The Entangled Civilization - Democracy, Equality, and Freedom at a Loss

Michio Kitahara

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Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 380 pages. January, 1995.

Why are democracy, equality, and freedom currently in such turmoil? The author discusses the confusion and pessimism in Western civilization today. He presents his theory of civilization and suggests how the enormous problems within Western civilization can be addressed by pursuing the original basis of Western civilization --- individualism. The three key values of democracy, equality, and freedom are then reinterpreted from the perspective of individualism, and possibilities for dealing with the problems of Western civilization are suggested.

Book description as provided by the author:
"By reflecting our evolutionary background, the structure of the human brain contains two primitive levels which deal with the basic existence of ourselves as animals, such as sex and territorial defense. On top of these, we have another level dealing with human characteristics, such as morality, ethics, reason, compassion, and the art of interhuman relations. Medieval Europeans were very much under the influence of the primitive parts of the brain. Along with the rise of the modern West, they learned to restrain them.
But the rise of the modern West also entailed colonialism and slavery. The Africans in America have been forced to suffer for centuries. There is now abundant scientific evidence that when humans experience hardship, adults become childish. When the hardship is extreme, humans tend to exist under the dominance of the two lower levels of the brain. As a result of their tragic past, the African-Americans have created a unique culture of their own, characterized by these tendencies.
This culture emphasizes sensuality, spontaneity, action, and emotions, which appeal to the more primitive aspects of human existence. For this reason, it is irresistible. African-American superstars in rock music, sports, and entertainment became the role models for everyone. But unfortunately, this culture is incompatible with the basic characteristics of the modern West, which emphasize logic, reason, rationality, and the restraint of emotions and spontaneity. The West is also being Africanized more and more in counterproductive ways, as seen in drugs, vandalism, violence, and crimes against persons. Western civilization's abuse of the Africans has boomeranged back upon itself."

CONTENTS:

Part I: PROBLEMS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
- Western Civilization in Confusion
- Democracy
- Equality
- Freedom
- Ideology, Bureaucracy, and Technology
- Culture and Biology; Culture and the Individual
PART II: A THEORY OF CIVILIZATION
- The Self in the Life Space
- The Manipulatory Drive
- Identification and Variation
- The Conditions for Civilization
- The Maintenance of Civilization
- The Failure of Civilization
PART III: REFLECTIONS ON WESTERN CIVILIZATION
- The Contradictions
- Individualism and Democracy
- Individualism and Equality
- Individualism and Freedom
- Epilogue

REVIEWS:

"While reading this book, it became evident, that the author has read many good books on economy, political philosophy, history, socialism, statism, science, and psychology, while he lived in Japan, Europe, and America. This book shows how vulnerable the Western civilization got through socialism, how the self as an object in a collective setting is manipulated, that the cause for people's violent protest against nuclear power plants is based on egoist human thought. When explaining how collectivism is emphasized at the expense of individualism, he writes on page 230:

'But the ironic point here is that collectivism is carried out on the basis of the individualistic perception of human behaviour without knowing or realizing this. This is another very important point in this book, and I would like to ask you to read the above sentence once again.'

"Explosive content without any journalistic hype: Must read!" --- (The ModulaTor)

"Often outsiders can provide thoughtful perspective. This is the case here as Japanese-born Kitahara analyzes forces promoting the rise and decline of the West. He reviews voluminous writings by classic critics of capitalism, including Christopher Lasch, Herbert Marcuse, Karl Marx, David Reisman, Joseph Schumpeter, Oswald Spengler, Arnold Toynbee and Alan Wolfe. He talks about such defenders of capitalism as F. A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. He wrestles with a wide range of issues, including technology, bureaucracy, equality and culture....The questions he raises need to be addressed by all who care about the future of our civilization." --- Jim Powell (Laissez Faire Books)

This is the second book of Kitahara's trilogy on the rise of the modern West and its future.

More https://sites.google.com/site/michiokitaharaspublications

About the Author

Michio Kitahara was born in Japan but received his Ph.D. from the University of Uppsala, Sweden. He has held teaching or research appointments at the Universities of Maryland, Michigan, and San Francisco, as well as the State University of New York at Buffalo. He currently lives in Sweden in order to study the fate of Scandinavian social democracy firsthand.

What is "The 25th Century Movement"?

The 25th Century Movement is a contact network of individualists and liberals in various countries who are gravely concerned about the present state of Western civilization. In the name of "democracy" and in the name of "peace," wars are carried out without the consent of people. Poverty is artificially created by the state. The euro is enforced upon the peoples in Europe without their consent. Many politicians of the European Union are totally corrupt. The state punishes you if you do not pay taxes. But nobody is responsible when tax money is wasted.

The cities in North America and Europe are filled with vandalism and graffiti, and citizens are afraid of being mugged and robbed. Women are constantly afraid of being raped. A sniper suddenly begins to kill people indiscriminately at a totally unexpected place. Movies glorify violence and sex. Drugs are everywhere and available to everyone. Children kill other children. If we look at human history, civilizations decline and die sooner or later. Western civilization is unlikely to be an exception in this regard. It is probably now in the final stage of decline and death.

Conceivably, a civilization has its own life cycle and we can do nothing to change this fate, as Oswald Spengler said. A civilization may be in the final stage for a long time. It may take several centuries to die. We tentatively assume that, by the beginning of the 25th century, Western civilization in its present form will be dead completely. This may happen much earlier. What can you do after that? One thing we can do is to prepare a condition for the future generations, so that when they want to build a new civilization, they have some ideas to use for this new civilization.

It is possible to build a variety of civilizations based on a variety of assumptions. We should not think that all civilizations must be based on the same assumptions. Theocracy may be one possibility. Dictatorship is another possibility. But in order to have a productive and flourishing civilization, a dictator must be a perfect person, and such a person is unlikely to exist in this world. Probably the easiest approach for the future generations, who wish to build a new civilization, is to modify and specify the basic assumptions of today's Western civilization. The starting point of Western civilization is the individual. Also, Western civilization today has the following three assumptions: (1) democracy, (2) equality, and (3) freedom. You may be able to build a new civilization by modifying and specifying them. How?

The 25th Century Movement suggests as follows: (1) democracy as direct democracy rather than representative democracy; (2) equality as equal respect for others, rather than equality as sameness; and (3) freedom as negative freedom (freedom from unwanted actions by others) rather than positive freedom (freedom to act as one wants). These assumptions accept the importance of the individual. By emphasizing them, we can have a new civilization without the problems that characterize today's Western civilization. "The 25th Century Movement" may possibly become as important as the Renaissance or the philosophy of the Enlightenment in human history. We are now preparing "The Individualist Manifesto" in which we describe how these ideas can be carried out in reality. But even now, if you agree with our political philosophy, you can get started. For example, you can be active in the following ways:

Start a party called "Direct Democratic Party." The key objective of this party is to let people -- not politicians -- make as many political decisions as possible by means of referenda, as the Swiss do. Get politics back in your own hands. Don't allow politicians to manipulate your own life against your will. In this way, we can avoid or reduce totally unnecessary phenomena such as wars, poverty, corrupt politicians, absurd bureaucracy, and wastes of tax money.
Treat others as you yourself want to be treated. This is the original meaning of "Love thy neighbors." Be polite and courteous equally to all people. But people are different from each other. Reject all enforced attempts to make people artificially "equal," such as political correctness and various quotas.
Insist on the importance of negative freedom. Reject smoking in public places. Reject noise pollution. Reject pollution of land, water, and air.
Insist that the protection of citizens from crimes against persons is the most important duty of the state.

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Publications by Michio Kitahara

�h...it is hard not to admire the range of his scholarship...�h

(The late Edward E. Jones, Professor of Psychology, Princeton University,

in Contemporary Psychology, 1970, vol. 15, no, 9, p.586)

I. Books and Monographs

1967 An Essay on Culture: A Definition of Culture and its Implications to

the Study of Sociocultural Dynamics. Uppsala: Sociologiska

Institutionen.

1969a An Axiomatic Theory of Balance: A Study of Self in the Sociocultural

Environment. Uppsala: Skriv Service.

1971a Twelve Propositions on the Self: A Study of Cognitive Consistency in

the Sociological Perspective. Uppsala: Sociologiska Institutionen.

1989a Children of the Sun: The Japanese and the Outside World. New York:

St. Martin's Press and Palgrave Macmillan.

1991a The Tragedy of Evolution: The Human Animal Confronts Modern Society.

New York: Praeger.

1995 The Entangled Civilization: Democracy, Equality, and Freedom at a

Loss. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America.

1996a Children of the Sun: The Japanese and the Outside World. Honolulu,

Hawaii: University of Hawaii Press, and London: Routledge.

1997 The African Revenge: The Age of Regression and the Decline of the

West. Columbus, Ohio: Pine Island Press.

2001 Naze Taiheiyo Senso ni Nattanoka (Why Did the Pacific War Break Out?).

Tokyo: TBS-Britannica.

2003 The African Revenge: The Age of Regression and the Decline of the West.

North Charleston, South Carolina: Phoenix Archives.

2004a Gendai Ongaku wa Naze Tsumaranaika (Why Is Contemporary Music

Uninteresting?). Iwamuro, Niigata, Japan: Nekono Denshi Shuppan.

2004b Makkasa ga "Horibata Tenno" ni Nattekara (Since MacArthur Became

"Moatside Emperor"). Iwamuro, Niigata, Japan: Nekono Denshi Shuppan.

2004c Seiyojin o "Hakujin" to Yobunowa Yamero (Stop Calling Westerners

"Whites."). Iwamuro, Niigata, Japan: Nekono Denshi Shuppan.

2005 Yojika suru Nihonjin (The Regressing Japanese). Tokyo: Liberta

Shuppan.

2006 Ikiuma no Me o nuku Seiyo Bunmei (Wicked Western Civilization).

Tokyo: Jissen Sha.

2007a Rokku Bunka ga Seiyo wo Horobosu (Rock Culture Drives Western

Civilization to a Decline). Tokyo: Kadensha.

2007b Kiiro ni Egakareru Seiyojin (Westerners are Described as Yellow-

skinned). Tokyo: Kadensha.

2009a Gendai Ongaku to Gendai Bijyutsu ni itaru Rekishi (The History of

Contemporary Art and Music). Tokyo: Kadensha.

2009b Datsu Seiyo no Minshushugi e (Toward a Non-Western Democracy).

Tokyo: Kadensha.

II. Articles

1962 Flathead, Blackfoot, Dakota Indian Ongaku no Bunkahenyo, Zanzon,

Shugo [Acculturation, Survival, and Syncretism in Blackfoot, Flathead,

and Dakota Music]. Minzokugaku Kenkyu [Japanese Journal of Ethnology]

26(3): 45-48.

1963 A Brief History of Linguistics in the United States. University of

Montana, Anthropology and Sociology Papers 23.

1964 Oppna och Slutna Erfarenheter [Open and Closed Experience].

Sociologisk Forskning 1(3): 113-119.

1966 Kayokyoku: An Example of Syncretism Involving Scale and Mode.

Ethnomusicology 10(3): 271-284.

1969b A Formal Model of Syncretism in Musical Scale. Psychologia 12(3-4):

175-178.

1970 An Axiomatic Model of Self. Acta Sociologica 13(1): 30-39.

1971b A Formal Model of Syncretism in Scales. 1970 Yearbook of

International Folk Music Council, University of Illinois Press, pp.

121-126.

1974a On the Consequences of Status Incongruence. International

Behavioural Scientist 6(2): 69-82.

1974b Living Quarter Arrangements in Polygyny and Circumcision and

Segregation of Males at Puberty. Ethnology 13(4): 401-413.

1974c A Function of Marriage Ceremony. Anthropologica 16(2): 163-175.

1974d A Theme of Japanese Culture. Folklore 16(9): 283-299.

1975a Consecuencias del Imbalance Cognoscitivo [Consequences of Cognitive

Imbalance]. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicologia 7(1):

53-64.

1975b Significance of the Father for the Son's Masculine Identity.

Behavior Science Research 10(1): 1-17.

1976a Legal Theory and Theory of Culture. International Behavioural

Scientist 8(1): 1-10.

1976b Rensakei Kori Hoshiki ni yoru Jiko no Moderu [The Model of the Self

based on the Axiomatic Chain Method]. Gendai Shakaigaku

[Contemporary Sociology] 3(2): 130-158.

1976c Polygyny: Insufficient Father-Son Contact and Son's Masculine

Identity. Archives of Sexual Behavior 5(3): 201-209.

1976d A Cross-Cultural Test of the Freudian Theory of Circumcision.

International Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 5:

535-546.

1977 Some Thoughts over the Meaning of Culture. International Review of

History and Political Science 14(1): 71-84.

1978 Social Contact Versus Bodily Contact: A Qualitative Difference

Between Father and Mother for the Son's Masculine Identity.

Behavioral Science Research 13(4): 273-285.

1979 A Model of Cognitive Structure: A Preliminary Sketch. Technological

University of Nagaoka, Research Reports 1(1): 145-157.

1981a Men's Heterosexual Fear Due to Reciprocal Inhibition. Ethos 9(1):

37-50.

1981b Some Psychoanalytical Thoughts over Ear-Piercing. Psychology

18(2-3):46-49.

1981c The Japanese and Defense Mechanisms. Journal of Psychoanalytic

Anthropology 4(4): 467-479.

1982a Male Puberty Rites: A Path Analytic Model. Adolescence 17: 293-304.

1982b Path Analysis and Hologeistic Research. Behavior Science Research

17(3-4): 159-172.

1982c Menstrual Taboos and the Importance of Hunting. American

Anthropologist 84(4): 901-903.

1983a Popular Culture in Japan: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation. Journal

of Popular Culture 17(1): 103-110.

1983b Female Puberty Rites: Reconsideration and Speculation. Adolescence

18: 957-964.

1984a Female Physiology and Female Puberty Rites. Ethos 12(2): 132-150.

1984b Are They Really Rivals? Eastern Anthropologist 37(2): 153-157.

1984c Japanese Responses to the Defeat in World War II. International

Journal of Social Psychiatry 30(3): 178-187.

1985a Psychoanalytic Aspects of Japanese Militarism. International

Interactions 12(1):1-20.

1985b Psychoanalytic Themes in Japanese Literature. Psychiatric Forum

13(1):66-75.

1985c Popular Culture in Japan: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation.

Kaleidoscope Kyoto 15: 30-34.

1985d Cognition of Size and Evolutionary Advantage. Psychology 22(3-4):

49-50.

1985e Women's Workload and Rejection of Children. Journal of Social

Psychology 125(6): 789-790.

1986a The Rise of Four Mottoes in Japan Before and After the Meiji

Restoration. Journal of Asian History 20(1): 54-64.

1986b Commodore Perry and the Japanese: A Study in the Dramaturgy of

Power. Symbolic Interaction 9(1): 53-65.

1986c Dietary Tryptophan Ratio and Suicide: A Cross-National Study.

International Journal of Biosocial Research 8(1): 53-60.

1986d Tryptophan Uptake From Diet and the Incidence of Suicide. Biology

and Society 3(2): 74-79.

1986e Dietary Tryptophan Ratio and Homicide in Western and Southern

Europe. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 1(1): 13-16.

1987a Self Hatred Among Japanese. Sociologus 37(1): 79-88.

1987b Perception of Parental Acceptance and Rejection Among Swedish

University Students. Child Abuse and Neglect 11(2): 223-227.

1987c Dietary Tryptophan Ratio and Suicide in the United Kingdom, Ireland,

the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Omega:

Journal of Death and Dying 18(1): 71-76.

1987d Japanese Attitudes Toward the Chinese and the Koreans in History.

Sociologia Internationalis 25(1): 85-96.

1987e Insufficient Ascorbic Acid Uptake From the Diet and the Tendency for

Suicide. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 2(4): 217-218.

1987f The Western Impact on Japanese Racial Self-Image. Journal of

Developing Societies 3(2): 184-189.

1988a Japan's Status Incongruence as a Possible Factor in World War II.

International Journal of Contemporary Sociology 25(1-2): 47-53.

1988b The Nazi Concentration Camp and the Occupied Japan: Responses in Two

Historical Situations. Journal of Psychohistory 16(2): 191-204.

1989b Douglas MacArthur as a Father Figure in Occupied Japan After World

War II. International Social Science Review 64(1): 20-28.

1989c Childhood in Japanese Culture. Journal of Psychohistory 17(1):

43-72.

1989d American Anthropology as Ethnoscience. Eastern Anthropologist 42(2):

205-210.

1990 A Precursor Study of the Indoleamine and Catecholamine Hypotheses of

Depression Using the Dietary Tryptophan and Tyrosine Ratios.

Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine 5(4): 210-214.

1991b Knock! Knock!: The Story of the Perry Mission and the Reopening of

Japan. Japan Digest 1(4): 54-58.

1994 Honorific Ambiguity and Conflict in Japan. Sociologus 44(2):

179-189.

1996b The Primatological Reason for the Problems of Our Time.

International Review of Sociology 6(3): 317-325.

1996c Stimulus Seeking Behaviour and a Definition of Culture. Eastern

Anthropologist 49(2): 165-180.

1997 Western Egoism. Eastern Anthropologist 50(3-4): 519-531.

2000 The Theoretical Root. AIM Magazine 27(1):8-12.

2002 Japans tiefe Krankung. Schweizer Monatshefte 82(3/4):31-34.

III. Reviews and Review Articles

1989e Incest--Japanese Style. Review of Misshitsu no Haha to Ko [Mother

and Child in the Closed Room] by Kimi Kawana, and Kinjirareta Sei

[Forbidden Sex] edited by Mutsuo Takahashi. Journal of Psychohistory

16(4): 445-450.

1989f Review of Interpretation in Psychoanalytic Anthropology, edited by

W. Kracke and G. Herdt [Special Issue of Ethos 15(1), 1987].

Journal of Psychohistory 16(4): 465-466.