2010-11-1
As I wrote in “The Turntable of Civilization,” the world needs a hegemonic power.
The world…human activity…has always been sustained by trade, throughout history, in East and West, and in this trade…in modern society, no single country can be the sole winner…all the more so because the foremost role of a true hegemonic power…is to raise poor countries into prosperous ones (please refer to the relevant chapters).
Japan in the past, China today, or the emerging countries that follow it generate enormous trade surpluses…since having the world’s key currency is also a condition for being a hegemonic power…the world, taking the form of a will called the “god of the market,” adjusts that imbalance through exchange rates.
Yet China, currently the greatest rising power, does not act in accordance with this will at all.
The resulting burden falls on what is, in substance, still the world’s second-largest economic superpower…a country that not only lacks an intimidating military presence…
But also believes that all is peaceful under heaven…with an astonishing parade of idiotic television programs all day long…and whose indifference to the world has reached its extreme.
Perhaps it grew arrogant when the turntable of civilization turned…
A country pursuing only its own happiness…spending its days absorbed in inward-looking foolishness.
There is no other choice; let us balance the books in this country…in Japan…
I have been thinking for some time now that this might be the truth of the matter.
This is merely a passing thought, so please bear with me.