Beyond the Age of Affectation
I have decided to start a note, taking the opportunity of the almost simultaneous publication this month of Reading Classics in Times of Crisis (Jiritsu Shobo) and Board Games Can Change Society (co-authored with Takuya Ono, Kawade Shinsho). For a while, I plan to announce my publication and appearance information with a little "extra" attached.
At some bookstores, a leaflet titled "Complete Annotated Bibliography of My Works 2009-2023," created by Jiritsu Shobo, is currently being distributed. I will start by reprinting and posting the essay I contributed to it.
Beyond the Age of Affectation
Just like certain types of internet ads, "commercials for affectation" are increasing in the world of discourse.
Scholars who should have respectable titles are trying to make a name for themselves with behavior that doesn't seem to match them. They start YouTube channels with silly nicknames, show off eccentric accessories on TV, or go around picking fights on social media using vulgar language.
The catchphrase of these people is, without exception, "Japan is a finished product." Why? Because if their country weren't a finished existence, their business wouldn't work.
"I'm shady, aren't I? But you have no choice but to rely on someone like me. After all, I'm about the only elite person willing to take care of a Japan that's already finished."
If you show that attitude from the beginning, it's easy. No matter how many mistakes you broadcast or how big a failure you make, you can get away with it by saying, "But who else is there besides me?"
With the two books I am releasing this time, I want to say NO to such people.
To be precise, I want to show a different path to a society that has become so steeped in desperate self-deprecation that it cannot get through the day without depending on the discourse drugs they peddle.
Reading Classics in Times of Crisis argues that if you can read hints for living in the present from authentic books written long ago, you won't need to pay for the fakes of the current age.
Board Games Can Change Society (co-authored) talks about how, no matter what kind of helplessness you are currently in, there are practices where you can regain enjoyment without being excluded, based on my own experience with illness.
The former is a personal volume that anyone can imitate starting tomorrow. The latter is a social volume that considers what kind of companions to build from now on.
In 1945, and in 2011, Japan became a "finished product." But what people sought at those times was not base discourse that piggybacked on the plight to exploit the reader's self-esteem.
I want to regain that original intention once more. That is why these two books are, for me (us), a "theory of returning to the beginning."
Created by Jiritsu Shobo
The "theory of returning to the beginning" at the end is, of course, taken from Masao Maruyama's famous lecture during the 1960 Anpo protests (included in Collected Works Vol. 8).
The paper leaflet also includes short self-evaluations for all 17 of my own books (including co-authored ones), including these two. I would be very happy if you could pick one up.