We No Longer Need 'Honor Students'

People tend to hold the 'illusion' that those who are 'in positions of authority,' 'great,' or 'possess great power' do not make mistakes.

People also tend to feel that the 'majority' in a 'majority vote' is always correct. But that, too, is an 'illusion'.

--For example, looking at other countries or even our own, it is clearer than day when you consider that there are times, both now and in the past, when things head in the 'wrong direction'.

If you follow the approach of 'just everyone following someone in a position of authority,' you might not even notice when you have wandered onto the 'wrong path'.
--I think our own country is in a current situation where it could be said that in some respects, we are 'lost and on the verge of a disaster.' (I hope we can manage something before night falls, but I feel like the sun is already setting, or perhaps we have already entered the night. --If that is the case, I think we may have already entered a phase where we must think about 'how this group can safely make it through this mountain path until dawn.')
(Regardless, I would like to avoid a situation where we 'move clumsily, fail to notice we are on a cliff, and then step off and slide down all at once.')

If you have a 'habit' of finding your identity in being an 'honor student,' you inevitably tend to move yourself based on the 'someone' in 'being praised by someone' or 'being evaluated by someone'.

Lately, I feel there are many 'honor students'.

'Cooperation'--yes, the very idea that 'harmony is to be valued' is important.

However, what kind of 'cooperation' and what kind of 'harmony' do you (not other people, but you) desire? --If 'individuals' do not possess this and have completely lost it, groups tend to start heading in strange directions.

In short.
It is fine to 'conform to others' or 'aim to be praised by others,' but I feel it is a bit problematic if it is always 'only that,' 'nothing else,' or 'always the top priority'.

There are people who are always plotting to 'use others for their own benefit'; they are a minority, but they definitely exist. --And people who keep plotting like that eventually, quite brilliantly, regarding that 'technique',(though it is often the case that it is 'only' regarding that 'technique',)become fully proficient and clever at it.(I do not have that, so while I dislike such people, I do admire that 'technique' part of them. --By the way, I do not think it is wonderful or enviable at all.)

For such people, an 'honor student' is a convenient existence. --They are 'praise-seeking, principle-first' individuals who also manage to act quite cleverly.
--Yes, I think they would be easy to 'manipulate'.

Japan today is full of 'honor students,' and there is an atmosphere where many, including young people, tend to aim for that.
--If I may be so bold, it looks like a 'flock of excellent sheep'.

At first glance, it looks like a pastoral and wonderful view.
However, if the 'rancher' there is not decent, is it not quite easy (especially now) to imagine that the destination of that 'flock of sheep' will be anything but 'pastoral'?

Personally, I have always hated people who plot to 'use others for their own benefit.' --Thanks to that, I feel I have avoided being an 'honor student' or an 'excellent sheep' and am here now.

I think that for your own sake, as well as for the sake of others, you must not leave individual 'judgment' to 'others'.--In other words, if you want to remain a 'person,' you must not seek a 'master' while being a person.

You must at least think for yourself about what makes you 'happy' and what you can 'rejoice in,' rather than relying on others.
(That should also include 'things you have judged for yourself that make you happy by pleasing others.')

Of course, I myself am not going to aim to be an 'honor student' at this late stage, and therefore, I do not want to make the young people of the future into 'honor students' either.

Before reaching the point of 'strictly following someone's instructions' or 'acting exactly as someone told you to,' I want people to become individuals who can 'think and judge for themselves,' and even now, belatedly, and moving forward, I want to be that way myself.