The Monster State

Silent Stick and the Nonexistent Carrot

So motivation to work is a bit of a problem for me. Prolonged exposure to Santa Barbara, Thailand and marijuana tend to do that to people. But work is the reason d’etre for Japanese folks. I was hoping that their work ethic would rub off of me, but I’m not really sure if it has or not. Today’s subject is motivation…. Sorry… MOTIVATION!!

In the post 70s West, it seems true that, ‘everybody’s working for the weekend’ and all that. It’ like a cycle; Work yields money, money yields cool stuff, and free time allows you to enjoy it. So we work. If we don’t like the cool stuff/money/free time balance we’ve got, we adjust accordingly. Take the people who quit the big money in exchange for more free time. Or the opposite, people with too much free time that get a part time job. Not rocket science. But apparently here it is.

90%ish of the working Japanese people I know work all day every day. They don’t sleep, just work. Weekends too. They come to work at 7:00ish and don’t leave until 9:00 at night. Weekends too. They’re not as efficient as they’re portrayed in the West, but they aren’t sitting on their asses nearly as much as I do. My question is why? Sure you’ve got some cash, but you have no time at all to enjoy it. Maybe once in a while you go out and get drunk, but you go out with your coworkers. Basically, as soon as you finish school you work nonstop until you’re 60. Holidays too. During a holiday, I went on a bike ride around town. The stores and roads were empty, and the business and school parking lots were packed. People were working. WHY? Reason: The Silent Stick:

‘Cause they don’t want to let each other down and you don’t want to be the weak link. .

This sort of logic works well in warfare, but it’s a crappy way to live your daily life.
It’s like the price of a beer at a trendy bars, it just keeps escalating higher until people commit suicide. Nobody wants to work 90-hour weeks, or drink $10 beers, but we do it. Regardless of how absurd it all is we can’t flinch in the face of our friends and coworkers. Humans are just weak like that.

There is no carrot in Japan. The best you can do is not be gossiped about. There is no signing bonuses, paid holidays, or stock options for Japanese people. If you were lucky, after years of work you can tell people what to do using the plain style of Japanese, but fuck that, I’d rather have my weekends.

This is the very definition of the monster state. People pour everything into society, and hardly enjoy the benefits of doing so.