Published on November 6, 2019. Although Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism had already conveyed, in Europe by the late 1960s, an apocalyptic prophecy of the Soviet Union’s eventual collapse, Japan’s intellectual world failed to grasp its grave significance. This essay discusses the lack of discernment among Japanese intellectuals, who praise Western writings and their critiques on the same level, and argues for the need to regain reverence for words.

November 6, 2019.
Whether one calls them Japanese intellectuals, or the Japanese people as a whole, we do not possess that much power of discernment.
If something is written by a Westerner, we praise both that book and the book criticizing it on the same level.
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
＊~＊ indicates my own note.
Let us have reverence for words.
In the end, I once thought that the apocalyptic prophecy of the fall of the Soviet Union had not been proclaimed after all, but I would like you to look once again at the beginning of this essay.
The third volume of Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism appeared in Japanese translation in 1981, but the original was published in 1968.
That means that, in Europe, by the end of the 1960s, the apocalyptic prophecy of the fall of the Soviet Union had already been proclaimed.
But in Japan, no one reacted to it.
The Japanese translation was done by two translators, Kubokazurō and Ōshima Kaori.
Hannah Arendt’s book was later praised by the left as if it were a supplementary reader to the Bible called Capital（as is often the case, the scripture itself is frequently not read）, but all the various poisons contained in it were detoxified.
Or rather, they were not noticed by them.
Whether one calls them Japanese intellectuals, or the Japanese people as a whole, we do not possess that much power of discernment.
If something is written by a Westerner, we praise both that book and the book criticizing it on the same level.
There is a complete lack of seriousness.
A logos like an apocalyptic prophecy has the power to change a person’s life, as it did mine.
On the failure of foresight among Japanese intellectuals who sided with the socialist camp during the Cold War, there is Inagaki Takeshi’s The Postwar History of “Exorcism”（Bungeishunjū）.
It is a realistic and good book.
If Tobe Ryōichi, Murai Tomohide, and others’ The Essence of Failure（Chūō Kōron Bunko）depicts the failure of foresight in the Japan-U.S. War, then this book to some extent penetrates the essence of the failure of those who sided with the socialist camp during the Cold War.
However, regrettably, it lacks the brilliance of intellect.
There is too much abuse, and the author does not understand that abuse is often taken as malice even when there is no malice.
＊As I read this passage, I felt that it was connected at the root with my criticism of Hashimoto Tōru’s words and actions.＊
In the afterword, he writes, “The purpose of this essay was to ask those ‘priests of the devil’ to return to the witch’s cauldron that was their birthplace.”
What on earth is this vulgar and ominous act of hurling words?
It is of the same kind as the intellect of the editor of this book.
The rest is omitted.