www.debito.org
THE HASHIMORI HUMBUG
EPILOGUE TWO: HASHIMORI'S APOLOGIA
(Hashimori sent this to Fukuzawa Wed, 10 Dec 1997)
Subject: Mata ne!
To: "Dead Fukuzawa Society" <fukuzawa@ucsd.edu>
That the torrent of posting has finally subsided and both sides have begun to withdraw, I would like to make one final comment before leaving the board indefinitely.
If I have appeared to you as a nuisance, then you have likely understood. If I have appeared to you as anything less than worthy of your company, then I fear for the fate of the DFSociety, because it is you who will have destroyed yourselves in the end.
I will be back, not because I take pleasure in wreaking havoc; rather, because I want to help you grow, so that I can learn and prosper in your own search for truth and wisdom.
Certainly, I have thanked many of you already for your direct support. To those of you, whom I have appeared to forget, I can only say that I have not forgotten. I will remember you and stand by you when you, too, become victims of ignorance and oppression.
Life is too valuable to waste in senseless squabbling, and some people just refuse to grow, anyway. They see others in conflict and stand away. Often because they do not understand, they are too weak, or they do not care. Others condemn conflict simply because it is there and fail to understand the nature of what it is to be human. Some just throw their jibes and jeers, because they receive sadistic pleasure while seeing others in pain.
For the first time in two years we have finally spoken out in a strong unified front against those who have terrorized our board with their pettiness, complacency, embittered values, hypocrisy, self-righteous indignation, arrogance, and intellectual blindness. WE can feel proud, and have some reason to hope that things will improve. During the past two years I have laughed to the point of rolling on the floor and have become so angry that I have wanted to reach through my viewing screen and strangle some of you. On occasion I have even felt a moistened eye or two. Never, however, have I been brought to tears, and for this I must offer my deepest gratitude to [MK].
I believe it was [SA] who was the first to call the DFSociety an "Izakaya", but he no longer seems to be with us. Perhaps I drove him away. I now think of it as a playing field and leave you with part of a post, which I wrote several weeks ago, in response to a private missive sent to me by one of our more illustrious members -- someone who cared enough about this discussion board to take an active personal interest in one of its staunchest supporters.
Before you read it, however, please put aside your ill-feelings toward me and think about those with whom you hope to continue your dialogue into the future. More importantly think about the nature of the board itself, its limitations, its strengths, and its potential to either flounder or remain an effective tool for discourse.
The DFSociety is a relatively fragile public domain, but it can be strong if only we continue to work together to make it so. ------
>Subject: A Public Playing Ground
>Sent: 97.11.23 7:33 AM
>To: Dead Fukuzawa Society, fukuzawa@ucsd.edu
>It has been brought to my attention that I may have overstepped the boundary of proper DFSociety courtesy.
>Because this line is not clear I offer no apology, but because I acknowledge its existence, I hereby offer an explanation:
<omission>
>...I joined this board about 2 years ago at a very unfortunate time. It was at the end of the journalist controversy, and I had unwittingly walked into a very disturbed hornet's nest. I was immediately set upon because of my adopted Japanese name, and I reacted in the best way that I knew -- resistance! Indeed, I have been reacting ever since, because the sting of that encounter has yet to disappear, and because other DFSociety members have chosen not to let me forget it.
>... unlike many of you that read only the posts of your friends, of prominent people, or those with titles which strike your fancy, I tend to read everything which crosses my mail-reader viewing screen. As a result, I view this society differently than many of you and have come to know it much better than some of you who have been at it much longer than I. As a result I would like to draw the following comparison:
>The DFSociety is a kind of public good with no visible owner. In an economic sense this means that it will never be worth more to any of us, than the cost of obtaining access to its contents (marginally speaking the cost of a local telephone call), and the amount of time and effort which each of us contributes to its upkeep. In other words the DFSociety is that which we choose to make it.
>It is analogous to a playing field set aside by a rich landlord for public use. It belongs to him and he can remove it from the public domain at any time. In the meanwhile, however, it belongs to those of us who use it and contribute to its maintenance.
>Part of contributing to its maintenance includes:
>1) providing interesting and meaningful content
>2) insuring that those who play on it adhere to a vague set of inexplicit rules.
>3) maintaining the collective spirit, etc.
>Certainly, those who sit on the field and ignore those around them contribute little to the fields maintenance. Those who stand on the edge and throw only their trash also contribute negatively.
>I do not know what this board was before I came, I only know what it has become since I first arrived, and I would like to think that it has improved. If I become angry on occasion, then it is because I am not in a position to provide my own playing field, and I like the people who use this one. Moreover, I do not want to see it overun by a bunch of bullies that will let it go to seed, after they have chased everyone else away.
<omission>
Go kyouryoku,
Best wishes, Until next time, ------
HASHIMORI, Iwato
Saitama University/Tokyo
MY RESPONSE (remember that Hashimori's Apologia came after a long series of posts that were driving people up the wall):
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997
From: Dave Aldwinckle
To: HASHIMORI Iwato
Subject: Re: Mata ne!
Cc: fukuzawa@ucsd.edu,
Not a bad bit of writing from you, for a change, Mr Hashimori. Coherent, poignant, not overly petty, even Christmassy. Not to mention a revelation of your personal policy towards DFS--"method to your madness", so to speak.
I for one am *not* convinced that your goals were so rational. I have followed
your posts, and yes, they can thought-provoking, but not always in the way that I
think they were intended.
I too enjoy art and creations made by schizophrenics etc., not so much for their
esthetic qualities, but rather as an interesting study of how the mind works or warps.
I *am* convinced that you have been using the DFS for your own personal therapy. Your inability to leave just about any thread alone (moreover, going so far as to assume the delusional role of a "groundskeeper"), your inability to restrain yourself when dealing with minutia and pedantia, your inability to contain yourself to less than an average of a post a day ("going postal" is the terminology I use) when you feel personally involved. As [ET] once said, "we don't need to know your every stray thought about Japan". You simply don't seem to have the software in your head to grasp that.
As I said before (yes, on my web page--http://www.voicenet.ac.jp/~davald/hashimorihumbug.html, when he first appeared on DFS masquerading as a Japanese for more credibility, refusing to come clean when found out), there are a certain number of people in this society with mental illnesses, and it is only a matter of time before they find their way to public lists. Like pathological spammers, I think they should be known about.
The point is that DFS isn't really the place for most of what you do. Hashimori is well-known throughout the Japan-related internet community (not to mention several university PhD programs, which became apparent when he once tried to use DFS to write a bibliography for an application) as more a bane than a Devil's Advocate. He has been kicked off a number of listservs for his destructive qualities.
Now, while there is nothing we can do to remove this person from DFS (which is fine), I for one do not want the impression to stand that DFS members are dominated by core relativists or broad-axe labellers. I think that Hashimori should give us a break and--at least--lurk for a while, because, pure and simple, he is a nutcase. He should stop using us for his therapy.
Oops. I fear that I probably will have made Hashimori go all postal again. Prove me wrong, Hash. Try to restrain yourself this time.
Dave Aldwinckle
Sapporo
WHAT HAPPENED? Well, he proved me wrong. He responded soon after to Fukuzawa in general:
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 97
From: HASHIMORI Iwato <hsmr@gol.com>
To: "Dead Fukuzawa Society" <fukuzawa@ucsd.edu>
That my friends restrain themselves as well, let their be peace!
HASHIMORI, Iwato
Saitama University/Tokyo
AND to me in specific:
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 97
To: "Dave Aldwinckle"
You are an utter asshole Mr. Aldwinckle, an utter asshole. Your wife must truly be a fool, or must be just as assanine as you. I pity your children and the community in which you live. Blah, blah, blah....
Am I upset, not in the least. The shit I have written above, is the kind of thing you can find in any gutter in the street. You are a coward Aldwinckle, because you only appear after I have sworn reprieve. Look in the mirror Aldwinckle, and give us all a big break! ------
HASHIMORI, Iwato
Saitama University/Tokyo
ANYWAY, our exchange finished there. From Fukuzawa I got three flames and one cheer out of the whole thing. I had expected worse.
The reader is probably wondering why I'm even bothering with all of this, when it only seems slanderous and petty.
Au contraire, I say--there's more to it than that. It's not just the feeling of satisfaction from "just desserts" in the debate arena (which I do admit having). It's that nuts like these, as I said, are writing the equivalent of "spam". Only more dangerous "spam" than usual--they can even spell the death of internet mailing lists.
Incredulous? Click here and see how.
My point is that people like these should be known about, like any other kind of spammer.
FINAL WORD: Hashimori is still posting, but he's cooled down a lot. In fact, he's since raised sensible questions, like this one. I'd like to think that this exchange caused him to reflect a bit.