Tuesday, February 01, 2005
REVERE THE EMPEROR !
"When an antiquated and undemocratic regime falls quickly, those who follow it often do so with little firm idea what they want or how they will achieve it. Slogans -- "progress," "prosperity," "catching up with the rest of the world," "freedom" -- and a sense that there are places in the world where life is better -- though those societies threaten the sovereignty of a nation in flux, while they inspire its inchoate leadership -- are all the plan that really exists. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to suggest that there are many plans, for there are many individuals, each with a distinct (and sometimes small) constituency, who wish to speak to and for the nation. The old regime collapsed quickly but not entirely cleanly (some loyalists will fight on for months; anti-reform insurgencies and assassinations will continue sporadically for a decade), and there are social and legal and cultural obstacles to development, including clan leaders, hereditary classes, and a complete lack of traditions of democracy , civil discourse or universal rights. Sound familiar?
It should: Japan, 1868."
Jonathan Dresener on the rise of Meiji Japan. Go read it.
¶ 1:21 PM
"When an antiquated and undemocratic regime falls quickly, those who follow it often do so with little firm idea what they want or how they will achieve it. Slogans -- "progress," "prosperity," "catching up with the rest of the world," "freedom" -- and a sense that there are places in the world where life is better -- though those societies threaten the sovereignty of a nation in flux, while they inspire its inchoate leadership -- are all the plan that really exists. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to suggest that there are many plans, for there are many individuals, each with a distinct (and sometimes small) constituency, who wish to speak to and for the nation. The old regime collapsed quickly but not entirely cleanly (some loyalists will fight on for months; anti-reform insurgencies and assassinations will continue sporadically for a decade), and there are social and legal and cultural obstacles to development, including clan leaders, hereditary classes, and a complete lack of traditions of democracy , civil discourse or universal rights. Sound familiar?
It should: Japan, 1868."
Jonathan Dresener on the rise of Meiji Japan. Go read it.
¶ 1:21 PM
