The Logic Off Topic list

Dennis Gunn wrote:

>It's a fact.  Then there was the stiff protectionism against foreign
>skis in 70s - 80s because of the special and unique Japanese snow.
Well ... it is true that such things are rather silly. However, I don't 
think one needs to go as far as the unique uniqueness of Japanese to do it. 
Seems to me that simple protectionism and xenophobia and a desire to 
protect Japanese jobs and industry should just about cover it. The rest is 
just a feeble excuse IMO.

>Things are so unique here that even the physics of ice are different.
People always look for good excuses to justify their stupidity. I thought 
that the primary question at issue was whether that kind of absurdity is 
unique to the Japanese. I do not think it is. That's all that I was saying. 
The REASONS may be uniquely Japanese and would surely have to be to work in 
this particular situation, but I just didn't think that the underlying 
motivation was uniquely Japanese.


>As a sixteen year resident of Tokyo I could spend days on this rant
>but then that would give people the impression that I don't like
>Japanese people and that is not the case.
Not at all, Dennis. You have been the source of very many wry and amusing 
stories about your experiences which I have greatly enjoyed, although I 
must confess that I have never before been motivated to say so. Your little 
tales have also always been notable for the fact that they are very similar 
to the kinds of stories that perhaps a Japanese in America might tell of 
the USA -- just wry humour and the little observations of life that make 
life easier. I had never detected any ulterior motive in anything you said 
before. Please do not stop your tales on my account. (Not that I think you 
would). But ... I am quite sincere in saying that I have enjoyed them. With 
all due respect.

>I do wish they would
>either tell the truth
>or lie a little better when they are imposing
>tariffs on things they don't want to import though.
Well ... surely ... governments everywhere find it very hard to undertake 
actions of this kind without looking incredibly stupid. A goodly number of 
the British are looking very stupid right now coming up with all sorts of 
arcane reasons about their 'innate Britishness' in order to have as little 
to do with Europe as possible. The basic underlying motivation is 
protectionism and xenophobia, but the reasons given are often a touch amusing.

>I also wish
>they would let more foreign vegetables in because food costs a
>freaking fortune here even when you cook it yourself.

Yes .... I've heard other people say this before. And, it's often in the 
little things like that that stupidities really show themselves. I remember 
once being told a story by a friend of mine speaking about policies 
instituted his own country shortly after a military coup. The incoming 
soldiers issued a decree that people were not to use toilet paper any more. 
The reason being, of course, that 'real' people, 'real' peasants, did not 
use such a thing and therefore there was no need of it. Went down a storm 
in the embassies and foreign corporations, of course, who had absolutely no 
intention of ever doing without toilet paper!

Kool Musick
Keep Musick Kool


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