Thus the number of people who are able to satisfy their own desires under the aegis of the group—that is, those who are skilled in manipulating the double self—is increasing by leaps and bounds. The group logic that employers try to use as a motivator has actually become a protective umbrella for these people. The company's name printed on their calling cards still serves to establish their social status, but in a way their behavior is now inner-directed, aiming at self-satisfaction.
Work Machine and Consumption Machine
Blessed with an enriched education and the benefits of a modern communications network, young people today are not naive. They are remarkably canny when it comes to seeing through the pretenses of their own society. However, they lack the strength of mind to try to reform that society. Instead, their interests lie in living a pleasant and comfortable life. The adventure of reform is not for them. Because of these changes, a new kind of "workaholic" is in the making. In order to acquire the goods and services that make their lives pleasant and comfortable, these young people are willing to work very hard, and even to appear to bend their wills to the group mentality. But actually they are bitter and frustrated workaholics. Their work is nothing but a necessary evil. They find no satisfaction in it. In order to vent the frustration they feel at work, they buy more and more of the goods and services that give them satisfaction and take their minds away from the job. It becomes a vicious circle. Their desperate effort to restore the self that is being sacrificed at work leads them to indulge themselves senselessly when they are off the job.
These young people are doubly exploited—as "work machines" on their jobs, and as "consumption machines" for industry. They are both workaholics and funaholics, if I may coin a phrase. They are reduced to the robotic functions of producing and consuming. "To find satisfaction through your hobbies and leisure pursuits" sounds very modern and elevated, but it also suggests that one is not getting satisfaction in one's work. If the only reason people work is to indulge themselves, their interest in their jobs falls to the level of simply earning money. The states of wabi and sabi discussed previously can be reached only through self-development of the highest degree, which presupposes a maturity of character not evident in simple sensual indulgence. A one-sided emphasis on fun, to the exclusion of work, is not the way to wabi and sabi. As a result of this new attitude, the samurai workers are deteriorating a bit.
The tendency to have more interest in one's after-hours activities than in one's work is evident even in Japan's Self-Defense Forces. According to a published survey carried out by the Officers' Corps, "The officer class is very patriotic and regards the army as its life. Most of the young soldiers, however, are more interested in their own activities – in enjoying their personal interests."
Group Logic and Individual Desire
Any organization is more than the sum total of the individuals in it. The relationships between those individuals are just as much a part of the organization as a whole. The problem lies in adjusting and harmonizing these relationships. The necessity of controlling relationships creates a hierarchical order within the group. Certain people are placed above others, and power tends to be concentrated in the upper strata. This is the way in which power and authority develop. Finally, authority becomes a self-existing element, quite separate from those who created it.
In Japanese groups, authority quickly takes on this autonomous nature, which makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for people to express their personal wishes or desires. Thus to the degree that the Japanese participate in a group, they are forced to set aside their own personality (suppress personal egoism) and identify with the group personality (support group egoism). This is what produces the double personality of the Japanese worker.
The double personality is evident in incidents where a normally "good" person commits illegitimate acts in the name of the group. For example, an otherwise decent, law-abiding citizen covers up the pollution created by his company and commits other improper acts for the sake of the group. Such a citizen is responding to the group ideal—unquestioned obedience to the leader. When the public self that has pledged allegiance to the ideals of the group becomes melded with the private self, the individual can perform unthinkable acts with no apparent damage to his conscience.
Individual integrity would demand testifying truthfully in accordance with one's oath. But when private desire ("I want to see my way out of this mess, even if I have to lie") and public logic ("It's for the company's sake, so I needn't worry my conscience") combine, people easily abandon their integrity and lie boldly without remorse. Here we have the double structure of group logic and private desire. Because group logic overrides conscience, it is easy for people to escape the discomfort that might otherwise accompany such patently self-serving acts. Someone who is "sacrificing" his conscience in order to uphold the group's ideals suffers no pangs of remorse.
There are people whose conscience does bother them occasionally. And suicide is often the result when the private self fails to meld successfully with the logic of the group. This is the last escape for a self besieged on all sides. Many times those involved in scandal and corruption, unable to resolve the contradiction between their private conscience and the will of the group, commit suicide in desperation. They become sandwiched mercilessly between these conflicting demands and see no other way out.
This phenomenon is not so common in the West. When the logic of the group conflicts with private conscience, the individual is likely to rebel and betray the group. Examples are the in-company accusation against the pollution created by the company and the testimony of some of the high officials implicated in the Watergate scandal. It seems very difficult for an individual in the West to act against his own conscience and follow group orders without considerable anguish. Even if he eventually complies under duress, his conscience may not leave him alone.
What follows is neither a scandal nor an anecdote about government officials. It is the story of Everett Alvarez, the Navy lieutenant commander who was the first American prisoner of war in Vietnam. Alvarez was taken prisoner after President Johnson ordered the bombing attack on North Vietnam. All through his long internment he never came to doubt the lightness of the Vietnam War. He was taken quite by surprise, however, when he returned home following his release on February 12, 1973. This model soldier received a shock that he hardly deserved—and it came from his own family. His wife had divorced him in his absence in 1970; she had remarried and already had a child by her new husband. His sister had joined the antiwar movement, and had participated in a demonstration at the White House. Even his mother had announced through the mass media that she thought Nixon had tricked the public and that she was against the war.
The members of Commander Alvarez's family were led to do what they did by the belief that private conscience takes precedence over group logic. Whatever self-interest they might have had, they did not disguise it under the cloak of group will. Each had a personal commitment that led her to oppose the group, follow her own conscience, and, eventually, reject the deeds of her own husband, brother, or son.