Wednesday, January 13, 2010

I am Laughing

There are people in Japan who, after delivering a very cogent and well-prepared speech, offer an apology and say, "I'm sorry my speech didn't make sense at all. I'm so sorry."

But your speech did make sense! Why apologize? How absurd! Are you mocking all of us? (Well, no. On the contrary, you are trying your best to demean yourself and be socially acceptable.)

Where is your brain? Okay, I will shut up now. I will choose to laugh instead. Ha ha ha.

6 comments:

  1. That's why Japan is "soft"...

    Yes, it may be absurd, but there are a million of other worse things that one could say, could think of, could write about. We live in an imperfect world and are vulnerable to how others perceive us and behave towards to us accordingly. If it makes other people happy to think you're not any better than they are, and perhaps treat you like anyone, maybe it's not really that bad. It might actually be a smart thing to do, after all. Sadly.

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  2. The danger I see is that once you start conforming to social protocol, you begin to expect all others to do the same. Isn't this violence?

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  3. Yes, it could be, implicitly.

    I think social norms are, like most things, a double-edged sword: they make life easier sometimes as "social glue", but they also tend to sideline non-conformists. But, people could conform to social protocol for all sorts of reasons, with no expectation of the same of others. As long as expectations don't become law, non-conformists are still relatively safe and free to lead their preferred lives I think.

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  4. Yes, glue can hold things together, or kill flies. I don't like flies, but what if I were a fly? Would I still hate myself?

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  5. It's hard. That's why I think some people had to have double lives -- a public front that society can accept, and an private self which very few people know about. However, somewhere out there, I believe there's another fly or several flies who can understand each other and share some similar traits. It's really amazing how much alike some people can be with you, especially if you share the same zodiac sign, or even the same birthday, for example.

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  6. Yes, a double life, or even a triple, quadruple, quintuple, life, sounds wonderful. And yes, flies can meet wherever they please, can't they? But finally, yes, it is hard. Hard is the word. Exactly.

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