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Originally Posted by Sidd Finch
We are dangerously close to where you call me a racist, again, but what the hell.
(1) You say "culture" explains to much, and therefore you refuse to let it explain anything. The problem with this view is that it leads to statements like Wonk's -- "several men who happen to be priests raped children" -- and so the culture of the Catholic church is absolved from having supported and protected and fostered that conduct.
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I don't think I refuse to let it explain anything, and I certainly don't think that our fates are determined by our DNA, the stars, or a bunch of immortals hanging out at the top of Mount Olympus. But pointing to "culture" as an explanation isn't an explanation -- it's a placeholder. I agree with your response to Wonk, but just correlating that priests are Catholic and that they abused children isn't really an explanation either, it's a black box with "Catholic" on the label.
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(2) Japanese soldiers viewed surrender as cowardly, and died by the hundreds of thousands as a result. Japanese pilots willingly lined up to fly suicide missions -- not hypothetical suicide missions, but genuine ones -- by the thousands. I call this "cultural." You seem to believe it is something else -- perhaps coincidence? Or fictional? But people were taught specific things, about obedience to authority and the divinity of the emperor and shame to the family or whatever else, and it contributed to them behaving in certain ways.
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Race is a cultural construct, too. I wasn't calling you racist, and I certainly don't think that Japanese were choosing to be kamikazes because of some biological characteristics. If we disagree about this, we're not doing a very good job of identifying where the disagreement is.
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I realize that the above causes you to think I'm a racist. But it is nothing inherent in the Japanese "race", or Asian DNA, or anything else. It is cultural -- a product of how a particular society developed, that was particularly insulated and in a non-connected world.
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Maybe. But you see many other cultures where people sacrifice themselves in combat and are glorified for it, and so you then either have to focus on what was uniquely Japanese about kamikazes or you have to figure out what the cultures might share that leads to such behaviors, etc.
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By the same token, the US was born in a culture of racial oppression. Much of that culture continued even after many, many white Americans fought to end slavery. Looking at that racist culture --- having the ability and courage to look at ourselves critically -- is critical to making this a better nation.
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