Monday, August 14, 2006

The ivory tower


jiyugaoka-watchtower
Originally uploaded by benkei242.
The world is constituted by text and numbers. By text, I mean interpretations and representations; numbers on the other hand signify standards and measurements. I've spent the last 10 years focused almost exclusively on the former, but I think it's about time I turned my attention toward the latter.

Another thought: misunderstandings principally occur not because our answers contradict, but rather because we are intent on confronting different questions. I can't help thinking this is somehow fundamental to the problems between China and Japan; one side may ask how horrible Japan's war conduct was, while the other may be concerned with the question of whether Japan was worse than the imperialist powers, or even the Chinese Communist Party. Of course that's all unspoken, but it operates as a subtext to all the meandering discussions over numbers killed, numbers raped, numbers subjected to experimentation. It's funny how those arguments also reduce to an objectivity-subjectivity dilemma; more irreconcilable text and numbers.
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A metaphor for the banality of nationalism that just hit me: This is my flag. There are many like it, but this one is mine.