Progress or Perish

Progress or Perish

1990 4 April 13 Progress or Perish (269) There is no stagnation in life. A man will either rise or he will fall. There is implicit belief in the principle that if you do not make efforts to rise, you will surely, automatically, start going downwards.

In her 160-page book, Japanese Society, which was published in Tokyo in 1987, Chie Nakane, a professor of social anthropology at Tokyo University, introduces Japanese society and in considerable detail, describes the mental make-up of the Japanese. To her way of thinking, the Japanese are characterized by their “constant desire to rise a little higher than the average.” (p. 155). To the author, this is a way of life for the Japanese. For them, it is like a religion, the basic tenets of which they are obliged to put into practice.

There is no stagnation in Japanese life. A man will either rise or he will fall. There is implicit belief in the principle that if you do not make efforts to rise, you will surely, automatically, start going downwards.

This principle is held to apply equally to the material and the spiritual life. The real believer is one whose faith is continuously on the increase. If this process of development is stopped, decadence will set-in in the believer’s spiritual life. In such a world, maintaining the status quo (remaining in the same condition) is simply not possible.

What is true of Japan is true of the entire world. Man must always aim at progress, otherwise stagnation and decay will Setin in both worldly and spiritual matters. Without such effort man could face ultimate annihilation and disappear altogether as a species.