Re: Racist comments

[George Graves <gmgraves@domain.elided>]

C'mon Zak, aren't you being just as wee bit too "politically correct" 
here? I didn't post the passage you quoted, below, but having worked 
for many Japanese companies in my long semiconductor career, I can 
speak with some authority on this subject. The Japanese have cultural 
problems that lead them to be very poor innovators. This has nothing 
whatever to do with the facts that they are Oriental, of the Mongol 
racial group, have epicanthal folds on their eyes, or that their 
mothers carried them on their backs as babies, or any of that other 
19th century racial hogwash because this is not a racial observation. 
It has to do with their written language and their social order. Since 
the main style of writing in Japan is still the Chinese style 
hieroglyphic writing called Kanji (the Japanese do have a phonetic 
alphabet but its mostly used for billboards, signs and commercial 
purposes), The Japanese rely heavily on 'rote memorization.' They have 
to learn some 2500 different Kanji characters by the time they leave 
grammar school and learn them perfectly. The Japanese will be the FIRST 
to admit that this reliance upon rote learning 'colors' their entire 
thought process. On the one hand it trains them to be very methodical 
and detail oriented, which could be one reason why the quality of 
Japanese workmanship and products is as high as it is. On the other 
hand, this type of schooling and writing does not foster a facility for 
innovation, and most Japanese would be the first to admit to that. 
Secondly, the Japanese have a cultural aversion to standing out from 
their peers. There is an old Japanese saying that the nail which sticks 
up, will be hammered down flat.  Neither of these characteristics are 
conducive to individual creativity. They have acquired a reputation for 
imitation because innovation is simply not easy for them. Imitation 
also has worked well for them. They went from 12th Century feudalism to 
the modern age during the late 19th Century in just a couple of 
decades. They copied the West in everything and it worked. They 
continue to copy because they aren't great inventors or innovators and 
they know it. But its not 'racist' to notice or even to mention these 
things and if it has become so, then this society is in deep trouble.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6





> Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 01:37:59 +0200
> From: Zak McGregor <zak@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: alfa-digest V9 #20
>
> On Wed, 13 Nov 2002 09:06:32 +0000
> owner-alfa-digest@domain.elided (alfa-digest) wrote:
>
> I am not entirely sure who spouted the drivel that is well represented
> by this snippet of vitriolic racist bile:
>
> >  S**t, if the Japanese had an original thought in their whole body,
> >  they might have
> >  something.  Actually, their original thinking they did come up with
> >  was pure crap.
> >  And still is.
> but whoever it was is indeed an imbecile. To the halfwit who posting
> this abhorrent crap, in future please keep this sort of rubbish off the
> list. For what it's worth, the Japanese have produced and continue to
> produce today some very excellent motor cars. That some engineering was
> taken, lifted, borrowed, stolen or whatever is really not in any way
> relevant unless it has been proven in a court of law - or at least
> substantiated in some concrete manner other than hearsay or subjective
> commentary. In any case, I woud like to not expend any more energy
> attacking this nonsense, so let's please keep it off the list.
>
> Ciao
>
> Zak
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