Jingoism and More About Why Japan is a Better Place to Live than the USA

My good friend, Andy in Akita (formerly Andy from San Francisco) recently posted and excellently written and succinct article talking about one of the true foibles of America today, namely jingoism, and comparing that with the peaceful attitude of the Japanese.


In spite of what many are going to reply, Andy's sentiments, while not usually put this well, are pretty much agreed upon by most ex-pat American's in this country that I have met.

This lack of aggressive nationalism, Andy says, makes Japan a better place to live... Here he cites one good example of USA jingoism that paints the USA as an extremely nationalistic country...  You won't hear any arguments from me:


The Olympic spirit is profoundly dead in America. Remember the Olympic oath, that the competitors are there to participate and the goal is not necessarily to win? But what is the reality? USA - USA - USA chanted out the wazoo. It's sickening, the epitome of jingoism.

On the contrary, Japan's women's soccer team just won the World Cup. Barely anyone here cares. Few people watched, perhaps due to the game being played in Germany and the time zone differences, perhaps because it was a woman's game and not a man's event, but my opinion is that people here are just less jingoistic so they don't care quite so much if Japanese people or teams win a sporting event. Sure, people here would probably enjoy seeing a Japanese person or team winning a sports event. The big difference is that Japanese people are far far less likely to act in a jingoistic manner about winning.

On the contrary, when the USA woman's soccer team won in their semi final game, they saluted the government's war jets as they streaked over the stadium. It looked like some propaganda film from Nazi Germany.


Surely, if, as Samuel Johnson says, "Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels" (1775) then the USA has much more than her fair share of scoundrels. 


Read the rest at Andy's Japan Adventures Blogspot. If that link doesn't work, try this one: http://andysjapanadventures.blogspot.com/2011/08/jingoism.html