Jonestown, Japan

As a country western society often thinks of as mysterious and replete with oriental wonder, Japan is certainly that. Japanese culture has an ancient appeal to countries that are only at a toddler state in terms of longevity as a nation. A rich history unique to western civilization offers years of cultural influence that can be safely adopted into a familiar society. These types of influences can include anything from cuisine, art, or traditional activities that act as the amuse bouche to an upper-middle class cultural education.

However, as the western world espouses foreign culture, the culture itself loses its authenticity as being foreignly unique. Wasn't this the appeal in the first place? So we can invite friends over and show them our washitsu-style rooms while serving them sushi and admiring the silk kimono we had imported for no real functional use whatsoever. Appreciating cultural influences within our own cultural comfort zones makes it easier for us to conceptualize a lifestyle without actually living it. Even so, there are plenty of foreigners who come to Japan and recognize the real way of living. For some, this may not be as enticing as your collection of woodblock prints or backyard rock garden.

The whole of Japanese society functions like a machine--a machine that is programmed to one channel and every component matches and is coated with an impeccable metal armor. The acronym "5s" stands for five Japanese words: seiri, seiton seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke. This is the guts of the working machine. It signifies order, systematization, cleanliness, purity and commitment. Although Japanese have a reputation for being hard working and diligent in every aspect of life, their mechanical efforts is a guise for a real lack of efficiency mainly because machines can't think for themselves.

Japanese society prides the team effort. Everyone works and honors such a system because they are fearful of disrupting a harmonious balance and therefore being seen as the outcasts who fucked it up for everyone. Even from early influence such as primary school, children are made to dress the same, wear the same hairstyle and color (girls aren't allowed to wear makeup), and even sport the same backpack. Individuality is not prevalent or rewarded in any course of Japanese life, and educating the society's youth is an undoubtably reliable way to ensure that this method of cultural uniformity sticks.

Perhaps motivated by fear, Japanese have a general instinct, or lack thereof, that all things should be the same. It eliminates confusion, mishap and any need to explain oneself. People are completely capable of staying in an isolated bubble their entire lives while simultaneously being a productive member of society.

So, this begs the question of what kind of society? A homogenous society with the mission of hard work and amity over the belief that their community offers the best possible life? It almost sounds as if a cult could be forming, or if the entire country itself is in on it.

In the 1970's a socialist utopia formed in the French Guyana known as Jonestown, named after it's leader, Jim Jones. After creating an extremely popular following among people in the US, Jones decided to expand his group known as the Peoples Temple into an entire self-sustaining society under the pretense of an agricultural project.

Many of the Jonestown members were prosperous and lived a life they knew to be happy and free. They performed honest work, they lived off the land and everyone was equal. The members of Jonestown were mostly minorities or recovering addicts who sought solace in a religious place where they wouldn't be judged by the cowering hands of their oppressive society. They saw Jim Jones as a father figure, one who filled them with purpose.

As the largest mass suicide in history, Jonestown took the lives of 909 people. There is much controversy over whether these people died of their own free will or were coerced into taking their own lives and those of their children. Either way, the sheer devastation in numbers was enough to shock the world into recognizing the power of cult mentality and how it can claim lives of innocent people who didn't have enough independence to improve their own lives.

Japan is ironically cursed in the same way the victims of Jonestown were. The people of Jonestown pursued the truth in equality--one in which America could seemingly not provide them. So, they take the untrodden golden brick road to a utopia that ends in an untimely death. Similarly, Japanese people are the longest living race of humans in the world, yet they also have the highest suicide rate of any country to date. Could this mechanical 5s system delude individual thinking to a mob mentality no different from a cult? Sure, the society functions with poise and global positioning as an economic leader, but it is an insignificant claim in comparison to a life of true happiness.