It turns out Jimmy Kimmel thinks America (and Europe) is a pretty filthy place. At least compared to the always awesome Japan.
You have to have a sense of pride in yourself to strive for the best. You have to have the same for your country. The same country Mr. Kimmel and his compatriots have spent years - decades perhaps - trashing, and hashing, and bashing. The same country young ones for three generation have been told is one of the worst ever in history. The same country filled with people that young ones have been told are, and always have been, the worst: the most stupid, boorish, vulgar, bigoted, arrogant, violent and useless in the world.
Everything around you sucks. Everything around you has always sucked. Perhaps you are a true god who should be worshipped and if you say you're Napoleon then the definition of Napoleon should be changed. But the fact that it doesn't work that way just shows how bad everything around you does, and always has sucked.
Loyalty? Duty? Honor? Patriotism? Gold Rule? Bah. Insert copious F-Bombs here. By the time I came along, those were punchlines, not principles. Everything is subjective, except for everything that objectively sucks. You owe nothing to anyone, everything owes all to you. And if you aren't Einstein or the Beatles, it's because everything sucks.
Oddly, this constant thrice-daily repeated mantra hasn't build back a better country. Though it hasn't always been this way, it should be noted. In high school and early college, I took karate. The fellow who taught me was pushing for karate to be an Olympic sport, so he couldn't accept fees (we paid for the facilities instead). He traveled much, however. He had a love for Japan. But even then, he admitted traveling abroad was tough because it could be so dirty. Even in Europe and Japan (we won't discuss what he said about the Middle East).
I knew students in my graduate days who were from other countries, including the former USSR. One thing they complained about was America's cleanliness fetish. They said we were almost psychotic about being clean and having everything clean. That was the 1990s.
So Mr. Kimmel, what you are lamenting is what America has become under your watch. You can't be a willing partner with a media culture that has promoted the worst, the ugliest, the dirtiest, the most judgmental and most critical of everything that was ever seen as good and then be shocked with the results. You can't tell kids for generations that their society is garbage and then be shocked when things begin to smell.
It takes effort to be good, never bad. When was the last time anyone said 'You know, all my life I wanted to be a lazy couch potato, but I couldn't overcome the temptation to eat right and exercise'? Probably never. In this world, goodness, virtue, beauty and maturity take effort. They have to be practiced and worked for. But we went on the cheap and aimed lower than dirt, and now we're seeing the results. Thank you Mr. Kimmel for admitting the obvious. Now, if you could admit why it is.
I lived in Tokyo for a year about 25 years ago. There was no graffiti, let alone jay-walking. The country had that much respect for the law. Of course blind obedience of the state can have its downside, but in 1990s Japan this was a net positive.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it was a country that has never been baptized. We're living off the grace accumulated by centuries of Christian ancestors, and Japan almost entirely lacks that. It really does make a palpable difference.