調和主義の原則は簡単だ。だが、その意味するところには恐ろしいものがある。諸外国と日本の発想の違いを理解していない日本人は、外国になかなかとけ込めない。違和感を感じるのだ。この原稿を読んだ私の尊敬する作家グラハム・ハンコックは言った。「調和主義を完ぺきに実行できたら世界を制覇できる」

PART ONE: What is "Harmonism"? (3)

By Shun Daichi

2. “Hamonism” and Japan (1)

Then, what is "Harmonism?"

The essences of Harmonism are as follows.

TO KEEP HARMONY WITH OTHER PEOPLE AND THE SOCIETY IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY FOR EVERY JAPANESE PERSON.

MAINTAINING OF HARMONY AMONG THE PEOPLE AND THE SOCIETY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN RIGHT OR WRONG.

Does this sound too simple? However, this implies a lot of things.

I showed some writings on my theory of Harmonism to an Indian, an Indonesian and a Chinese and all of them said "Oh, we have a similar system of harmony in our society."

I realized every society need harmony to govern the people efficiently. So there is harmony in every kind of society. The importance of harmony is not only a Japanese phenomenon.

However, the difference is that we rely on Harmonism more than other countries do, and Harmonism is the only rule we have.

Indians and Indonesians have major religions to give some order to society, while the Chinese are very family oriented and individualistic. In the U.S. and European countries there is the idea of "contracts."

In Japan the Harmonism is the ultimate answer to everything, especially to "Civil Warism".

Everything else, something that is particular to Japan is subject to change, such as the seniority system and lifelong employment. However, Harmonism will stay.

You may have heard of the quote: "in Japan, the nail that sticks out is hammered down." This quote is still true today in Japan because of Harmonizm of Japan. American author Ruth Benedict wrote a famous book on Japan during the World War Two and told that Japanese keep one's "proper station" and strict hierarchy. This Japanese attitude has changed a lot, however, our ruling idea of Hramonism has never changed.

This is due to the dangerous "Civil Warism" which has deeper roots in human nature than Harmonism. We need Harmonism to control Civil Warism.

I will explain about the Civil Warism in Chapter 4.

I originally had a theory that Harmonism unconsciously became the consensus of the Japanese people about 400 years ago when the Tokugawa Shogun finally united the nation (AD 1600).

However, after traveling Japan for five weeks and learned a lot about the Jomon culture of more than 10,000 years old, I realized the roots of Harmonism might go back to the Jomon culture.

Anyway, my old theory went as follows.

(To be continued)