Opinion

Forgetting the Rules

By SCOTT T. HARDS

Around Japan, dozens of local communities are up in arms over some young people who have moved into their neighborhoods: the followers of Aum Shinrikyo. Citizens are parading in the streets and yelling into megaphones for the people of Aum to get out, while Aum spokespeople counter with proclamations of their constitutional rights to live where they choose.

Interestingly, in most social conflicts I take sides, perceiving one group to be clearly right and another to be wrong. I cannot remember a time, like now with the current Aum uproar, when I've seen both sides in a conflict to be both so right, and so wrong, at the same time.

Consider the local citizens: They understandably fear living close to individuals from an organization that is guilty of one of the most incomprehensible acts of terrorism in modern Japanese history — the sarin attacks on the Tokyo subways — as well as at least three other major acts of murder or poisoning.

While this response is perfectly understandable on an emotional level, these protests, local merchants' refusal to accept Aum members as customers and municipal governments' refusal to register them as local citizens are, in fact, blatant violations of their constitutional and human rights.

The individuals guilty of the terrorist actions of a few years ago are in prison and no longer a threat. Local citizens are punishing these other Aum members simply because of their association with the group, despite the fact that the vast majority of them are probably innocent of any wrongdoing.

This kind of guilt by association, the stripping of the rights of an entire group of people simply because of their membership in that group, is not something we can allow to exist in modern society.

Such logic has been used to justify some of the most brutal massacres and crimes against humanity that have ever taken place. Those citizens' chants remind me, frankly, of medieval witch hunts. The Aum spokespeople complaining about this treatment are right on the mark when they argue that it is illegal and should be ended.

However, though what these Aum representatives are saying is entirely true and correct, they demonstrate at the same time a stunning lack of comprehension of the basic rules that govern human society.

Even if the individual members are not guilty of anything, their organization clearly is. But has any Aum spokesperson ever held a press conference to apologize for the horrors brought upon Japan by the group's previous leaders? What about when a group of them decides on a new place to live? What about visiting the local neighbors beforehand, repeating their apology and making a promise that they won't cause any trouble?

While such actions are not required by any law, these are the sorts of manners and customs that lubricate interaction between people on a day-to-day basis.

As such, it's no surprise that without any grease between the wheels, these Aum members are creating friction with the people around them.

Shukan ST: Aug. 6, 1999

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