soul and sign a piece of paper. I needed to agree to be the dog. I needed to agree to be owned. Where the hell do you think this came from?
So I think with the elections on their way and these very old men are standing up there telling us about the vibrancy they bring to their regimes, or about how each of them avoids crimes by staying in public office, I think we really need to consider Christianity as being one of the main stumbling blocks to reach and consensus about sustainability and how to run life on planet Earth. It seems they are going to fight for the monetary system simply because there is no possibility of thinking otherwise. This I see in all of my friends. They were all taught that the military was great every time they watch the ball game. They all learn to stammer and be self-efacing when speaking. They all get properly upset. They all agree that punishment is good and that security is good. They all believe the same thing and they all do the same thing and nothing ever changes.
Last year, the American elections were decided in the Midwest and deep south. I’ve talked often about the media Monopoly down there. It’s also the land of the most suffocating Christianity. They like to check each other’s souls in these Christian places and they can be persuasive.
I think it’s time to rethink our allowance of Christianity into our lives. No matter what you think of me and no matter how blocked and thrown away I am, let’s understand each other. If you’re not allowed to hear me, it is the Empire that is stopping my words. I am not free to say that people should be free to make their own decisions. The Empire likes people to remain stupid. Even to the death of the planet.
Something to think about anyway, if you have the capacity. That is, if you’re not too busy.
And by the way…
