"oriental rant"

[David Ziglin <davidz@domain.elided>]

* I am pleased that we are allowed to discuss this subject without 
accusations of of being off topic.

*  I am bloody well sick and tired of every expression of personal 
opinion being called a rant.  If you think what had been posted on 
this list is a rant, you are living in a world of amusing innocence. 
Please allow a bit of passion without labeling it a rant.

*  The suggestion that Japanese design is a direct result of their 
culture is interesting and worth considering; however, I am skeptical 
of it.   Consider :  As an experienced progressive teacher, I assure 
you that education in the USA is very little more than mindless 
memorization and copying.  Creative thinking, thinking skills, art, 
and individual expression and innovation scares the hell out of 
everyone in the states.   Parents WANT mindless memorization because 
they know it will be transformed into grades (meaningless grades too 
often) and grades is ALL USAians care about.   Copying, rather than 
originating, is the life of our students.   I have much more to say 
about this, but am in danger of ranting.  ;-)    ( work sheets, fill 
in the blank, T and F, and so on are respected by parents and school 
boards because they see it as "structure."  Japanese school systems 
are way ahead of the states in many respects as is the rest of the 
world.)

*  If we are being respectful of all ethnic groups and cultures, we 
should recognize a couple of important facts.

                     The adjective "oriental" should simply be tossed 
from our language.  The word "Asian" is accurate and appropriate.

                     Much more important is to understand that there 
is NO SUCH THING AS RACE.   "Race" is 100% a human invention. 
Biologically, there simply is no such thing as race.  No biological 
scientist or anthropologist recognizes the notion of race.   To use 
the idea of race as it has historically been used makes as much sense 
as deciding that humans over the height of 5'8" represent one race 
while those under another race.   Or, those who can fold their 
tongues represent one race while those that can't another.

*  The Japanese have been designing cars for export, certainly in 
large part for a USA market, for a very long time.   Japanese cars 
sell like crazy.  So, who is aesthetically and soul impaired, the 
buyer or the seller ?

*  In terms of design innovation consider  :  it is only recently 
that the USA has even thought about innovation.   This has been the 
result of European design actually battering the bottom line of USA 
manufacturers.  That is why, essentially suddenly, the Crane company 
and the Kohler company have actually begun to manufacture product 
with style, with aesthetically pleasing design.........  that's just 
an example.

      Consider the USA makes products all around your home and office 
that are clones of products made 75 years ago and are just as crappy.

 (Note how the multicolored MAC computers has influenced endless 
examples of new design; in other words, seemingly everything out 
there is a copy of the material use of the MAC.  Staplers, as a 
simple example, have been showing up with teal blue transparent 
shells.  The USA will change NOTHING unless forced to.   I see no 
culturally inherent design bent in the USA.   Consider how long it 
took for USAians to accept disk brakes.  A walk through Tokyo will 
present zillions of new innovative products of which the USA is 
totally ignorant.)

*  Finally ( ;-)  ) ...........   my wife and I have been driving 
RX-7s as work cars for many years (1st and 3rd gens).  My wife is now 
the ecstatic owner of a mint '94 3rd generation RX-7.   These are 
wonderful machines.  Our '84 GSL-SE has 170 miles on it, gets looks, 
and is a blast to drive.  I often use it at driving schools.)

      Speaking of innovation and copying  :  Clearly, the newer 
Corvette's looks were strongly influenced by the 3rd Gen RX-7.  ( The 
Rex's  jack handle must be made of exotica as it weighs nearly 
nothing.   BTW, who was it that stubbornly  perfected and evolved the 
Wankle engine?   Forget about it. )

Best Wishes,

David
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