This is a few weeks ago now, but I it's still interesting for the insight into the exemplary way the Japanese have been seen to act in the wake of the devastations of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. It's by Thomas Lifson, who spent some time in Japan as visiting professor at the National Museum of Ethnology.
Many years ago, a worldly and insightful Japanese business executive offered me an analogy that gets to heart of the forces keeping the Japanese in line, that has nothing to do with culture. "Japanese people," he told me, "are like passengers on a cruise ship. They know that they are stuck with the same people around them for the foreseeable future, so they are polite, and behave in ways that don't make enemies, and keep everything on a friendly and gracious basis."
"Americans," he said, "are like ferryboat passengers. They know that at the end of a short voyage they will get off and may never see each other again. So if they push ahead of others to get off first, there are no real consequences to face. It is every man for himself."
Full story here. [political leaning note: the American Thinker is a magazine of the Right, pro Palin, guns and all that. But it has some interesting contributors, some good insights, like the story here, and is sound on the issue of Islam and Israel]
