Surveilance Society Strikes Again

[semiotic_pirate]

Yet another tidbit I was unaware of... found in this article.

He [Jonathan Zittrain] cited the example of the OnStar car tracking system, designed to help US motorists navigate and get automatic help if needed.

"In the US the FBI required that one of the companies that offered this system reprogram it so they could monitor people they were interested in.

"From the FBI's point of view it's just a roving bug. But you start to realise the change in the ability of somebody to monitor you."


In other news... I find out that Japan has the highest national suicide rate in the world. Such a tiny country too. Anyone want to posit why this is the case?

Comments

[astroprisoner.livejournal.com]

Re: OnStar

It's not widely known, but also in at least one state (CA) the OnStar people will happily cooperate when the police ask them to slow down a vehicle's engine during pursuit. That's getting creepy.

Re: Japan

I don't know the exact answer, but I think a lot of it has to do with a cultural acceptance of suicide. This may go back to the days of the samurai, when seppuku was a method of restoring honor. Suicide was considered a more honorable path than surrender, for example. Or a samurai who failed his master could at least remove shame from his own family by killing himself.

I'm speculating, but it's possible that in Japan suicide is viewed much the same way divorce is viewed in the US: it's an answer to a problem, nothing more.

I guess it largely depends on one's view of death, also.

But that starts to get into my weird theory about the differences in brain functions between Asians and Westerns. I'll leave it at "We don't think with the same brains."

[verrucaria.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, in Japan if you don't fit into society utterly and completely, you get ostracized to a worse degree than you would in the West. The individual counts less than here. Everything you do must benefit society, the company you work for, and lastly your family. It's probably hard to seek help if you need it, at least partly because someone will notice that you're not working day and night, and you'll be deemed not productive enough. I don't think you get to spend too much time with your family, just relaxing. Oh, and not getting good grades in school is a particularly big deal.

And then there's also the whole Samurai thing, as rjlippincott pointed out.

[verrucaria.livejournal.com]

These are of course stereotypes, but any attempt at explaining such a serious problem would have to rely on oversimplification.

[villagecharm.livejournal.com]

There's not a traditional religious prohibition against suicide with the same cultural force in Japan as there is in much of the West, although that doesn't explain everything. According to the World Health Organization, lots of countries have higher suicide rates than Japan, including a number of European countries:

http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suiciderates/en/

Hard to see many patterns in that data, although the former Soviet states seem to have extremely high rates on average.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

On Japan I'd lay odds it's a combination of extremely stressful work culture (the gruelling schedule even school aged teens go through seems quite ridiculous for many) coupled with a society that doesn't overly ecnourage overt emotional venting. Add in less social taboo of suicide and it may come together

Of course, some of the scandinavian countries have huge suicide rates and I can't even begin to pin point them other than dark winters and SAD.