So I was reading back my texts from my third year course of Japanese. Every time we had to read one, we also had to write some kind of opinion about it. In this one, hanebashi, I remember I wrote a bunch of stupid stuff and got a really good grade and a lot of good comments from my professor. Reading it back, I find it completely amazing what this whole story is about.
In the story, a baron is about to go away and tells his wife to stay in the castle while he is away. She wanted to see her lover, so she went out on her own, crossing the castle bridge. On her way back, there was a madman with a sword blocking the bridge, so she couldn't get in fearing to get killed. She went to ask the boatman to help her cross the water, but he was asking for money she didn't have. She then went to see a friend who refused to give her money because it was what she deserved. After all this, she goes back to the castle and as soon as she puts a foot on the bridge, the madman kills her.
The question was: Who is responsible for her death. The baron, the baron's wife, the lover, the madman, the boatman, or the friend? My answer was as simple as I could think of: the madamn, because he is the one who killed her, so he is essentially responsible. In my written opinion, since I usually don't do well, I decided to write a bunch of stupid stuff. I said that it was the society's fault for letting a crazy man with a sword out there. So her death is our responsibility for not taking care of crazy people. So yes, I had a unique answer to the question, and that is probably why I got a good grade.
The problem is that I've never been able to answer the question. Who is responsible for her death? But first, why is there a need to have someone responsible of her death? For me, she was killed, and it doesn't make sense to start blaming someone or something. SHE WAS KILLED. Here, you have a fact. She was killed by the madman following a series of events. Another fact. The story is a whole fact. And I assume what it tells is all true. Even if it wasn't, my conclusion remains the same. There is a killer, for a fact (the madman), but that's all there is to her death.
We are made to react in some situations with "emotions". To make it clearer, I will call these "fake emotions". When someone close to us is killed by someone, we have this fake emotion of revenge. This fake emotion was created by society, by people who think revenge is a good thing, and who made this fake emotion shared between people. Why do I say it is a fake emotion? Because we do not need revenge. We do not need to feel like we want to get revenge on the ones who killed those we loved. Of course, we are made to believe in revenge, but we do not have to believe in it, since the truth is that even if people show they believe in revenge, they, like everyone, don't really believe in it.
I was asked before: What would you do if someone killed your parents? Well, nothing. The person who asked me said he would try to get revenge and everything. And he didn't believe me I wouldn't want to do anything. Well, my parents are killed by someone else. So what? They're dead, they're not in my life anymore, I won't be able to talk to them anymore, etc. These are all facts. Do I need to feel anything towards these facts? Do I need to feel anything towards their death? their killer? Or could I just be rational and accept the fact that they are killed and not create any fake emotion of revenge in my head?
So who is responsible for the death of the baron's wife? No one is. Because we do not need to put responsibility on someone. We do it because we believe it is the right thing to do. But this way of thinking is completely wrong. Instead, we should realize that her death is a simple fact, like many other things, and that there is no need to put an emotion on this fact.
This story and its question were therefore completely useless. In fact, they made people in my class believe that there should be someone responsible for every murder. Because the goal of this activity was to find the one responsible, without first trying to find out if there should be someone responsible for it or not. The question assumed that there had to be someone responsible, and that is what I'm describing as a fake emotion created by society. The society (our class in my example) has been told by the professor that we had to find a culprit, without first asking ourselves if we had to do this. Well obviously we had to do this, because it was part of an activity she wanted us to do. I had to write something to get my grade, and my classmatess also had to. We were stuck in the society and had to do like everyone else. And so we did, and at the same time made everyone believe that we believed in revenge and in responsibility over a death.
What did I learn from this retrospective? Well, actually, I'm doing it all the time. Deconstruct the obvious. Disbelieve. Recreate a rational world from scratch. What I didn't do though was to explain this. I only realized at the end of last March that I had to say what I really think. Before then, when asked for my opinion, I would throw a bunch of stupid stuff just to make the listener happy. That was my mistake. Now, when someone asks me my opinion on something, my answer is probably going to surprise them. Because having an opinion on something is stupid. I've always thought that way, but never said it. I've always did like everyone else, or tried to, but never succeeded. Now I don't have to try anymore.
If someone doesn't like the way I do or think, well, I don't care. I am honest. That's what is important in order to understand how the world works. If we keep doing like everyone else, we'll end up with the need of revenge every time someone is killed, as if it was a normal human emotion and reaction. If we think rationally before getting emotional and doing anything, then we'll see that revenge is not how the world works. But we keep it part of our society. We keep talking about it like it was needed and part of our world. No, revenge is a human creation. It is a fake emotion. We can get rid of it if we want to. But we have to do something. I'm doing my part, in disbelieving the generally accepted. If we stopped asking other people their opinions and instead tried to find the truth about things, we could be much further in understanding our society and living better with each other.
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