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銃と迷妄
アメリカは響きのよい言葉で愛国心をあおっている。昨年9月11日のテロ攻撃あと、その語調はひとしお激しいものとなった。
Of guns and delusions
The most striking thing about growing up in America is the exposure to rhetoric.
Americans are constantly reminded of how "great" their country is: according to leaders both liberal and conservative, "the greatest country in the history of the earth." Most of my teachers at school assured us pupils that we were living in "the world's only true democracy." England didn't have a written constitution, so it was out. Sweden was"socialistic"... One by one, all of the other countries of the world were eliminated, making us deeply grateful that only America remained to be counted as truly free.
This rhetoric waxes and wanes in intensity. When the country enters short eras of introspection, as it did in the years following its defeat in the war in Vietnam, it turns to whispers and nods; when its power is bolstered, as it was after the collapse of communism in East-Central Europe, the rhetoric returns, repeating its pat, xenophobic messages with an ever greater volume and unyielding insistence.
The aftermath of the tragedy of Sept. 11 has taken America to a new level of rhetorical self-exaltation. The present government has turned the country's history into a mission. It will not rest until all others around the world acknowledge and accept both America's unique greatness and its punishing goodness. Not to do so is to court irrelevancy (the United Nations) or worse, invasion (the Middle East).
After its defeat in World War II, Japan turned to the United States, both of its own volition and otherwise, for guidance in democratization. The Meiji reforms had left much unfinished business, with the status of farmers, blue-collar workers and women remaining largely in the grips of feudalism.
Young people in this country naturally turned to America for inspiration, just as the two generations preceding them had looked to Germany, France and England for the same. The impact of American culture on Japan - in music, film, literature and later, dress and food - has been widespread and continual.
Americans enjoy telling Japanese people how they should live. But I feel quite strongly that America in 2002 has neither qualification nor right to preach to anyone. Let Americans look to the evils in their own society first. Let the Japanese seek to find answers to their society's ills in their own traditions and in those of countries with more genuine social equality than that in the United States of America.
Deluding others is a game that all states play. This is part and parcel of the robust give-and-take of diplomacy. Deluding yourself, however, is an action that may bring on unimaginable disasters. America has been listening so long to its self-aggrandizing rhetoric of "freedom, liberty and the American way" that it is now preparing to act on it no matter what havoc is wreaked on others in its name.
Whatever the immediate strategic result, America will find people around the world gradually turning away from it. You cannot make friends and influence people armed only with your guns and your delusions.
Shukan ST: Oct. 25, 2002
(C) All rights reserved
- delusions
- 間違った信念
- striking
- 目立つ
- exposure to rhetoric
- 特別な効果をねらった言語表現にさらされること
- democracy
- 民主主義国
- written constitution
- 成文化された憲法
- were eliminated
- 除外されていった
- be counted as 〜
- 〜とみなされる
- waxes and wanes in intensity
- 熱烈さの度合いが上下する
- introspection
- 自己反省
- turns to whispers and nods
- ささやいたりうなずいたりするぐらいになる
- is bolstered
- 強まる
- collapse
- 崩壊
- pat
- 型どおりの
- xenophobic
- 外国に対する嫌悪に満ちた
- with an ever greater volume and unyielding insistence
- 前にも増して声高に、そして一歩も譲らぬしつこさで
- aftermath
- 余波
- self-exaltation
- 自我の高揚
- mission
- 使命
- It will not rest until 〜
- 〜するまでまんじりともしない
- acknowledge and accept
- 承認し受け入れる
- punishing 〜
- 〜鉄槌を下す
- court
- 〜を招くことになる
- irrelevancy
- お門違いの批判
- invasion
- 侵略
- volition
- 意志
- reforms
- 改革
- had left much unfinished business
- やり残したことが多かった
- grips of feudalism
- 封建的な支配
- turned to 〜 for inspiration
- 〜を心の寄りどころとした
- 〜 preceding them
- その前の〜
- qualification
- 資格
- preach
- 説教する
- seek
- 探す
- ills
- 悪いところ
- genuine
- 本物の
- Deluding others
- 他国を迷わせる
- game that all states play
- どの国もやっていること
- part and parcel of 〜
- 〜の肝心なところ
- robust
- 激しい
- diplomacy
- 外交
- disasters
- 惨事
- self-aggrandizing
- 自己を美化するような
- act on it
- それに基づいて行動する
- no matter what havoc is wreaked
- どんな大混乱を引き起こすかなどおかまいなしに
- in its name
- その美名のもとに
- strategic
- 戦略的な
- turning away
- 背を向ける