Ed, At 09:42 21/10/02 -0400, you wrote: >I must admit that I didn't read the original posting on Hikikomori, and what >Pete's posting (below) says about it puts a different interpretation on it >than the one I took. It is not simply "dropping out to the labour market", >which implies a certain amount of rationality, but a neurotic condition >somewhat like, as Pete suggests, anorexia. The kid is simply overwhelmed >by, and cannot face, the world beyond the walls of his room or his house. >This is not rational and would not therefore involve the intellect, except >in a very screwed-up way.
The behaviour of the Japanese boys is far from being irrational. It is highly rational. Once they felt themselves forced out of their peer group at school (far more important in Japan than in other cultures) -- almost always because they couldn't keep up the academic pace (millions are having to have additional cramming) -- then they don't want to shame their parents by allowing the whole neighbourhood to know. They simply disappear (into their bedrooms) and thus allow their parents to save face. And there are well over a million of these young men in Japan (according to the expert quoted on the programme). My original point is that this phenomenon is not just confined to Japan (even though, in other countries, the young men don't hide themselves in their bedrooms but simply laze about at home) but is becoming widespread and significant -- Italy, Germany, England (and France, and other western European countries more than likely). These young men are not just "dropping out" for all sorts of reasons. There has never been a more serious teenager generation in history. There haven't been any student high jinks (of any significance) for decades and certainly no demonstrations such as we saw in the late 60s and the 70s. The only young people who "drop out" in the usual sense are those who tend to be the better students and take a gap year, often in voluntary service overseas, before attending university. Many tens of thousands of teenagers (almost exclusively boys) are dropping out of school in England every year from about the age of 13 or 14 but, once again, this is not for lifestyle reasons but because they are alienated from the school system -- they can't cope. OK, I'm not going to push the IQ divide (even though it's quite clear to me that the proportion and number of high-skill jobs are increasing in all developed societies) until there's more evidence. But the point is that the job structure of western economies is changing more rapidly now than ever before. It would be surprising if these trends were not accompanied by big changes in skill levels (with the middle skills being elbowed out by machinery and computers). Keith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
