(On the artificial island in the middle of Tokyo Bay in August 2008)MAX WEBER and Poor Americans
So, Ms. Caroline Kennedy chose Mr. Joe Biden for the whole Democrtaic Party, since he is a Catholic.
Indeed, I asked God the other day who would win the race.
Then, a Kenyan marathon runner won in Beijing.
What do you think about it, since you must like to announce the winner of the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election in three months?
But, why have so cloudy and rainy days continued around Tokyo these days, as the temperature dropped to 25 degrees Celsius even in midday, though I am much relieved?
(Yes, I think that the Chinese President visited South Korea yesterday, following a request from the U.S. President, to discuss North Korean issues, including Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean Government's secret agents in these decades...)
SECTION I: MAX WEBER
Even in Japan, some people like to refer to Max Weber (21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) when they want to be respected while discussing something.
Poor Americans, nonetheless, should check Max Weber, too, since his work has become part of justification of the American Material Dream which has virtually fooled so many poor Americans now suffering from the subprime loan problem.
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Weber's essay The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is his most famous work.[12] It is argued that this work should not be viewed as a detailed study of Protestantism, but rather as an introduction into Weber's later works, especially his studies of interaction between various religious ideas and economic behaviour….
According to Weber, one of the universal tendencies that those individuals had to fight was the desire to profit. After defining the spirit of capitalism, Weber argues that there are many reasons to look for its origins in the religious ideas of the Reformation….
Weber showed that certain types of Protestantism – notably Calvinism – favoured rational pursuit of economic gain and worldly activities which had been given positive spiritual and moral meaning.[22] It was not the goal of those religious ideas, but rather a byproduct – the inherent logic of those doctrines and the advice based upon them both directly and indirectly encouraged planning and self-denial in the pursuit of economic gain….
The phrase "work ethic" used in modern commentary is a derivative of the "Protestant ethic" discussed by Weber. It was adopted when the idea of the Protestant ethic was generalised to apply to Japanese people, Jews and other non-Christians….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
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Of course, Max Weber is not so helpful for poor Americans so suffering being surrounded by so much wealth of others.
It is because Max Weber did not mention specific and daily "desire" and "evil" of capitalists.
It is just like Karl Marx did not mention specific and daily "desire" and "evil" of communists.
If they can do away with their human “desire” and “evil,” capitalists will be good for poor people.
If they can do away with their human “desire” and “evil,” even communists will be good for poor people.
(Indeed, religious "desire" and "evil" is the last and first challenge mankind must tackle and must have with Jesus Christ in between.)
SECTION II: MAX WEBER and Japan
Max Weber also could not understand Japan and Japanese religions.
Before the notable era of national isolation of Japan between 1630 and 1860, there was a period of time Japanese had been actively engaged in overseas adventures including the wars with China and Korea.
Since ships from Portugal, Spain, and Dutch reached Japan around 1550, many Japanese citizens, merchants, and samurais willingly ventured out to South East Asia where trade and business were buoyed by deployment and colonization by Western nations.
Only when Christianity spread so widely and strongly inside Japan, the then Japanese samurai regime decided to close the door of the nations so as to exterminate the momentum and eradicate the influence of Christianity in the Japanese society.
However, Max Weber thought it was an inherent nature of Asian religions to have a nation close the door and hold a negative view on the wider world.
Max Weber was wrong in this context.
SECTION III: MAX WEBER and America
Max Weber travelled the U.S. around 1904 when the International Exposition was held in Saint Louis.
He studied various aspects of the American society with a focus on Christianity.
He was mostly impressed with how Christianity worked as moral standards among the American public in accepting business people.
But, he thought that the issue of African Americans must become the most significant one in the coming ages, for he actually observed how African Americans were struggling in their desparate efforts to have access to reasonable education.
So, the underling challenges in the American society were identified by Max Weber as (i) Christianity as ethical standards in the business-oriented American society and (ii) African Americans in the Era after Emancipation of Slaves.
It is apparent that Mr. George W. Bush is based on, and oriented to the paradigm (i), and Mr. Barack Obama on and to the paradigm (ii).
Yet, Mr. John McCain looks more fundamental in terms of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Nonetheless, any of them cannot win and maintain higher social status without a help from super rich people who are living on the post Max-Weber paradigm as they often look like being engulfed by desire and evil of huge wealth and power.
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When Max Weber visited the United States, namely in 1904, the Japanese-Russo War broke out.
As the Empire of Japan won the war while China and India were so helpless and incompetent facing Western powers, there occurred a paradigm change among Asians including Arabs and Muslims, leading to their independence half a century later.
Even after WWII, as Japan has become the second largest economy in the world, much of Max Weber’s work turns to look like effective only in analyzing the European/American Civilization but not so universal.
Consequently, today nobody is startled to see economic success of China and India as their rises don't look like a miracle at all.
In this context, Japan can supersede the great thinking of Max Weber; yet there is one unique American issue Japan cannot be involved in: the race issue around African Americans.
The rise of Hispanics will not solve the issue, since it is just accumulating another burden on unstable foundation yet to be fixed in the American Christian society.
Truly, the tragedy is that many African Americans, except Mr. Obama and the likes of him, look like being discouraged even to check the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
( http://midi-classics.cocolog-nifty.com/mp3/figaro.mp3
Source: http://windy.vis.ne.jp/)
Luk 8:26 And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
Luk 8:27 And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
Luk 8:28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
Luk 8:29 (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)
Luk 8:30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
Luk 8:31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.
Luk 8:32 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.
Luk 8:33 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.