5 July 2002 (25 Tamuz 5762)
I am afraid that the distorted interpretation of freedom as the right to do whatever you want without any restriction or responsibility is becoming more and more rampant in Japan. I do not know whether this is mainly or partly because of the postwar educational system that has been dominated by leftist teachers who allegedly embrace this distortion. It manifests itself most prominently in the failure to distinguish between private and public domains and lack of responsibility for whatever one has done, exercising one's "freedom". In my opinion people who show such symptoms are nothing but invalids who cannot function as mature social beings.
The first symptom is so rampant in all walks of life that there is not even a single day when I do not encounter it in my daily life. One of the most disturbing examples is the littering of garbage, especially cigarettes, on the street or in other public places. In the apartment house there is even a tenant who always litters garbage in the corridor. I simply cannot understand the mentality of these people; only those who spend hours playing "pachinko" ('pinball games' notorious in Japan) are more enigmatic for me. Another extremely disturbing example of this symptom is the "littering" of sound garbage in the forms of noise coming from ear- or headphones in the train, self-proclaimed "musicians" playing something bordering on noise on the street, etc.
The second symptom, which may be paraphrased as immature self-indulgence, is extremely common among those in their early twenties who are expected to behave as adults. Legally, adults are defined as people who are 20 or older, but in reality, most of the people need another decade or so to behave and feel themselves as adults in this pampering and pampered country. Even university students are no exception, or probably they are the worst in this respect. In spite of the fact that I say repeatedly in the beginning of every new academic year that they are free not to attend my courses, but they have to be responsible for the possible consequences, there are always students who were absent from class many times and have the chutzpah to ask me for credits. I simply have no sympathy whatsoever for these students. I rather think it our obligation as educators not to pamper them, thus preventing them further from becoming adults and behaving accordingly.
12 July 2002 (3 Av 5762)
One of the reasons why I think Japanese society has no bright future is that there are more and more self-centered people, both young and old, with no or little public awareness, and worse still, there are less and less people who scold or criticize these selfish people face-to-face, so the social mechanism of checking and preventing selfish behaviors in public is ceasing to function little by little. Actually, this is a vicious circle. Now you even have to run the risk of losing your life by scolding or criticizing these manifestations of selfishness (and probably childishness as well). It is not rare any more to hear news that someone who asked someone else to lower the volume of his or her music in the train was killed by him or her.
I have no clear answer to the question why Japanese society has become such a paradise for selfish "children". It is deplorable to see so many people littering garbage and making noise in public places. When I was a child, there were still enough people who could scold or criticize selfish behaviors of others in public, and there was an atmosphere to accept any criticism of this sort. To go so far as to kill someone who criticized you was simply - and still is for me - a fairy tale until some time ago. Now no one seems to be surprised to hear about such incidents as they are so common.
I cannot help thinking that this change has much to do with the postwar educational system which has tried to deny everything Japanese, both good and bad, that was before the Second World War. It is no wonder that where there is a spiritual void, there will arise a sociolcultural desert. The typical products of the postwar educational system are selfish "children" who cannot think of others and society at large and have difficulties communication with others. As long as they are secluded hermetically in their own "territory" surrounded by what they call "music", they look emasculated robots. But this is misleading. Once someone else intrudes into their "territory", they can become savage beasts with human faces.
19 July 2002 (10 Av 5762)
I constantly receive all kinds of requests for help in Hebrew-related issues including computing and translation both online from people I do not know and offline from my acquaintances and their friends who have heard about me from them as well as commercial companies. One of the things that most of them have in common is that they emphasize that they are urgent when they ask me, but once I have finished what they asked me to do, they behave as if I did not exist, delaying the payment in case they are supposed to pay for my help.
In principle I consider it a great honor to be asked for help because if they did not trust my expertise in the issues in question or me in general, they would not contact me at all. So every time I receive these requests, I am trying my best to fulfill them if I see that I have enough time for and knowledge about them, making them my top priorities. Unfortunately, many of the people who ask me for help do not seem to have the same way of thinking. Once their requests are fulfilled, they suddenly lose interest in me. According to my past experiences, at least one out of every four or five people who contact me for help is like this. So every time I am requested to do something by someone, I cannot help suspecting him or her almost instinctively unless, of course, he or she is a close friend or teacher of mine I trust, and I ask myself in hesitation whether to accept his or her request. But mostly, at least when I have enough time, I agree to fulfill it, thus running the risk of receiving no compensation.
Of course, I am not doing this just to get any reward though it may not be altruism. I simply feel bad if I know that I could not help someone who trusted and contacted me for help. I am aware that this often borders on naiveness. It happened to me a few times that I received no payment. The worst case I cannot forget is that one private student of mine did not pay the tuition in spite of the fact that I asked her many times, and she simply disappeared.
When I told all these things to my parents on the telephone, they told me something amazing I had never known before. When my father was still working as a master carpenter, two of his customers did not pay even one yen for the houses he had built. This must have been a heavy monetary blow for my parents, but my mother told me that my father had made no fuss about this. This has only deepened my respect for them.
26 July 2002 (17 Av 5762)
The reason why I still remain single though I am already 39 is simply that I have not met the right person yet, and not that I have no desire to get married. I wonder what requirements other people have about their prospective marriage partners, what makes them take a decisive step, and what compromises they make (or are ready to make) for it.
I used to think that the overall "chemistry" was the most important thing, and that there might be a hierarchy of requirements. After all, I am 39, so I have had several girlfriends until now. Every time I broke up with someone, it was always because of my dissatisfaction with one of the requirements I had. I have gradually come to realize, however, that actually the overall "chemistry" is nothing but an illusion that exists only in theory, and in real life what counts is each and every requirement you expect from your partner. The idea of a hierarchy of requirements has not passed the text of real life for me. I used to think that there might be certain requirements in certain areas I would be ready to compromise with, but I am afraid that I am not ready for such a compromise; the minimal level of all the requirements must be met.
These requirements are in the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical and probably also sexual areas. With one ex-girlfriend the problem was in the intellectual area, with another it was in the spiritual area, etc. I have no intention of explaining in detail what exactly I require in each and every area, but all the areas are important. It seems that if I find something missing even in one area, I will end up breaking up with someone sooner or later. I wonder if I would ever meet the right person as there seem to be far more people I become disappointed with as I get to know them more than those who surprise me in a positive sense as I get to know them. Am I expecting too much and ready to make too few compromises?