The Japanese have experienced an unexpected windfall in the form of someone leaving blank envelopes of cash in various men's rooms and an apartment building. Interestingly, ALL the money seems to have been turned in to the police.
When questioned, the recipients of the windfall were reluctant to talk about it, and some seemed afraid that it was connected to a crime.
This was so culturally different from what I believe would be an American reaction to anonymous envelopes of cash in public places, it was hard for me to fathom. Why all the worry about stolen money? If someone stole it, wouldn't they want to spend it themselves, instead of donating it to strangers anonymously? That doesn't make any sense. Further, cash is hard to trace, anyway, and if the person was leaving it in public places in envelopes, he seemed to have intended for it to be found and used by passersby. It wasn't accidentally dropped.
In fact, the whole thing's so funny, I wonder whether it's some evil alien plot to find the most compliant people on Earth as a suitable location for the beginning of our domination by robot overlords. Who in the world would give away this much money, and why?
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4 comments:
That's just bizarre. I'm glad K started this blog - it's very interesting to hear your perspective on things A, because you and I think very differently about things.
You think the Japanese are compliant? I think the opposite. Some mysterious stranger tries to give them money, and certainly most americans WOULD comply, but the Japanese didn't. They didn't want anything to do with strange money that they didn't know the history of; they refused this unsigned, unasked-for gift.
In a way I find it kind of comforting and inspiring actually - an entire society uninterested in taking what is not theirs even though it would benefit them, unwilling to blindly get involved with something that feels suspicious or too good to be true. It shows they value something MORE than money. Not sure what that is precisely, but it's interesting. I also wonder what role their spiritual beliefs play in this - not sure what most japanese believe, perhaps it's a karma thing?
Well, remember I did post that at like 1 in the morning :) I probably wasn't thinking so clearly.
Interesting point about the social/spiritual aspects -- I believe that most Japanese are still Buddhists, and non-attachment to physical/material items is a very important part of Buddhism. But wouldn't you think that karma would indicate that they should accept this gift?
Not taking the money probably falls under one or more of these.
I think I agree with H. This is the right kind of "rebellion".
Wow, those are deep. I'm not sure I'm a very good buddhist. I agree with them in a lot a lot of ways, but that's like a list of lots of stuff I suck at, though I do try. Funny how some of those things I think I used to be better at than I am now, and some I'm better now than before. :-)
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