Self as We - Yasuo Deguchi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDlNpRjDKFE
By reducing the self to the actions, the self can be spread to "we." For any action that happens, multiple agents support it (gravity, atmosphere, your mind, your body, your parents who made you, etc.)
"I" is only one agent of the many that create the "we" system, and the "I" is "entrusted" to do any action by the "we" system. The system entrusts to the agents/elements that compromise it. All elements in the "we" like the "I" are a fellowship without hierarchy.
Criticizing Arne Naess's ecological self for uniformization by the subjective/biased individual
True singularity is when AI is able to do everything humans can do. Western philosophy has a tendency to define human dignity with what only humans can do. On the other hand, Eastern philosophy tends to define human dignity as human inability. By following the Eastern tradition, singularity ceases to be a problem.
An "I" can include a virtual, imaginary another, to consult for decisions of actions. By including this another person within the "I" the "I" becomes a "we," made of two people. This can help relieve existential solitude.
Ethics
The "we" should try to spread itself as much as possible, including as many varieties as possible. The "we" should not harm the fellowship. Therefore, the "we" should not kill or destroy, although it may de-toxify through segregation. Any element should be kept alive in order to keep the possibility of contributing to the fellowship.
Masahiko Kishi - Sociology of Fragmented Things
Narratives are like "glasses that you cannot take off," and we cannot face the self or the world as it is, free from narratives. However, when they are cutoff, torn, and contradicted, that "something" that is outside of the narrative may be peeking at us.
Mutsumi Imai
It is difficult to think that speakers of different languages have recognitions that differ to an extent where understanding is impossible.
When thinking about the relationship between language and thought, it is simply belated, from the scientific point of view, to question if the recognition of speakers of different languages differs or not. What we must do is to clarify the system of how language affects our daily recognition and thought - to see, to hear, to understand and interpret, to memorize, to remember, to predict, to infer, and to learn.
And then, we can tackle the issues of how the different languages relate to thought, how its relation differs depending on grammatical construction or the characteristics of vocabulary.
Kawai Hayao
The post-modern mindset is the rivival of the pre-modern, in the way that the individual minds connect to the unexpected, as the result of individualisation.
To live in the silence of the dead
Is that possible at all?
To listen to the abandoned sound
Without the silent sighs, we cannot live
The air that moves to,
As if from an electric fan,
Standing still with a chill
Meiko Kawakami
https://granta.com/the-flowers-look-more-beautiful-now-than-ever/
It’s hard to imagine a country where a lockdown would function perfectly, but in the case of Japan, which lacks basic individualism, the current situation has bred insidious hatred and division.
In our society, there is an aspect of forgetting that functions as hope.
Caroline Emke - Translation
Caroline Emke suggests ‘translation’ as fundamental to a properly functioning democracy. This ‘translation’ means the attempt of expressing individual experiences as accurately as possible. As a result, the differences between individuals will become apparent, with answers to what could be/should be shared/individual. It subdivides the group, finds and shows diversity - which is integral to democracy.
言葉は消えゆくものの記録を残す
記録であるがゆえに、流れていくものを目に止める
昔の生活などなくなって、急速に作られた何か歪なものの上で生まれ育った私は
触れようとするたび分からなくなるものを追いかける
私たちの世代が過去の神話を夢見るのはこういうことかもしれない
遠い、遠い夢を見る
また、戻ってくるかもしれない、もしくは、変わっていないものがあるかもしれない、と
見たこともないものへの恋しさである
私が見ているものはどこにあるものなのだろう
美しいものを探している
声を張り上げないものを探している、別の世とのあわいに近いようなもの
クリアな情報だけで形成された世界は怖いから
それらは切り裂くことを躊躇わない
隙間隙間に何か触れられずに残るものを探している
けれどもそれらはあるのだろうか、残されているのだろうか
自ら作り出しているのだろうか
過去の地を知らない私が描き出しているものはなんだというのだろう
今を見つめようとつとめて、先はわからない
情報の、隙間隙間にある、なにかよくわからないものを作って置いてゆきたい
先など、目指すものなど、わかりやしない
ただただ、大切なものを、今見たものを、いずれ消えゆくように、置いてゆきたい
私は小さなものたちを静かにかき集める仕事がしたい
人の中に生まれ、そして消えゆくものたちを
この世界の行先は、順当にいけば、より情報が簡単に飛び交って
すでに地球としての共同体的意識の必要性が叫ばれるように、
なんらかの出口としての生存戦略が要されて
画一化だろうとなんだろうと、手を取り合わなければ生きていけないと
しかし、もし、空港のような平均化された世界が築かれば、とても恐ろしいように思える
その時私は荒地と共に朽ちることを選ぶだろうか、空港の中で探し物を続けるだろうか
ただ、未来の中で探し物はできない
もしかしたら、空港ではなく、色々な夜店が並ぶ未来かもしれない
人々が情報を組み合わせ、そこからなにか生み出すことを覚えれば、それぞれが小さな主になるような道を進むかもしれない
そして専制主義にならない手の取り方を
ただ、それには「柔軟さ」が求められるだろう
過去は尊くとも、戻れはしないのだから
一歩ずつ、確かめながら変わるのが安全なのだろう、今からでも
あまりにも考えなしに突進んできた我々は
このまま悲壮感で叫び続けるわけにはいかないだろう
それぞれがそれぞれの生き様を眺め、自らの物語を見つめ、生命を眼前に持ち出したならば
他者もまた、それぞれ、存在するのだ
あなたはどこからきたの
「人々の数珠のようなもの」を、壊さぬように
so, drawing a hoop,
a circle
seeing, seeing, seeing,
the sighs from the standing fan
it stands with its shiny white plastic surface
and persons,
and,
and...
to be careful to drift away in time
because I draw the line
that closes on itself
a small, small circle
the dream I had
あるひとつの物語があるとしよう
なんでもいい、なにか、ひとつ
それに生きるとは、どういうことか
広く伝達できる、言葉に生きるとはどういうことか
物語があるとしよう
訪れる混乱の為に
そして消えてゆくもの
感受性とはなにか
living within, living within, within,
whatever is generated
what is it, something,
(swallow)
the moments are sewn together
what do you dream of?
to waver...
One way of living without "self" within the narrative & relations
"The "self" only appears within relations. You only live within relations, there is no autonomous self.
"There is a universal narrative that determines good and evil. You cannot have an overly big "self"(or greed) and hope for a good ending. Just as in many of the folklore (ex. the man who made flowers bloom). Diminishing the self and becoming part of the bigger system(the story) is happiness.
"What is not in the natural flow of the good story should disappear. Yet, this should not be the concern of the individual (the main character in the story). Life should be focused on how the main characters lives. All the rest "evil" characters should simply be ignored."
The dullness of enlightenment,
That drip from the corners of the words,
Taking,
And we move around
In the gaps, in the ridges
Things that settle there, the dust that piles
Delivered from the wavering
wait till the windows turn blue, then to purple
the color fills the squares, turning them opaque
but in the carefully crafted with time
Modernization contributed to the radicalization of the personal self and the extension of the public self. Before, one human death was the concern of the community. But, as the community grew larger, there was the need to create a public self, that would be in the papers. At the same time, the personal-self developed. The public self is the third person self that is exchangeable. The personal self is an irreplaceable life.
苦海浄土 - Michiko Ishimure
For one human, what is civilization? All cultures, civilizations, are a mere attribute, for a single human being.
The advancing scientific civilization must be the violent rule that retrograde towards a more elaborate and legal, savage world.
The eastern virtue, the despotism that was hidden within its character, and the rationalism the modern west carried throughout in its technological history, combined in the most devastating way possible, moved forward the modern Japanese chemical industry, and the pool of corrosion that ate into the marrow of this archipelago appeared in the form of the Minamata disease incident.
The most primitive and unselfish, generous gods of the pastoral song were dying. They were uncrowned souls because they never claimed their name, the people who were probably the plumbs given to this world, were born from the "sea of camellia" and were perishing. Both those who left their hometowns and those who stayed and inherited the soul of the land and the sea.
Where do you lie, within the emptiness?
The person asked, in the quiet room. It was a rare quiet room when so much of the area is always filled with sounds. Because of such rare quietness, there was a discomfort that spread and settled at our feet. Time passed with the clock. We continued to be settled in the chairs.
Life can be an impossibility at times. It suddenly surfaces, as if from a dark river, and stops your feet, with anxiousness that seems to squeeze you into bits. It is the violence of life that makes this happen.
For some time now, the water in the pot has been boiling.
Due to the repetition of objects, the sight was getting crowded. I asked about them but received no reply.
A few things were being made clear with the voice that drifted in the air, like delicate machinery. Although no one knows if these things are truths or fictions but those two characteristics do not always contradict. What was more important was the act.
Actions, movements are usually important. A small movement touches something, and then, another thing moves. They are important because of this effect, which is the “interferences.”
Those were a fraction of the spoken words.
Look behind, carefully looking for what might be, in the bare scene.
If there is anything that remains in me, that follows the Japanese tradition, it is the belief that self-actualization/self-fulfillment stands upon the sacrifice of others. The belief that self-actualization will eventually lead to the good for all, is not original to this place.
The idea came fast, fast like a meteor
fast and conceiving emotion prohibited by a word of our mother tongue
the tongue which is twisting in tight in our fimbriated fold,
folding and twisting
grasping from the previous move
snap, subliminal stimuli
it materializes fast and dissolves in your memory even faster
white flash
the product from the need of an escape
the tongue always stay there did not abound its own home, only worlds were saying goodbye under the convulsing dance.
the tongue beg them to not remind him, for the meannigof his path of sarow.
It seems that those that have experienced things drastically different from normal life become unable to speak about their experiences. It is because the gap between the two lives is too large. It is the mistrust towards the world that makes them unable to speak.
On the other hand, there are people who live in silence, because they are the embodiment of their surroundings. They do not need to speak. Yet, because they do not speak, they are easily eliminated by those with words. Some people with words choose to create a record of their lives before they are eliminated completely because probably that is the most that can be done.
Where might it be taking place, we ask. And then we walk. Have a piece of cake.
In the lukewarm light, that is surrounded by shadows darker, we hear something.
We continue with the slow walks in the daylight. It’s a warm and wet season.
Stories, and the refusal to be integrated into a story.
We walk on.
asking,
for not going anywhere
on the ridges
there is a smooth surface
toes, toes, toes
those are the sounds
Hikaru Fujii - from the terminal to the wasteland (American literature in the era without America)
Recent American literature tends to have a stateless atmosphere, pop and full of fantasy... seeing Haruki Murakami as one of the important pioneers
The airport/terminal is stateless. (Airports look the same anywhere, it lacks any kind of nationality or cultural identity of the land.) Your name and your destination are what defines you.
On the other hand, the literature of the wasteland also has developed. those who did not go to the airport, those in the abandoned land
A simple small piece of paper was left on my palm. It was a corner that was ripped off from somewhere. Walking in the hallway of doors, we see these things often. The white hallway floor dully reflects the light. This linoleum floor is where I grew up upon.
The cold always seems to come with a busy buzz in the head and a body that pauses. And there is the pain.
Murmurs stop briefly. Out of the culmination.
The beliefs in the very slight unevenness, the thin, young lines, I was here before, living in this place.