Received this from a friend of a friend. It's pretty illuminating.

[donheld]

http://www.facebook.com/notes/jean-houston-page-official/from-a-friend-of-a-friend-in-sendai-japan/118162871593189

From my cousin in Sendai, Japan where she has lived for the past decade teaching English. Very moving!!

Hello My Lovely Family and Friends,

First I want to thank you so very much for your concern for me. I am very touched. I also wish to apologize
for a generic message to you all. But it seems the best way at the moment to get my message to you.

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to
have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even
more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share
supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room,
eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their
navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home,
they put out sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in
lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an
earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

More at link

[BlueJazz]

1. I would hope the people in the USA would be that civilized if they had the same misfortune that ...

...was foisted upon the Japanese.

But..I truly do not like that part of me that thinks otherwise.

[AsahinaKimi]

3. I tend to agree

Look what happened during Katrina.. Things could be worse if there ever was a Major Earthquake in Los Angels or San Francisco. Most Freepers, Tea Baggers and The Republican party would say:

God chose to destroy These cities...Let the people burn.. and ..serves the Liberals right.. or now there will be less Liberals in the world. Would Americans even care if it happened here? Some might, some would laugh.

[Brickbat]

14. Some would, some wouldn't. Just like people everywhere.

[frazzled]

2. Very lovely

Since I have family in Japan, I have been getting a similar vibe: the people there seem much less freaked out than we (and our media) are here. My nephew there explains that his first concerns for his family are (1) another earthquake that will compromise the structural integrity of buildings; (2) that they will have sufficient power, which will be a long term problem. He has very little concern about radiation.

I've never lived through a crisis like this, but I do recall much smaller events: bad storms or blizzards, in which everything was pared down to the basics afterwards, and neighbors helped neighbors, taking joy in the communal aspect of mutual sustainability. There is an upside to tragedy, and it's called thankfulness for what you have.

[slay]

4. Capitalism is fracturing society

always has been but is accelerating now - it forces us to compete instead of cooperate - and exists for the true benefit of only a tiny few. I'll trade a widescreen tv for "warm, friendly, and beautiful" how bout yall? If we really want to fix the root cause of our problems that is - and get back to what's really important - each other.

"Problems of Capitalism

What is wrong with the idea of capitalism?
--It is based on a psychological model which is fundamentally flawed. It has disrupted traditional patterns of human interaction, bringing material and spiritual poverty by devastating precious indigenous cultures and ecosystems. Traditional, ways of life are replaced by a debased monoculture, controlled by an unsustainable money system which rewards those who plundering the natural environment, giving them an unsustainable material prosperity. A veneer of wellbeing covers terrible psychological and social damage.

What problems does capitalism create?
--Capitalism has brought about a society of unfortunate victims of consumerism. Overconsumption stems from individuals’ frustration and is fuelled by organisations’ greed. Encouraging people to behave as individual consumptive units erodes the social fabric, damages relationships and fuelling the worldwide growth of depression.

How does capitalism create problems?
--Under capitalism, the profit motive is supreme. Mathematics replace morality in the sense that profitable activity thrives and all other activity is supressed. Problems arise from activities which are financially productive but socially destructive. Love is fundamental to human welfare and yet, because it leads to activity such as sharing, caring and giving away, it runs counter to economic ‘progress’, so those activities which promote love are discouraged, while those which discourage it are promoted. Inadvertantly perhaps, the capitalist system rewards selfishness but punishes altruism."

more: http://www.altruists.org/ideas/economics/problems/capitalism/

[snagglepuss]

5. That argument makes no sense when applied to Japan because Japan

is a gungho capitalist country.

[slay]

6. "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

I'm not an idiot. I know Japan is a capitalist society. But there is a better way than capitalism - the reality expressed in this facebook message is a reality without capitalism at the moment. It's not everyone fighting for more for themselves, it's helping each other. sorry you didn't get what i was trying to say.

i probably should have not had the subject be called "Capitalism is fracturing society". I should have just used the quote i used this time: "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another" as the subject. then i could have related that to capitalism a bit better in the body of the message. sorry my presentation was lacking.


*on edit - here's one quote from my post to help show how this applies to japan and the facebook message about the old days: "{capitalism} has disrupted traditional patterns of human interaction, bringing material and spiritual poverty by devastating precious indigenous cultures"

[readmoreoften]

7. Hunh?

[readmoreoften]

8. A corporation owned the nuclear plant (TEPCO) and they cut corners

and now they're in charge of the clean up and not being forthcoming with information. This is one of the major problems of capitalism.

[snagglepuss]

9. I have no disagreement with that at all. The OP describes how the Japanese

are helping one another and not looting. Slay posts says that capitalism fractures society which btw I, in other circumstances, would agree with. However Japan is capitalist and it's not fracturing which raises the question of why this advanced capitalist society is not fracturing.

[slay]

10. The person who posted the facebook message,and the people with him/her are not engaged in capitalism

at this moment. I quote, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

Life is not like that any longer because capitalism is fracturing society. that closeness and cooperation is not there on a day to day basis - usually - but is right now for them under these extreme circumstances.

I posted earlier that i should have connected the facebook post and capitalism in a better way. perhaps now i have done that.

If not I guess another thing i can say is that capitalism led to taking the risk of putting that nuke plant there. most people nearby never signed up for that risk. but as far as capitalism was concerned it was A-OK time for profit baby!

[slay]

11. A form of humanity we should all aspire to

donheld - sorry if my capitalism rant seemed to hijack part of your thread - that was not my intent.

slay :hippie:

[Blue Owl]

12. Ah, civilization

Something tells me FOX news has little to no presence in Japan

[Mojorabbit]

13. I was in Ocean Springs after Katrina

and everyone was helping eachother there as we camped in the yard in the midst of piles of furniture and household goods that had been washed out into the street. The houses were washed clean of most of the contents and it smelt of rotting meat from the freezers and fridges laying in the road and it was a hundred degrees. Everyone took care of eachother and then after they sent a backhoe to clear a way down the middle of the street, one would see headlights at three am. We had be on watch for people who had no business cruising the area in the middle of the night.

There were stories in NO of people organizing into a big group with each person assigned a duty that formed a sort of tribe helping eachother. This was a group that was denied passage into the next parrish. People do tend to do this naturally. When everything is in ruins around you it is perfectly natural to forage for supplies within the ruins and to join together to get things done. Yet there were also people taking tvs and almost reveling in the breakdown of order and these people got all the media.

In every society there are those who will be sure to show the worst of what humans can be but it is not the norm in the big picture , IMO.

I also saw the goodness in people after we were hit by Charlie and this is in a country with a huge culture of individualism. It does not suprise me at all that in a country like Japan where there is a strong culture of social cohesion that this would be the result. I lived in Misawa for three years a long time ago. I love the country.