Comments on: On Driving a Train Off the Rails in Japan

By: Laurel

Laurel — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 07:32:08 +0000

This is so interesting. I just moved to Tokyo, and this article sums up some general statements I’ve heard from various people I’ve met. Using the train systems as a case study paints a pretty fascinating cultural study.

By: kamo

kamo — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 00:54:10 +0000

“…if the appeal is made on the premises that the authority itself is *necessarily* infallible.”

This. This is exactly what I’m talking about. You could quibble by saying that in the Japanese context ‘infallible’ should really be replaced by ‘unquestionable’, but the latter is just the practical application of the former. I would dispute your claim that my understanding is ‘inaccurate’.

BTW, I especially enjoy the irony of the Princeton link, sorry, citation. Far more authoritative than Wikipedia, don’t you find? ;)

By: Mari

Mari — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 21:02:57 +0000

I just wanted to drop in to note that you have an inaccurate understanding of the ‘appeal to authority’ fallacy. An appeal to authority is invalid if the authority itself is irrelevant, or if the appeal is made on the premises that the authority itself is *necessarily* infallible. For example, an authority on the subject of organic reactions cannot be appealed to as an authority with respect to 19th century British literature. Cite: http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Appeal_to_authority.html

By: kamo

kamo — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 04:13:07 +0000

Yeah, sorry. Pet peeve tickled right there. As I said, you’re on the money both before and after, which I guess is why it jumped out all the harder.

See also: senpai/kohai. Then maybe have a little cry.

KUTGW

By: owwls

owwls — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 03:46:40 +0000

The very next paragraph, and the entire point of the post, is in agreement with you. I meant to say only that Japan envisions itself, ideally, as a meritocracy, but that abuses like the ones the post is about prove that it isn’t. Should have been more careful about my wording!

By: kamo

kamo — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 01:24:49 +0000

“…people listen and respect authority – whether that authority derives from power, such as policemen, or from knowledge, as is the case of scientists or legal experts. That’s pretty accurately a meritocracy…”

No. No it isn’t.

I love your writing Eryk, and as ever so much of what you say here it bang on the money, but this statement is insidiously and dangerously wrong. Authority does not automatically equal merit. You know as well as I do the ‘the appeal to authority’ is one of the most lazily effective rhetorical fallacies around, and it’s especially bad in Japan where authority is disproportionately correlated with chronological seniority. Figures in authority tend to be those who have managed to hang around the longest without pissing people off, and I find very little meretricious about that. Japan is decidedly not a meritocracy, it’s a gerontocracy.

By: Catspaw

Catspaw — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 18:19:35 +0000

Desperate to save face, 106 dead, 500 injured, seems as if the Japanese would anticipate this failure from fear and plan to avoid such conditions. They don’t? Precision comes at a very high price. Is it worth the cost in lives lost?