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streamfortyseven's avatar

Medicine is a culture of compliance, the people who wind up in the field have been thoroughly conditioned to reflexively obey authority - like most of the people in Nazi Germany, or in the various countries ruled by Communists, or in authoritarian religious cults. Those who would think for themselves, much less rebel, have been filtered out long ago in the process. A joke told amongst organic chemistry PhD students - "Why did the pre-meddie cross the road? Because, naturally, it was a requirement..."

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Steve Martin's avatar

Hi Tessa,

Haven't heard the interview yet, but read the post. Yep, the creation of layers of unaccountable committees with perverse incentives seems par for the course regarding how such docile compliance is ensured in Japan Inc.

A couple of weeks ago, I called for a meeting with the City Board of Education regarding my minimum wage yearly contract work as an Assistant Language Teacher for public schools ... 3 Jr. Highs, 8 elementary schools, and a special needs school. The kids are cool, but some of the teachers practice only 'chain of command' pedagogy, with me as a non-human extension of their teacher centered 'curriculum'. Even though I've lived here 40 years, and speak Japanese, a couple of teachers insist that I play the role of 'dumb' foreigner and leave all untangling of communication problems to the Japanese teacher ... even when the Japanese teacher is ignorant and/or incompetent. Ethno-centric chain of command.

So even though one of the requirements for being hired two years ago was native or near-native Japanese speaking ability, I asked the Board of Education Committee to conduct the meeting in English only, as was commanded of me in some Jr. Highs. As they are barely competent in even basic English greetings, they were aghast ... and so I relented and said gave them the okay to go at it in Japanese only.

They began by asking for my intentions regarding the next academic year. I answered honestly that despite the lack of any English curriculum or quality control of public school teachers, my salary is not paid by the City Board of Education. It is paid by taxes from the parents of the kids living in the local community ... and it was my 'due dilegence (thanks Sasha) to serve them to the best of my ability. By chance, yesterday's MSM govt. news announced a record number of public school teachers had taken more than a month of consecutive leave absence for mental health issues ... a little less than 1% of all public school teachers in Japan ... and the Board of Education knows from my resumé that I had been a teacher-trainer in Japan before most of the committee members or public school teachers had even been born.

They thanked me, ever so politely, but said due to my poor performance as evaluated by the three Jr. High principals (who have never seen my class, and according to teachers, never consulted with them), my contract would not be renewed. Upon asking why, in perfectly polite Japanese, they explained it was because I responded to confused students ... in perfectly polite Japanese. I laughed out loud.

My education, experience, and values were irrelevant. I was just not quite 'foreign' enough for their needs, and foreigners are easily replaceable / disposable parts of the Mammon machine. This is particularly because the Japanese model of public education is pretty similar to the American style or elsewhere in the world ... and geared towards creating a culture of divide-and-conquer competition and blind compliance to authority. Enough to make Kafka tumble up an Escher staircase.

Just now listening to Naomi Wolf's podcast with her husband about the Omnibus Budget bill ... and this is where a lot of working class tax money is being funneled ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabella_Advisors. The contents of this bill are horrifying. Oh damn ... https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/brian-oshea-analyzes-shocking-details?utm_source=podcast-email%2Csubstack&publication_id=676930&post_id=92575963&utm_medium=email#details

Cheers Tessa!

Looking forward to listening to the interview!

steve

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