Twelve Seven

Seventy years ago, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise aerial attack on the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, precipitating the U.S. entrance into World War II. This conflict had been going on for two years in the West, with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy pitted against the Allies (the national composition of which kept changing due to invasion and occupation). But truth be told, for all practical purposes, this horrible conflict that took so many lives began in 1931 with Japan's invasion of China.

For ten years before the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan, then ruled by a totalitarian military dictatorship that imposed the harsh Bushido nationalist doctrine on its population, brutalized the Chinese people as it enacted its own "Lebensraum" policy long before Hitler invaded Eastern Europe. In fact, the brutality of the Nanking occupation was so severe that the Nazi German officials stationed there were reportedly horrified enough to allow fleeing Chinese sanctuary in their embassy. But I'm not trying to rip on the Japanese here...

The fact is that countries like Japan and Germany epitomize high civilization for me. As does my good ol' U.S.A....and that has me worrying a bit.

A totalitarian society practices strict control of its population through a secret police network, informants, and harsh punishment of any perceived "deviants" from the state's line. But history has shown us in a frightening way how the perception of economic prosperity as well as the notion that outside enemies are threatening the country can lead its people not only to rationalize the plight they are experiencing under their ever-diminishing liberties, but also to fully embrace their oppressive government's policies, even if they lead to war and genocide.

So here we are in America, worrying about our precious economy. We see all these enemies out there trying to undermine us and we think that we need a strong leader who will lay the law down to those other countries. And what about the moral decay that is weakening us within? We need the government to pass laws which restrict immoral behavior among the population so that we can be internally stronger. And let's also fully support the state and whatever police tactics it employs to squelch constitutionally-protected peaceful dissent, because we all know how those good-for-nothing protesters are just trying to undermine us. Well, at least SOME of us want that, judging by the crowd reactions at some of these debates that have been going on lately.

I think that the lesson most commonly taught about Pearl Harbor is to not let your guard down about your enemies. But while taking care not to let that happen, let's make sure that we don't become the enemy ourselves. Prosperity is the great justifier: be careful not to relinquish your precious rights to the state for its sake, and don't rationalize the state's behavior based on your own economic well-being: your great civilized country could turn into something very ugly...