In response to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, CNN posted:
The layer of human turmoil - looting and scuffles for food or services - that often comes in the wake of disaster seems noticeably absent in Japan.
“Looting simply does not take place in Japan. I’m not even sure if there’s a word for it that is as clear in its implications as when we hear ‘looting,’" said Gregory Pflugfelder, director of the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University.
Japanese have “a sense of being first and foremost responsible to the community,” he said.
To Merry White, an anthropology professor at Boston University who studies Japanese culture , the real question is why looting and disorder exist in American society. She attributes it largely to social alienation and class gaps.
"There IS some alienation and indeed some class gaps in Japan too but violence, and taking what belongs to others, are simply not culturally approved or supported," White said in an e-mail. ...
"Such social order and discipline are so enforced in ordinary times that I think it’s very easy for Japanese to kind of continue in the manner that they’re accustomed to, even under an emergency.”
The communitarian spirit at the foundation of Japanese culture seems to function even more efficiently under the stress of disaster, he said. The natural American inclination is to operate independently. “So you do everything you can to protect your own interests with the understanding that, in a rather free-market way, everybody else is going to do the same. And that order will come out of this sort of invisible hand."
More sensibly, Nicholas Kristof blogs for the NYT:
But, having covered the 1995 Kobe earthquake (which killed more than 6,000 people and left 300,000 homeless) when I lived in Japan as Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times, I have to add: Watch Japan in the coming days and weeks, and I bet we can also learn some lessons. ...
Japan’s orderliness and civility often impressed me during my years living in Japan, but never more so than after the Kobe quake. Pretty much the entire port of Kobe was destroyed, with shop windows broken all across the city. I looked all over for a case of looting, or violent jostling over rescue supplies. Finally, I was delighted to find a store owner who told me that he’d been robbed by two men. Somewhat melodramatically, I asked him something like: And were you surprised that fellow Japanese would take advantage of a natural disaster and turn to crime? He looked surprised and responded, as I recall: Who said anything about Japanese. They were foreigners.
Japan has an underclass, the burakumin, and also treats ethnic Koreans with disdain. But compared to other countries, Japan has little extreme poverty and a greater sense of common purpose. The middle class is unusually broad, and corporate tycoons traditionally were embarrassed to be seen as being paid too much. That sense of common purpose is part of the country’s social fabric, and it is especially visible after a natural disaster or crisis.
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147 comments:
Yes, all the looters look like Ayn Rand and Adam Smith.
Yeeeeeeeep.
But after the Kanto Earthquake, Japanese scapegoated Koreans and rioted and killed thousands.
There is crime but Japanese are so orderly that they institutionalized it. Yakuza are part of the Japanese social order. They don't steal randomly but systematically under agreement with rest of society.
Yeah, lawless American inner cities are full of free marketer.
"But after the Kanto Earthquake, Japanese scapegoated Koreans and rioted and killed thousands."
From the Wikipedia:
"One particularly pernicious rumor was that Koreans were taking advantage of the disaster, committing arson and robbery, and were in possession of bombs."
The commenter above used the word "scapegoated", clearly implying those rumors weren't actually true. How can you know that? Have you studied that time and place? I have no idea if those rumors were true or not, so I wouldn't discount anything here. But for some reason you did.
By the way, I'm not aware of any historical periods where these two peoples overflowed with love for each other.
when were japanese tycoons embarassed about being paid too much? In the 80's in tokyo, rich japanese would leave their cars parked on the street with the engines running to show how much money they had...
You can find this kind of attitude at the neighborhood level in America still.
The elephant is in the room.
Guess we should close our borders like the Japanese, then. Right, CNN? Foster that sense of community?
The NYT isn't allowed to notice that when Iowa and Missouri were under water during the summer of 2008 there really wasn't any looting to speak of.
South Dakota should be dealing with significant flooding in the coming months, owing to a record wet 2010 and healthy winter snow fall. Sioux Falls, the states largest city (still small as they go) should experience the brunt of the flooding. There won't be any looting.
North Dakota also gets its share of flooding. Fargo and Grand Forks get hit every few years it seems. No looting there either.
"The commenter above used the word 'scapegoated', clearly implying those rumors weren't actually true."
Kurosawa said in SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY that after the earthquake, he scrawled something near a waterwell like all kids do. Rumor then spread that Koreans were using secret codes to commit sabotage.
Scapegoating entire groups happens in extreme situations. Many German-Americans were suspected as spies during WWI. Japanese-Americans were 'interned' during WWII. In the book MAFIA by Maran, I was surprised to learn that some Italians in Britain were 'interned' during WWII.
Even Japanese today admit that the killing of Koreans in the Kanto Earthquake was a case of mass panic based on wild rumors.
"The communitarian spirit at the foundation of Japanese culture seems to function even more efficiently under the stress of disaster, he said. The natural American inclination is to operate independently."
That must be why all those white Iowans went on a looting spree following the flood.
And why was it that blacks have rioted against Jews in Crown Heights but not vice versa?
And with blacks voting 95% Democratic and being pro-welfare, aren't blacks ideologically the most socialist in the US. Yet, they seem to riot and loot the most.
Most looting happens in big cities dominated by liberal big government statism and with lots of wonderful peace-loving 'people of color'. Why is that?
I've been listening to CNN tonight (3/12). Reporting from Japan, a correspondent told Wolf Blitzer that the Japanese "are lucky to have such a low crime rate."
Yes, some people have all the luck. Seems so unfair, really.
I have to admit that the reporter was getting into dangerous territory, speaking about the many fine qualities that make Japan able to cope with a disaster like this better than certain other countries and cities. People might start thinking about what what those less-able-to-cope cities and countries have in common.
"The layer of human turmoil - looting and scuffles for food or services - that often comes in the wake of disaster seems noticeably absent in Japan."
What is with this need to act as if the Japanese are somehow more evolved than the rest of us at every opportunity. The fact is they have a history of collective violence during war just like everyone else does. Not to mention a cult of suicide to save one's self and one's family from humiliation.
I'm sorry the Japanese are suffering but get real. There is usually a negative aspect to every positive trait. These people have a distinct culture not a better one. If I were Japanese, I'd be insulted that people were talking about me like I was a surprisingly well behaved child especially at a time like this.
P.S. If we have a major disaster and I'm not able to get back home, feel free to eat my food, wear my clothes and sleep in my bed. And, if you must, burn all the furniture to stay warm.
I guess if we follow the statements of the Clinton News Network to their logical conclusion, then we should have much less looting if the country were ~100% black like many African countries and Haiti? Because far less looting occurs there?
No negroes or 85 IOequivalents running around in Japan. They also don't sell there own people down the river for cheap labor like we do in amerikwa.
Of course we know why the media does this, but they really need to stop using "Americans" when really they should be referencing specific (racial) subpopulations.
The most common usage: "'American' students are falling behind their peers in education," when in fact white and Asian students are doing great.
This also reminds me of John Podhertz's risible indignation to Steve's analysis of the looting and violence after Hurricane Katrina. You should repost his comments just for giggles.
As others have pointed out, the upper midwest seems to have that spirit of cooperation--and I think you could add the Nashville area to that. There was so little news out of Tennessee few even heard about it. No Wolf Blitzer on 'the situation room' exclaiming -- 'but they're so working class, and so white".
Anonymous said... P.S. If we have a major disaster and I'm not able to get back home, feel free to eat my food, wear my clothes and sleep in my bed. And, if you must, burn all the furniture to stay warm.
How long should we wait before we do all this?
Wow. Sailer is nailing this stuff so efficiently that there is little for us commenters to add.
Okay – just how stupid are the morons who write for the Pravda Media? Maybe the more important question is just how stupid are the “smart” folks who read it and believe it?
Self deception is natural and normal in any human being. Unfortunately, the opinion makers and their followers have gone too far, and live in a complete fantasy world.
Brimelow is right. This will all end in tears.
The liberal-left worldview is based on rent-seeking parasitism. Of course they have to defend "communitarianism", which is really a coverall term for protecting rent-seeking parasites.
" The communitarian spirit at the foundation of Japanese culture seems to function even more efficiently under the stress of disaster, he said. The natural American inclination is to operate independently. “So you do everything you can to protect your own interests with the understanding that, in a rather free-market way, everybody else is going to do the same. And that order will come out of this sort of invisible hand.""
Funny. Contrary to this leftist, my "just-so" story would have blamed looting on Democrats and communism.
As the communists say, "from each according to their abilities. To each according to their needs."
And the Democrats consider wealth differentials immoral and in need of taxation to rectify in the BEST of times. How much more important to equalize wealth in a disaster. Think of looting as an ad hoc Democratic disaster tax.
"The NYT isn't allowed to notice that when Iowa and Missouri were under water during the summer of 2008 there really wasn't any looting to speak of."
I don't remember any looting to speak of during the Great Flood of 1993 or the flooding in 2008. I was living in Missouri in both those years, near but not in the worst hit areas. I have photos I took of entire residential blocks whose houses looked like they were floating on a huge lake. People were worred about water damage and mold but not about looting.
Re the flood of 1993: "The scope of the 1993 'big one' is almost incomprehensible. The Mississippi River from Minnesota to Missouri. The Raccoon River in Des Moines. The Missouri River in numerous places. The Illinois River backing up. From June to August, the story got bigger as the flooding got worse. Town after town held its community breath day after day, hoping against hope that the levees protecting its businesses, houses and farms would hold on. In many cases, perhaps most, the rivers won.
In the midst of it all. Jay Leno commented that in other places where natural disasters strike, one common reaction is looting and stealing by others. But in the Midwest, what you find is people helping people with sandbagging, food, water and donations of money. People in the Midwest must be different, Leno noted."
The Great Flood of 1993.
And from The Independent, UK: "The Great Flood of 1993 has been a showcase for the unfashionable attributes of heartland America. This is a down-to-earth world of hard work and patience, of orderliness, decency and good neighbourliness.
In the hour of trial, everyone pitches in; the sense of community is tangible."
Crime Falls as Community Spirit Floods Midwest.
Re the flood of 2008: "No Rioting or Looting as Residents Keep Fighting Rising Mississippi River"
No Rioting or Looting as Residents Keeping Fighting Rising Mississippi River.
"People might start thinking about what what those less-able-to-cope cities and countries have in common."
Racist governments?
I am in Japan, was in Kobe for the '95 quake. It's a shame-based culture, though not as strong as it once was. Yes, there are powerful incentives against looting and stealing, but there is a fairly common disdain for acquiring *anything* secondhand. (Like most foreigners who come here I was amazed and delighted that perfectly good TV's and other appliances could be found at the corner garbage collection sites.)
The experts on CNN and Mr Kristof both avoided an aspect of the shame-based culture that many day laborers and clean-up crew volunteers who descended on Kobe after the quake took advantage of - rape often goes unreported here. And there were enough cases in the downtown area where I lived that neighborhood patrol groups posted warnings in both Japanese and English.
Upthread there is mention of organized crime. The Yakuza are scum, but I can say that on the day, in the neighborhood where I lived, they outperformed the city govermment and Japan's version of a national guard. They had tents out and food ready, and were pulling people out of buildings.
Reuters guy, through his visibly stressed translator: "But you guys are the Yakuza, the bad guys who everyone fears."
Yak: "The strong help the weak, now f*ck off."
To Merry White, an anthropology professor at Boston University who studies Japanese culture , the real question is why looting and disorder exist in American society.
anthropology (ān'thrə-pŏl'ə-jē)
The scientific study of humans, especially of their origin, their behavior, and their physical, social, and cultural development.
Anyone wants to help solving the mystery for this Harvard-educated academic?
"If I were Japanese, I'd be insulted that people were talking about me like I was a surprisingly well behaved child especially at a time like this."
No one describes them that way when they're discussing the Bataan Death March or the Rape of Nanking. Japanese are viewed as well-behaved mainly in contrast to our own Katrina children. It's unlikely that any Japanese people are reading disucssions like this "at a time like this" anyway; I'm guessing they have other things on their minds.
Right. In Japan, there is no free market. That's why there was no looting.
Guess we should close our borders like the Japanese, then. Right, CNN? Foster that sense of community?
That would be a bridge too far for CNN.
Laughable spin from the mainstream media as usual, we don't see any looting amongst the Dutch when they've been flooded massively in the past, and the Dutch are about as capitalistic a people as exist in Europe. There was a massive North Sea flood in Hamburg in 1962 amongst the very Dutch like inhabitants of that city and no mention of looting or riots there either. However to notice these things would force the media to confront the issue of why there was so much disorganization and crime and looting in New Orleans and it's best not to look at Japan, the Netherlands in 1953, Germany in 1962 and then compare them to 2005 New Orleans and notice the differences, CRIMETHOUGHT ALERT.
I went through the Cyclone Tracy in Darwin on Christmas Eve, 1974.
The small amount of looting that was done was not done by those Northern European descended people in Darwin.
It is not just the Japanese who are very orderly in a disaster.
I guess that I am missing a critical piece of knowledge. Besides Katrina, what other natural disaster-based looting sprees have we had in the US? The only other looting that comes to mind is from race-based riots.
"Besides Katrina, what other natural disaster-based looting sprees have we had in the US? The only other looting that comes to mind is from race-based riots."
There was looting during the 1965 and 1977 electrical blackouts in New York. OK, those weren't natural disasters, but neither did they start as race-based riots.
"More sensibly, Nicholas Kristof blogs for the NYT:
Pretty much the entire port of Kobe was destroyed, with shop windows broken all across the city."
Is this typical of the powers of observation of a NYT reporter? This is a ludicrous statement. I was in Kobe in 1997, and save for a few vacant lots and a few cordoned-off buildings, it was difficult to tell that anything had been amiss - only two years after the event. And it's not as if most of the buildings were two years old or younger - far from it. Yes, Kobe sustained heavy damage, but to say that it was "destroyed" is just flat-out wrong.
Reportedly, a lot of the people killed in Kobe were killed by falling roof-tiles - the japanese insist on roofing their houses with heavy ceramic tiles. Many others who were killed were those in some of the older concrete buildings that did not - as it turned out - have much if any rebar in them....much like in Mexico City quake of 1985.
Besides Katrina, what other natural disaster-based looting sprees have we had in the US?
There was looting in Homestead, Florida after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Also, though not a natural disaster, there was a great deal of looting during the New York City blackout in 1977.
Here's another article describing the civility of the Japanese in response to the crisis.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake-polite-20110313,0,4238012.story
Some looting may be justified though. North Korea suffered man-made famine--caused mostly by government policies--in the 1990s that may have killed over a million but people didn't dare riot and loot. In that case, they should have.
After the Iowa floods, I remember there was a small amount of looting in some lower income white areas.
According to MSM, Lew Rockwell is more to blame than rap music for black behavior.
Midwesterners are well behaved until you try and take away their union benefits. That is a real disaster for them. Then they're not above destroying other people's property.
Are none of you able to read? I mean like not a single one of you? The articles are omitting a couple of things (like how constant racial grievance talk and excusing black violence causes more of it) but the sole point that the article does make seems rather sensible, to wit: Societies with less of an income and lifestyle gap - particularly when they focus less on the cult of the individual - have less crime of all sorts.
I get that this blog is filled with commenters whose dual passions are Blacks and Jews and that everything has to somehow be reduced to one of those two themes but do you not realize how monomanically sick you sound? In every society it's predominantly the poor who act like assholes and it's because...{drumroll}... they're poor! Everyone else is flashing cars, lawns, white collars and self respect and they (for any of a bunch of nature and/or nurture reasons) have none of that. OF COURSE they're bitter and occasionally have a go at it.
Is that all there is to the story? No, our society encourages black violence regularly and blacks themselves seem somewhat predisposed to it too. The articles won't touch the third rail. The PERMITTED rails however about the perniciousness of greed, individualism and worshipping the almighty dollar however are still true, all the same.
Anonymous said... The only other looting that comes to mind is from race-based riots.
And don't forget the rioting/looting that happens after NBA championships.
I seem to remember a very big and devastating earthquake occurring in China in the mid 1970s Being but a babe in arms then, I can't recall it that well, but I seem to remember the loss of life was truly massive, and that it was hardly reported, TV news only showed a map and 2 minutes of commentary, China being closed off Maoist state in those days.
I seem to remember 100s of 1000s died.
Steve, if a devastating earthquake struck Vermont - and wiped it off the face of Earth so that no stick of timber was left standing, then I'm pretty damned sure the gentle, bearded leftwingers of Vermont would behave even more selflessly, orderly and magnaminously than the Japanese.
- Now I scratch my head and wonder why, must be something in the water, I can't think of any other rational explanation :)
Some looting may be justified though. North Korea suffered man-made famine--caused mostly by government policies--in the 1990s that may have killed over a million but people didn't dare riot and loot. In that case, they should have.
Yes, but they are also able to sustain a 1st world civilization, as proven by their brothers to the south.
To the anonynmous who tries to claim it is 'the poor' who always lash out because of a sense of resentment - you are wrong, wrong, wrong.
For example, until recently Ireland was a poor country with an enormous number of unemployed, it was the poorest nation in Europe, in fact.And yet Ireland was a well ordered and peaceful place with modest levels of theft, robbery and murder.The same could be said of many other European nations and even of the oriental nations.
"To the anonynmous who tries to claim it is 'the poor' who always lash out because of a sense of resentment - you are wrong, wrong, wrong."
Actually your example made his point. The issue is not absolute poverty, but relative poverty (that is relative to one's neighbors, and not people in foreign countries you've never visited). Robert H. Frank is the one of the few economists who seem to get this point.
http://tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/economics/comments/robert-frank-on-income-and-happiness/
There were many things about Katrina that the MSM couldn't get a grip on, and none more than the person of Sheriff Harry Lee of Jefferson Parish. They just couldn't wrap their head around the 300-pound Chinese dude with the yat accent. You could really hear the "does not compute" tone of the east coast reporters' voices, knowing that the boilerplate stereotype stories just weren't going to fly here.
"Are none of you able to read? I mean like not a single one of you? The articles are omitting a couple of things (like how constant racial grievance talk and excusing black violence causes more of it) but the sole point that the article does make seems rather sensible, to wit: Societies with less of an income and lifestyle gap - particularly when they focus less on the cult of the individual - have less crime of all sorts. "
- You want to think through that one again? The article states:
1. “To Merry White, an anthropology professor at Boston University who studies Japanese culture , the real question is why looting and disorder exist in American society. She attributes it largely to social alienation and class gaps.
"There IS some alienation and indeed some class gaps in Japan too but violence, and taking what belongs to others, are simply not culturally approved or supported," White said in an e-mail.”
-If ‘class gaps’ are the issue then why do poor whites not carry on like the black Katrina looters when a disaster strikes? There were a group of whites stuck in the middle of Katrina in the Superdome who acted very organized, pulled together as a group to protect each other and especially help and protect the women in their group. Why didn’t the blacks act this way? Why are the rates of theft in general so much higher among poor blacks than poor whites? If ‘social alienation’ is the reason than why do you find these problems much worse in societies that are nearly 100% black such as in Zimbabwe, and Haiti? Shouldn’t they have less ‘class gaps’ and ‘social alienation’ there? Why in cities that are predominantly black, such as Detroit, DC, and Baltimore, do you find the highest crime rates of related crimes like burglary, robbery, assault, etc? Why, when S. Africa is 80-90% black (depending on how you define black) do you see vastly higher rates of black crime per capita than white crime; black government has been in power for a generation now, and there are plenty of poor whites there. If Dr. White’s ideas are true, shouldn’t we see the whites doing the robbing and not blacks?
2. “The communitarian spirit at the foundation of Japanese culture seems to function even more efficiently under the stress of disaster, he said. The natural American inclination is to operate independently. “So you do everything you can to protect your own interests with the understanding that, in a rather free-market way, everybody else is going to do the same. And that order will come out of this sort of invisible hand."”
- This is frankly just a dig at the right wing, as Sailer mentions. Where is the evidence that this is due to free market capitalism? In capitalist societies, you have income gaps; in communist countries, the gap between the top and the bottom is actually even higher, because all the wealth is in the hands of the elites. As I mentioned above, reading into Katrina you find out about a group of whites in the middle of it, who acted in a very organized, group defense mode, to the benefit of the group. In general, you see whites helping each other and the community after a disaster. Whites and charitable acts go hand in hand, regardless of whether or not they live under free market societies. Probably the real reason nonsense ideas like those spouted off in the article have been allowed to persist in the west at all. Lets also consider that the wealth in free market capitalist societies allows them to make buildings, etc that are more resistant to disaster, and provide better response teams to deal with disasters. There was an earthquake in Chile about a month after the Haitian earthquake, and despite the fact that the Chilean earthquake was almost 100x stronger (7 vs 8.8) the Chileans dealt with it far better both in preparing ahead of time and in dealing with it at the time of the accident. Chile is a model of free-market capitalism in South America, and you simply did not have the looting going on there that you had in Haiti (or the rapes, murders, etc). Perhaps not surprisingly, the population of Chile is largely descended from European whites, whereas the population of Haiti is nearly entirely black.
Collective bargaining is protected in Japan. That explains the diff.
There is a lot of common purpose and civility in white American society. When they had the Witch Fire in San Diego not so long ago, about 500,000 folks had to flee their homes. And about six were arrested for looting. And ALL WERE ILLEGAL ALIENS!
Someone has mentioned the institutionalized nature of the Yakuza. Yakuza is very large, one of the five big crime organizations in the world. Makes the most money through extortion, genial as it may be. NOT to be trifled but still very lethal and criminal nonetheless.
Look.America of the 1900s was much more unequal than the America of today.
But yet, in the white parts of the USA at least, there was never a serious problem with crime or disorder.
With so much population suddenly lost, I wonder if Japan will have to consider bringing in gaijin to help with reconstruction? And if so, which types of gaijin will they favor? They certainly won't go for Diversity. Japs don't pretend to be ignorant about human differences.
"...it's because...{drumroll}... they're poor!"
But why are they poor? Is the MSM allowed to draw the obvious link between laziness, lack of impulse control and stupidity on the one hand and poverty on the other? Not really. Is it allowed to point out the persistent relationship between nature, ethnicity, race on the one hand and laziness, industriousness, impulse control, stupidity, intelligence on the other? It's not allowed to do that at all.
HBD (Steve's main focus) has a lot to do with the reasons why the poor become poor.
"Societies with less of an income and lifestyle gap - particularly when they focus less on the cult of the individual - have less crime of all sorts."
The Japanese have a small income gap because they have a small ability gap. If they imported 10 million Nigerians tomorrow, they'd get a huge ability gap. If they then refused to massively redistribute from those who can and do to those who can't and couldn't be bothered, then this ability gap would quickly turn into an income gap.
We here already redistribute more than enough. Thanks to public housing, section 8, food stamps, Medicaid, etc., the income gap in the US is much, much smaller than the ability gap. This artificial narrowing of the income gap was achieved by 1) stealing from those who can 2) borrowing. As I'm sure you know, the borrowing has reached unsustainable levels already.
So what do you propose? That we redistribute even more? Borrow even more?
"perniciousness of greed, individualism and worshipping the almighty dollar however are still true..."
The most selfish behavior I've ever seen in my life, I've seen in "the hood." The most shameless, tasteless glorification of money I've ever heard in my life, I've heard in rap "songs" and on MTV's "Cribs". So what's your point?
OT: headline on Drudge: City Lowers Police Testing Standards Because not Enough Blacks Passed".
I'm not surprised that it's happened, I'm surprised that Drudge gave it such an informative headline.
"Midwesterners are well behaved until you try and take away their union benefits. That is a real disaster for them. Then they're not above destroying other people's property."
Wisconsin is so far left I haven't considered it part of the Midwest for years. Ditto Illinois and Iowa.
My husband had to join a union in order to take his current job. The union's monthly bulletin, with its strident leftist slant and hysterical fear-mongering, would be indistinguishable from HuffPo if it included some "celeb" news items. It goes straight from our mailbox to our garbage can. I won't even use it to line the catbox.
We aren't alone in feeling this way. In this case, for "Midwesterners", you should substitute "Obama supporters". That would be more accurate and more honest.
I've been wondering if Japan is on the verge of one of those massive societal changes to which it is periodically subject (e.g., the Meiji Restoration, the changes after WWII, etc...). Perhaps this quake will help trigger such a change.
What a wonderful society where everyone looks alike,thinks alike, acts alike. Where everyone comes to the aid of any clo, er, citizens affected by a disaster. Where everyone knows what everyone else is doing through via almost-instantaneous pheromone communication. This is the paradise one gets when one wipes out all HBD variation. Gee, I wish we could all be like that.
what this leaves out is that there are no mexican illegals and unemployed blacks over in japan. Janpan is pretty homogenous. I think the same thing will happen in other countries where the population is mostly homogenous.
All for the tribe and the tribe for one.
Now, Haiti has deep poverty and black people. Did they have looting? Only if there was something to loot I guess.
"There was looting during the 1965 and 1977 electrical blackouts in New York."
But there was no looting during the 2004 blackout. Actually even the regular crime all but disappeared during those couple of days.
Sure, all else being equal and after a certain point, too much diversity erodes communal spirit, as Robert Puttnam found to his surprise. But sure, all else being equal and after a certain point, too much income disparity is likely to do the same thing.
Just to add to the data pile: there's no way of knowing whether there would have been looting in the Marina neighborhood of SF after the earthquake of 1989, because there was still a military base in SF at that time and the neighborhood was placed under guard for over a month.
"Anonymous said...
""Anonymous said... The only other looting that comes to mind is from race-based riots.""
And don't forget the rioting/looting that happens after NBA championships."
Or in the Quickie-Mart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7DN-uF79es&feature=related
Or in the IHOP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F98dHULBIic&feature=related
So what IS the difference? It's a real puzzler. Some things we will never know.
Thripshaw said, "Self deception is natural and normal in any human being. Unfortunately, the opinion makers and their followers have gone too far, and live in a complete fantasy world."
I know an extremely successful white adult male, retired, late 60's middle American, that believes the NYTimes hook, line and sinker when it comes to issues of race (and for that matter: gay marriage, guns, education, hispanics doing work Americans won't, Bell Curve, John 'freakin' Wayne...).
Of course, he is the one of the most conservative people in his personal life you will ever meet. And you talkin' about future orientation, he would put any Asian to shame. Yet, his "opinion" is the polar opposite of his personal actions and experiences. It is mind boggling to watch in action, which I have personally done for many years.
MDR
"OF COURSE they're bitter and occasionally have a go at it."
Hmmmm, the "poor" in this country often have material items before their middle class counterparts--when your food is paid for, 3/4ths of your rent (by the taxpayers), your health care, dental, etc., you can affort those big screen tvs, you know?
My neighbors, on all kinds of public assistance, lived in a house larger than mine and had every convenience I didn't have. When one of them shot up the neighborhood one night, and later put a pellet in my cat because he thought the cat had left paw prints on his "Z" I put the house up for sale and moved, at great expense, to a better neighborhood.
That was 14 years ago...and now, they've crept into this neighborhood (the housing bubble has left many homes empty, investors are buying them little by little and they are filling up with Section 8 voucher trash) and I am, of course, thinking of moving again--this time, out of CA.
And, so it goes.
"Look.America of the 1900s was much more unequal than the America of today.
But yet, in the white parts of the USA at least, there was never a serious problem with crime or disorder."
Otoh, many people reported far fewer crime to the police back then. Even so, things may have been 'better' back then cuz most families remained intact. And fathers often belted their sons. Not a good way to raise kids but a way to scare them getting too much out of hand.
Also, though organized criminals are scum, they tend to prefer safe streets in their own communities. So, even mafia guys were expected, indeed required, to maintain intact families. In CASINO, the old bosses will kill people if some guy is sleeping with the "Jew's wife".
Same may be true with Japan. Yakuza can be violent, but they follow a certain rule of who should be killed or beaten up; violence is rarely random. In the film KIDS RETURN, one young yakuza guy gets out of line and gets punished really bad.
In other ways, there seems to have been far more tribal violence among whites in the past than today. There are many accounts of ethnic enclaves in NY at war for turf. So, if an Italian-American kid entered the wrong neighborhood, he could be beaten up by Polish-Americans or Irish-American. So, there was more inter-ethnic violence among white people. (And there was more white vs white animosity in Europe before and during WWII and then between Eastern whites and Western whites during the Cold War). And when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, whites rioted against Japanese-Americans. Even in 1979 with the Iranian hostage crisis, I remember some isolated incidents with whites and blacks ganging up on 'ragheads' around certain NY communities. Just an excuse to beat up people.
In the book MAFIA, I was surprised to learn that many Italians initially settled in New Orleans, which was mostly run by Irish at the time. When a bunch of mob guys killed an Irish cop, 9 Italian defendents were locked up at the police station. An Irish mob lynched 8 of them, and cops did nothing to stop it. And the violence spread to other Italians in the neighborhood, which is why so many of them fled to NY, where they plied their organized crime trade on a larger scale.
So, though one can argue that some races are less prone to violence than others, all people are capable of violence. The difference is whites and Asians seem to have more capacity for change(toward social order)than blacks. Pathologically violent Vikings later became pathologically flaky Swedes. As for Indonesians and the like, I don't know. There were horrendous outbreaks of violence against the Chinese during the Asian Financial Crisis and fall of Suharto. But things seemed to have calmed down since then.
When US accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy during the Serbian War, Chinese mobs went near crazy. Initially, the Chinese government fanned the nationalist flames and then acted decisively to suppress it cuz it might have led to out-of-control violence.
One thing that really sticks out. If some races have a capacity for destruction but also for rebuilding, after blacks destroy stuff they seem incapable of rebuilding. Others have to do it for them, but then blacks will tear it down in the next round of violence.
Sorry to be repetitious, but it has to be said again that nobody reads the NYT. I could walk into 100 Starbucks around the West Coast, and never see a single copy. Same with any library. On the Berkeley campus, up to about 2008, you could see them lying forlornly in front of every apt. bldg, until the promotions stopped. Once in a great while you'll see someone reading one on a commute bus out of S.F. at night. There must be a story there somewhere as to the economics of the continuing enterprise.
Pathologically violent Vikings later became pathologically flaky Swedes.
"Pathologically violent" Vikings were a certain small, pathological element that got restless. Actually, most Vikings were traders and there were trading routes and cities on them throughout Europe, from Ireland to Russia. Russia was largely under Viking rule during the early middle ages. Their ships were sophisticated and since I come from a long line of ship carpenters (French actually), I know what skill is needed to navigate thousands of miles on open ocean in something the size of a large motor boat.
There were violent Vikings who made quite an impression, but they did not really represent Scandinavian society any more than, oh, Hell's Angels, represent American culture.
"What a wonderful society where everyone looks alike,thinks alike, acts alike."
You forgot to tell us why you think that's bad. You seem to have assumed that we'd understand your reasons telepathically.
Did you say the above because the Japanese don't look like you and don't think like you and because that makes you creeped out by their otherness? Well, they're not forcing their world on you, I don't think. Or are you mad because you're jealous of them, of their success, because they threaten you somehow? Envy is an ugly feeling, a feeling one should rightfully be ashamed of.
"I've been wondering if Japan is on the verge of one of those massive societal changes to which it is periodically subject (e.g., the Meiji Restoration, the changes after WWII, etc...). Perhaps this quake will help trigger such a change."
It's pretty obvious that you wish them ill. I'm guessing it's envy.
"I know an extremely successful white adult male, retired, late 60's middle American, that believes the NYTimes hook, line and sinker when it comes to issues of race (and for that matter: gay marriage, guns, education, hispanics doing work Americans won't, Bell Curve, John 'freakin' Wayne...)."
If you're rich, you can afford to divorce yourself from raw ugly reality and get your view of the world filtered through 'enlightened', 'progressive', and 'intellectural' sources. These forms of media impart not only selective or distorted data and info but a set of values--'tolerance', 'diversity', redemptive 'white guilt', 'compassion'(especially for certain groups), etc. So, NPR and New York Review of Books aren't only a vessel for news but of attitudes. The liberal heart and mind come to take pride not only in what they know but what they feel.
Of course, if you're rich, live in a good neighborhood, and have minimal contact with raw reality, it's completely reasonable to believe in the NY Times line. Unless you've seen real reality, how could you know otherwise?
Of course, you know there's the problem of crime and poverty, but all the top experts seem to blame it on history and 'institutionalized racism'. And given there are so many wonderful black singers and actors and the like, how could blacks, so noble and soulful, be naturally deficient in any manner? And given that 'racism' is associated with KKK and the Nazis, how could racial ideologues be anything other than closet-Nazis?
And given that most top thinkers, artists, academics, etc are liberal while so many conservatives are of the Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck ilk, of course well-educated people are going to think liberals speak the beautiful truth of justice and progress while conservatives speak the ugly lie of hate and fear. And culturally, liberals have Bruce Springsteen and BB King while conservatives have Pat Boone and Andy Williams.
The power of schools and media should never be underestimated. I saw a lot of ugly reality as a child, but stuff like ROOTS and MLK myth kept me morally on the side of blacks. And even when I moved to a white neighborhood, I took pride in having had black friends and having grow up with cool black music while white suburban kids seemed bland, bratty, and boring. I had an attitude like that of Dave Marsh the rock critic. When he says 'we', he means himself and his black brothas in Detroit. I felt the same way when I first moved to the suburbs. I had learned to 'survive' among the eagles while all those white kids were a bunch of silly doves.
It was like I grew up with the sound of the city while white suburban kids grew up in Brady Bunch land. It was later when I returned to the social reality of race in city life and in college that I was forced to see reality as reality. Even so,it took several yrs as my heart and mind resisted this 'racism'. In time, the liberal explanation for social reality just made less and less sense the more I looked at reality al around.
"I've been wondering if Japan is on the verge of one of those massive societal changes to which it is periodically subject (e.g., the Meiji Restoration, the changes after WWII, etc...). Perhaps this quake will help trigger such a change."
I felt the same way. This natural disaster--followed by technological nightmare of nuclear facilities--is absolutely horrible, but Japanese have historically been shaken out of their doldrums through crises such as this. OTOH, this disaster may not lead to a kind of soul-searching that was at the center of past crisis. This may essentially be an economic than a cultural and philosophical challenge to the Japanese. After all, Kanto Earthquake didn't have the same impact as the arrival of Perry's black ships or defeat in WWII. Godzilla will have to appear on the scene before Japanese are slapped out of slow decline.
OK, we know what Sailer means but we also know that opportunistic types will only see the lines about Asians being better in some way. You must realize that I and a few other commenters have made a scientific analysis of the proportion of comments refuting said assertion will keep an article written for one purpose from being used for another.
Anyway, I think white Americans should realize just how many of their neighbors have been encouraged to believe we have somehow deprived them of stuff they should have. This belief causes stupid people to waste their time and energy stealing things in an emergency when what they really need is basic necessities. I've also observed a tendency in normal times for these types to find the money for expensive jewelry, handbags, clothes and cars despite living in a rundown home or apartment and not having any savings.
Underlying this muddled thinking process is a lack of planning for the future, including emergencies, combined with poor resource management. The liberal opportunist Merry White fails to recognize that most of these looters will already have amassed quite a few material possessions that don't fit with their income. Yet a visit to any number of solidly middle class homeowners would probably yield a surprising anthropological discovery: middle class people who qualified for a home loan in the standard way will budget their money according to their actual income level. This means they'll purchase off brand or discounted electronics, costume jewelry instead of gold, keep an old car or buy a practical used one and only have a few nicer outfits for special occasions. Such people often have a stash of emergency supplies including food and water and can be seen in the grocery store gathering such items upon hearing news of an impending emergency.
Too bad these sheltered libtard types can't get interested in topics like the anthropology of personal responsibility. Unfortunately, in the eyes of an underclass built and maintained by a welfare state that was designed just for them, the results of taking responsibility for meeting one's own needs look like magic and must be evidence of some sort of crime.
I have a friend who works at USAID in D.C. She said one of the security guards was Haitian, and had a relative back in Haiti who was trapped in the rubble after the earthquake. There were Haitians digging people out but because she had no money to offer them, they didn't dig her out and left her to die.
Really shocked me for some reason.
The thrust of the comments so far seems to be - disasters don't cause looting, blacks cause looting.
Is this really true? I know my personal memory confirms it. I remember coverage of many riots and disturbances in which we are treated to the sight of black people breaking in store windows so as to carry out the merchandise. I've never seen whites or Asians in such scenes.
But are there any reliable statistics? Blaming all looting on race seems accurate enough but we don't want to be guilty of uninformed racial prejudice. Its much better to be filled with intelligent and well informed racial prejudice.
Albertosaurus
"The Japanese have a small income gap because they have a small ability gap."
True. If US didn't have supersmart jews and not-so-smart blacks, we too would have less of an income gap. I'll bet the income gap only among Polish-Americans or only among Swedish-Americans is like that among Japanese.
Liberals should try to understand Tea Party rage cuz there is a media gap between left and right. Media is so leftist that white rightists feel the rage of underrepresentation.
There's something strange about the political dynamic between left and right. Left controls most of the media but calls for the 'fairness doctrine'--against talk radio. Right should the one calling for more 'fairness' in the media as a whole, but it opposes any government interference. So, the left keeps winning via meritocracy, and with all the money and influence, presses against talk radio.
Same in economics. The Left is richer than the Right. The top dogs at Google, Wall Street, Hollywood, Microsoft, etc are liberal while conservatives have a hold on fading Old Industry. Leftists not only make the most money but push for greater 'fairness'. Rightists oppose any policy of 'fairness' and support pure meritocracy. But pure meritocracy favors Jews--mostly leftist--and liberal wasps, which makes them even more powerful over white conservatives. Since rich Jews and liberal wasps have it all(and more), they can afford to be 'fair' with non-whites, especially since non-whites will be taking jobs and opportunities from working and middle class whites. Less qualified blacks and Hispanics will take jobs away from white fireman or policemen than from Jewish bankers or computer engineers.
The only sane policy for the white right is to implement a 'fairness' policy by placing Jews and liberal wasps elites in separate political/social categories. White right too often identifies with rich and powerful whites(and Jews) at the top when, in fact, it's the supeerrich that is out to hurt white people the most.
The great irony. Western liberals often criticize the lack of individuality and diversity among the Japanese. But when it comes to moral, intellectual, and political conformity on the issue of race, white liberals beat all. They are even more sheepish and chickenshit about taboos than Japanese are. I'll bet a whole bunch of liberals know that TOO MANY BLACKS = SOCIAL INSTABILITY but it's a taboo that cannot be mentioned. One will be shunned, disinvited to cocktail parties, fired, and even be called a 'racist'. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
"Anonymous said... P.S. If we have a major disaster and I'm not able to get back home, feel free to eat my food, wear my clothes and sleep in my bed. And, if you must, burn all the furniture to stay warm.
How long should we wait before we do all this?"
Good one, Harry Baldwin. I'm not going to be able to take this guy up on the offer at all, as I'll be at home defending it from "free-range socialists like him".
Also, even if I did want to swap houses with this guy, it's hard to look up a guy named anonymous, and I'd doubt I'd remember his IP address when TSHTF. Give me your real address now, Anonymous, and I might come for some of your canned cling peaches (in heavy syrup) and a case or two of your Top Ramen (chicken flavor only, and not more than 5 years old). I'll pay you back in kind, as they say.
Wait, there's some phrase going around the internet like "I'll gladly pay you when TSHTF for the Top Ramen and canned peaches today". I have to warn you, I am considered a minority. Is it still cool for me to come to Portland and partake of your stuff?
I am in awe of the Japanese. In awe.
I think we should make a difference between looting as a necessity and looting as an opportunity. Similarly, there is a difference between killing to defend one's own life or loved one and killing to commit murder.
If a natural disaster hits and you are starving and without water and you see a store destroyed by the natural disaster, the chances are you're gonna rummage for food and water from that store. In DAWN OF THE DEAD, the survivors take over an abandoned shopping mall. They are survivalist-rummagers, not plunderer-looters(who later arrive in the form of a biker gang)who exploit the chaos and breakdown of order to grab as much loot as possible.
The problem with too many blacks--and some Hispanics and white trash elements--is they are plunderer-looters than survivalist-rummagers. In the New Orleans disaster, many blacks were not carrying away water and food but TV sets and Sony playstations.
In the past, harsher measures were taken for social control. Military would be sent in to shoot looters(as in the scene in GOOD EARTH but also in the Western world. And in the Wild West, one could get hanged for stealing a horse, the car in those days). And even up to the 60s, Daley Sr. gave orders to shoot to kill, shoot to maim. But, the policy of liberal democracies have been 'try to understand the poor'. Also, MSM and courts will destroy any leader, local and federal, who sends troops to deal with plunderer-looters. Bush didn't do shit in LA until the rioters pretty much had their fun and looted all they wanted.
Question: Why did Japan build its nuclear reactors along the eastern coastline when they know the fault-lines and trenches run along off the east of Japan? Why not build the reactors along the western part of Japan?
------
Maybe with huge losses in life, Japan can use this opportunity to boost birthrates. A campaign to have babies in memory of all those lost souls.
City agrees to lower test scores for police exam
DAYTON — The city’s Civil Service Board and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed on a lower passing score for the police recruit exam after it was rejected because not enough blacks passed the exam.
The city lowered both written exams a combined 15 points that resulted in 258 more people passing the exam, according to a statement released Thursday by Civil Service officials. The agreement allows the city to immediately resume its plans to hire police and firefighters.
The original passing scores determined by Civil Service required candidates to answer 57 of 86 (66 percent) questions correctly on one portion and 73 of 102 (72 percent) on the other. The lowered benchmark requires candidates to answer 50 of 86 (58 percent) questions correctly and 64 of 102 (63 percent) of questions on the other.
A total of 748 people passed the exam under the new benchmarks. It is unclear the demographics of those who passed.
Japan has above levels of income inequality (Gini) amoung rich countries, 8th highest of 24 developed OECD countries.
1 Portugal: 0.385
2 USA 0.381
3 Italy: 0.352
4 UK: 0.335
5 New Zealand: 0.335
6 Ireland: 0.328
7 Greece: 0.321
8 Japan: 0.321
9 Spain: 0.319
10 Canada: 0.317
11 Korea: 0.312
OECD-30 0.311
12 Australia: 0.301
13 Germany: 0.298
14 France: 0.281
15 Iceland: 0.280
16 Norway: 0.276
17 Switzerland: 0.276
18 Netherlands: 0.271
19 Belgium: 0.271
20 Finland: 0.269
21 Austria: 0.265
22 Luxembourg: 0.258
23 Sweden: 0.234
24 Denmark: 0.232
Japan also has some of the lowest tax rates in the OECD, about as low as the United States.
Japan illlustrates that outside the silly mental models of the left, income inequality is only a small part of social inequality.
One thing about social psychology, it can be infectious. Something you would not do on your own, you would do if others are doing it too. Sometimes it's something you always wanted to do but were afraid to do; sometimes, it's something you don't really wanna do--cuz you know it's wrong--, but you do anyway cuz everyone else is doing it. This is true of street revolution, going along with war fervor, with Obama frenzy, or looting. Mass psychology is like a tsunami. 'Everyone' gets swept along mindlessly, for good or bad. Even those skeptical of Nazism got swept along in the 30s, eventually to their doom.
In the case of looting, it may be that even Japanese who want to loot generally don't loot cuz the prevailing mass psychology is one of 'shame culture'. So, even would-be looters are infected with antipathy toward social disorder, which is the prevailing mass psychology of Japan. In some parts of America, the prevailing mass psychology is a kind of shameless 'let it all hang loose', so even those who know looting is wrong and don't wanna do it get swept along when looting begins. I can attest to this lemming psychology in three times I participated in mini-loots as a child, though some wouldn't qualify as looting. One was at Boy's Club. Word got around that the storage room with toys--collected for free giveaways during Christmas--was unlocked. Some kids ran off with toys from the room, and then others figured they should get some free toys too. Before long, a whole bunch of kids were taking stuff from the toy room until things got so out of hand that adults found out what was up and put an end to it. I got away with a bunny doll and a doll house. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but since everyone was doing it, I got swept up in the feeding frenzy. And I figured why should all the bad kids have free toys? Why not a good kid like me too? Seemed only just, at least to a child. Another time, some family got evicted for not paying the rent. All their stuff was placed on the streets when the family was away. The stuff should have been left alone but word got around that there was free stuff on the streets. And then the feeding frenzy began, with everyone from adults to kids grabbing stuff, running off with sofas, tv, radio, etc, etc. I took some books and records, and I still have the Louis Armstrong album from this plunder. Third time was at school, 6th grade, final grade before I moved to the suburbs. There was a party for band class and other clubs, and there were lots of food, snack, drinks. A fight began and in the melee, some kids began to grab the snacks and drinks and ran off, and then it was a free for all, with everyone grabbing as much goodies as possible in the chaos. I got away with a big bag of popcorn. Why did I do it even though I knew it was wrong? If others are getting free stuff, why not me? It all seemed 'fun and festive', like kids going crazy when a pinata bursts open with candies and toys. When stuff like this happens, even kids who don't generally loot and plunder get infected with the same psychology. Generally, there is a pattern though, at least in the mixed-race community. Black kids kick it off and then others follow and soon, white kids are doing it too. This is one reason why my mother, like so many white parents, decided finally to move out. Too much bad influence on me.
Since 'cool blacks' set social trends in this country, things may get out of hand in all kinds of communities in the future. People who don't loot may be considered 'lame'.
More damaging to black communities than sporadic acts of looting is the longterm practice of stealing-at-work, a big problem among blacks. Too many Omar Thortons who have jobs but steal on the job. Enough Thortons can ruin a company. Most businesses in the black community closed shop not because of looting but because of endemic theft by black customers and workers.
Whenever a major retail chain closed in a black community, we all knew the reason. Chronic and endemic theft not only by customers but by managers, workers, etc.
I don't think Italy had any looting when they had their earthquake a few years ago.
"investors are buying them little by little and they are filling up with Section 8 voucher trash) and I am, of course, thinking of moving again--this time, out of CA."
In my naive days I was actually for Section 8. I am getting farther and farther to the right on many things.
O.K.- Time for all to get a Phd. in Cultural Anthropology in 6 easy words. Even a liberal should be able to get this:
"Whites Build, Yellows Maintain, Blacks Destroy."
Pay attention. There will be a test on this later.
To Anon re: nuke power plants
"Question: Why did Japan build its nuclear reactors along the eastern coastline when they know the fault-lines and trenches run along off the east of Japan? Why not build the reactors along the western part of Japan?"
---------------------------
That's not exactly true. Distribution of power plants is about equal between the coasts. What it roughly corresponds to is population density centers. You probably heard of resistive losses during electric power transmission. The shorter distances, the less power is lost. So power plants need to be as close as safety allows to their main consumers.
"In some parts of America, the prevailing mass psychology is a kind of shameless 'let it all hang loose', so even those who know looting is wrong and don't wanna do it get swept along when looting begins."
Shame is, for the most part, a social good, the only thing that provides order. The Baby Boomers of the 60s lost their vulnerability to shame and their kids and grandkids and greatgrandkids have inherited a culture that hold them accountable for nothing.
Hell, I read today that a character (a father with a gay son) on the show Glee was shamed by another, not because he didn't tolerate homosexuality, but because he didn't see the "naturalness" of the male homosexual act.
The writers of the show embrace the "if you don't love it, you must hate it" meme and you are the cause of shame and are, therefore, evil.
"when your food is paid for, 3/4ths of your rent (by the taxpayers), your health care, dental, etc., you can affort those big screen tvs, you know"
Wake up, wake up, its the first of the month.
But sure, all else being equal and after a certain point, too much income disparity is likely to [erode communal spirit].
You have the arrow of causation backward. Read Boehm, Tawney, D.S. Wilson.
http://ti.me/8U10Ju
Haiti vs. Gujarat
The mainstream media is well compensated not to notice elephants in the living room:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/education/14winerip.html
ENJOY
"Whites Build, Yellows Maintain, Blacks Destroy."
And browns get loans for McMansions.
Once again, RamZPaul does a good job explaining the fact of the matter:
http://www.ramzpaul.com/2011/03/tale-of-two-earthquakes.html
Suppose Japan were inhabited by white Americans. Would WA's have prepared for this disaster better than the Japanese? Maybe yes. Maybe no.
When we think of Tragic Japan, earthquakes and Hiroshima & Nagasaki come to mind. How perversely ironic that an earthquake and nuclear crisis hit Japan at the same time.
New Orleans was regularly pasted by Hurricanes. Georges, Betsy, Camille, etc. Many simply un-named. Louis Armstrong's painfully self-written autobiography mentions them. There was a bit of looting, not much, in the Black areas.
What the Black population had then that it lacks now was the nuclear family from which the entire Black civil society of self-organization was built. "Benevolent societies" that provided health, auto, and other insurance. Black colleges and K-12 schools. Lower level Black officials.
Back in Armstrong's day, he was the exception: a kid of a drug/booze using single mother unable to care for him. Now he's the rule. With the result of constant competition among men for women based on being the sexiest man. Generally the biggest thug.
Black people USED to trust each other, Dreams From My Father has the anecdote of the older Black folks in the housing projects nostalgiac for segregation, when Blacks were better to each other.
Cooperation, particularly male cooperation, breaks down when men fight over women. When women can and do jump from man to man, any incentive to cooperate instead of be the biggest thug, vanishes. This is why Black gangsters are not like the Triads, Mafia, Yakuza, etc. The aim is not for Black gangsters to make money (as much as possible with as little work as possible) but to get women: as many as possible with as little work as possible. It is why Black Gangsters don't cooperate the way say the Mafia did.
Let's not forget why so many blacks were stuck in New Orleans in the first place, despite clear warnings that disaster was looming: They didn't want to leave their homes for fear that their neighbors who stayed behind would clean them out while they were gone.
That fact undermines the notion that black looters were just "sticking it to the man," or reacting out of desperation.
"When we think of Tragic Japan, earthquakes and Hiroshima & Nagasaki come to mind. How perversely ironic that an earthquake and nuclear crisis hit Japan at the same time."
That's not ironic. That is called "a correspondence," related to the fact that Japan has volcanos, is located directly on a median tectonic fault line, and is devoted to creating cheap energy.
Learn the difference, Sparky.
"I can attest to this lemming psychology in three times I participated in mini-loots as a child, though some wouldn't qualify as looting. "
Irrelevant, since children are not adults, brains haven't developed, and the subject isn't about children on looting sprees for free tonka trucks.
You type too much.
Next...
The writers of the show embrace the "if you don't love it, you must hate it" meme
Also, "if you hate it, you must want to destroy it." It's only logical, right? You hate strawberry icecream -- really, really hate it -- then obviously you're salivating for the opportunity to blow up all the strawberry icecream factories. I mean, you have to be: you hate the stuff.
When is earthquake season in Japan? I want to schedule my vacation there to avoid it!
The Hawaiian islands have had looting after hurricanes.
"But there was no looting during the 2004 blackout."
That's 2003 blackout, of course
Anonymous said...
I'll bet a whole bunch of liberals know that TOO MANY BLACKS = SOCIAL INSTABILITY but it's a taboo that cannot be mentioned.
In the antebellum period there were more blacks than whites in many southern states (for example, nearly double the number in South Carolina), yet there was no lack of social order. It was the invasion of other WHITE PEOPLE that brought ruin ("... for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.")
Wanderer said...
"Whites Build, Yellows Maintain, Blacks Destroy."
You can't blame Blacks for the burnings of Atlanta & Columbia, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and the firebombings of Toyko & Dresden, can you?
Let's face it: the United States Federal Government is the most destructive force in human history.
http://www.ramzpaul.com/2011/03/tale-of-two-earthquakes.html
"Most people assume that the meticulous Japanese are among the world's most responsible citizens. As an investigative journalist who has covered the Hanshin (Kobe) earthquake and the Tokyo subway gassing, I beg to differ. Japan is just better than elsewhere in organizing official cover-ups."
- Yoichi Shimatsu
I notice in the tidal wave videos, no one is rushing to the flooding water to attempt to rescue someone caught in the water. A lot of passive standing around and watching.
"Let's face it: the United States Federal Government is the most destructive force in human history."
OK, colij kid, you've expressed your quota of righteous anti-American indignation for the day.
Now go away someplace else, like, say, Darfur where you can mingle with the peaceful populace.
"You can't blame Blacks for the burnings of Atlanta & Columbia, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and the firebombings of Toyko & Dresden, can you?
Let's face it: the United States Federal Government is the most destructive force in human history."
That's because blacks were deathly afraid of whites back then. Blacks lost this fear in the 1960s and have been burning down entire neighborhoods.
Also, there is a difference between purposeful violence and purposeless violence. Wars are violent cuz both sides are trying to win. It is a form of engineered or systematic destruction. Because there is a system behind it, rebuilding follows soon after the war. Similarly, new technology wages constant war on old technology, leading to the rusting/disassembling of old factories. But with the death of the old order comes the birth of the new order. Civil War and WWII were violent but they were systematic means to destroy one order to replace with a new one. But when blacks riot, there is no system, no goal, no nothing except "I got me a free X-box and a case of colt-45".
"Irrelevant, since children are not adults, brains haven't developed, and the subject isn't about children on looting sprees for free tonka trucks.
You type too much.
Next..."
But a lot of adults are like children.
"Cooperation, particularly male cooperation, breaks down when men fight over women."
Cooperation or copulation.
"When we think of Tragic Japan, earthquakes and Hiroshima & Nagasaki come to mind. How perversely ironic that an earthquake and nuclear crisis hit Japan at the same time."
"That's not ironic. That is called 'a correspondence,' related to the fact that Japan has volcanos, is located directly on a median tectonic fault line, and is devoted to creating cheap energy.
Learn the difference, Sparky."
It is ironic in this sense: One is natural, one is man-made. Nature is beyond man's control. Even so, mankind has developed technology to offset some of the damage caused by nature. Seismic graphs, stronger buildings, and alarm systems are part of this technological preparation.
In 1945, Japan got destroyed by American nuclear technology. But since then, nuclear power has been used for peaceful means in Japan. So, it is ironic that instead of technology vs nature, we now have situation of nature and technology going bonkers at the same time, almost colluding with one another. It's like attack by both Godzilla and Mechagodzilla.
Two posts on a Japanese tsunami:
100 posts on "stupid blacks"
0 posts on concern for victims (and counting)
I don't think anyone, white Americans or other East Asians, could've outdone the Japanese in their behavior. Japan is a country full of very cultured people and with a highly advanced civilization. Good for them.
Unfortunately, the death toll is likely over 10,000. So that's a downer.
On the up side, the Japanese have strict building codes, strong emergency preparedness, and high walls to keep out waves. If not for that, it could be that much worse. I think we have a lot to learn from Japan.
>Two posts on a Japanese tsunami:
100 posts on "stupid blacks"
0 posts on concern for victims (and counting)<
Many people are already doing that stuff.
This site is like a four-leaf clover.
I'm lookin' over/
A four-leaf clover/
That I overlooked before...
We look over what others overlook.
We say the unsaid ...
mention the unmentionable ...
and discuss the undiscussable.
Captains Obvious may exit left and take their stale hymnals with them.
(That said, I contributed to the relief effort today. Have you?)
"On the up side, the Japanese have strict building codes, strong emergency preparedness, and high walls to keep out waves"
Fukushima says you're still early in your verdict about Japanese preparedness.
Also, I wonder if the culture of Japanese saving face, civility- the kinds of things that create great cohesion- also prevents real robust dissent. The kind of dissent that tears down crippling conformity.
"Two posts on a Japanese tsunami:
100 posts on "stupid blacks""
Not surprising since the subject was not the effect of the tsunami on Japan but on the differing response of the Japanese and Americans to natural disasters.
I myself contributed 4 comments on this post, all of which were about white people's thoughts and responses.
"0 posts on concern for victims (and counting)"
Again, the topic was not actually the disaster in Japan but instead the responses to the aftermath of disaster. I know jumping to conclusions isn't as much fun as putting things in context but if you don't want to look so foolish, you might want to try it some time.
The Japanese have my fervent prayers and my donation. The decision to help--or not to help--is an essentially private matter between each individual and his--or her--conscience. Nor has this forum never struck me as a place in which discussions about intercessory prayer or our obligation to assist strangers in need were appropriate or even welcome.
But speaking of "stupid blacks" and helping, just how stupid is it not to fill out an organ donor card that will help others of your own race? You do know that your people lag behind whites in making this small, painless and potentially life-saving gesture even though they require, proportionately, more donated organs, don't you?
Truth said..."Two posts on a Japanese tsunami:
100 posts on "stupid blacks"
0 posts on concern for victims (and counting)"
Eleven posts by Truth on the gang rape in Cleveland, Texas and why the left-wing media coverage of the 18 alleged black suspects and the 1 non-black victim is journalistically fair.
0 posts by Truth on concern for the non-black victim (and counting).
Typical. And stereotypical.
"Nor has this forum never struck me as a place in which discussions about intercessory prayer or our obligation to assist strangers in need were appropriate or even welcome."
That may be a problem.
"But speaking of "stupid blacks" and helping, just how stupid is it not to fill out an organ donor card that will help others of your own race?"
Do they segregate donated organs by race?
There was looting in Sichuan, China after the earthquake in 2008.
What a wonderful society where everyone looks alike,thinks alike, acts alike.
Japanese do not all look, think, and act alike. Moreso than they do in common with non-Japanese, of course, but what are you, a racist?
No room for you in the world of the future, your fellow diversitoids have made that clear.
Where everyone comes to the aid of any clo, er, citizens affected by a disaster.
I know, horrible, ain't it?
Where everyone knows what everyone else is doing through via almost-instantaneous pheromone communication.
Yep, you're a dirty racist! Do your fellow diversitoids know these heretical thoughts of yours?
This is the paradise one gets when one wipes out all HBD variation. Gee, I wish we could all be like that.
That's the point of "diversity," isn't it? To make us all look, think, and act alike? One big mocha mass, adhering to one ideology/religion?
If you have two sub-species inhabiting two territories, you have species-diversity. If you force them into one territory, you have a period of flux diversitoids refer to as "diversity." Eventually, you have one sub-species inhabiting that one territory; zero species-diversity; the end and, apparently, goal of the "diversity" espoused by the diversitoids.
Pathologically violent Vikings later became pathologically flaky Swedes.
Pathological
You keep using that word, but I don't think it means what you think it means.
Any evidence that the Vikings were pathologically violent?
Captains Obvious may exit left and take their stale hymnals with them.
(That said, I contributed to the relief effort today. Have you?)
Lol.
Suppose Japan were inhabited by white Americans. Would WA's have prepared for this disaster better than the Japanese? Maybe yes. Maybe no.
You have to factor in the fact that if Japan were inhabited by white Americans, it would also be inhabited by blacks, browns, sepias, mochas, and everyone else. So, the answer is "probably no."
Do they segregate donated organs by race?
Not in the sense you're suggesting, but organ matching is better if you have a racial match. And they have shortages among blacks so bad they periodically run stories begging for more.
In short, yes, blacks would help other blacks by donating organs.
I stopped saying yes to organ donation because I don't trust the politics after reading a bit about it.
"I stopped saying yes to organ donation because I don't trust the politics after reading a bit about it."
Funny thing, Svig:
That's the exact same thing Octavious Wilson the carjacker just said to me!
"(That said, I contributed to the relief effort today. Have you?)"
I generally choose to contribute to local causes, so the answer is no. But good job, Sport, I'm proud of you.
"Any evidence that the Vikings were pathologically violent?"
Yes. Read the Norse sagas, especially the ones about the Icelanders and Greenlanders. Those guys killed each other all the time in minor disputes, even when they weren't raiding their neighbors. The Norse colonization of the New World failed largely because Freydis Eiriksdottir was a horrible, murderous bitch.
Nice counterpunch against Truth, Kylie. Right on the chin. I don't think he's going to get up.
Japanese have “a sense of being first and foremost responsible to the community,” he said.
One thing to note is that the communitarian spirit that she speaks of is not all good. The Italians have very little of it and that lack reduced the amount of persecution in comparison to Japan and Germany. An Italian is less likely to obey orders to kill.
Also
My father was in Japan after WWII and he noted that people in the Philippines stole but the Japanese did not.
--100 posts on "stupid blacks"--
True, but we are only countering MSM's refusal to see the racial angle on this. There may be 100 posts on 'stupid blacks' here but MSM has 10000000 news articles on evil white 'racists' being the cause of everything bad done by blacks.
This is typical:
http://takimag.com/article/blacks_rape_preteen_hispanic_in_texas_whites_get_blamed1
Blacks rape some Hispanic girl, and whites get blamed.
Some funny kid named Loughner shoots a Congresswomen, and Tea Party whites get blamed.
One thing about the struck region. It seems most young people left for the city. IN many rural and small town areas of Japan, there's mostly old people left to fend for themselves. And now radiation levels make it more difficult for work crew to get in.
And too bad it's still cold winter up there. On the other hand, the coldness may be better than heat. Imagine all the decay in the middle of summer.
Yes. Read the Norse sagas, especially the ones about the Icelanders and Greenlanders
Read up on Egill Skalla-Grimson especially.
"Blacks rape some Hispanic girl, and whites get blamed."
"I read this so-called 'article.'
Where, exactly did whites get 'blamed' again?"
Whites are blamed indirectly. The implication is 'blacks act that way cuz of historical trauma stemming from slavery and cuz whites in the past created a culture of rape, lynching, and violence'.
>"Any evidence that the Vikings were pathologically violent?"
Yes. Read the Norse sagas<
Read the bone record. Life then and earlier was incredibly violent all over. No need to pathologize blonds in the distant past.
The Japanese aren't rioting because, well, they're Japanese.
Just like white people in Iowa don't riot, because, well, they're white people in Iowa.
The article is absurd and characteristic of American intellectual life - trying to find complicated reasons for things which are simple and obvious.
Not that I excuse Republicans; they are part and parcel of the decline.
As far as blacks, they riot because, well, they're blacks. Not only that but they are incapable of maintaining any civil society, the destruction they have caused on city after city in America is astounding.
Which brings up a larger point: it remains to be seen whether Asians and Mexicans can maintain what's left of America; I have my doubts.
We are the Titanic, folks.
Funny thing, Svig:
That's the exact same thing Octavious Wilson the carjacker just said to me!
I know that's a lie - from Octavius, of course, not you. I grew up on the edge of the ghetto. Mom had a stack of overdue library books in her unlocked car for a month and none of them were touched. This after we learned to keep the cars unlocked and devoid of valuables.
Want to keep blacks from stealing something? Hide it in a book.
Yes. Read the Norse sagas, especially the ones about the Icelanders and Greenlanders. Those guys killed each other all the time in minor disputes, even when they weren't raiding their neighbors. The Norse colonization of the New World failed largely because Freydis Eiriksdottir was a horrible, murderous bitch.
I stand corrected. I figured they saved most of it for going a-viking.
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