Great Construction

Cultural Barbarity

     All know that the motto of World Messianity is the construction of a world with absolutely no disease, poverty, or conflict, but upon deeper consideration, it can be seen that the fundamentals of these three great calamities stem from the barbarity that still remains within human beings. Therefore, the truly civilized world will only be born when this fact is perceived and the barbarity, done away with. What is this barbarity, one may ask? It is several tremendous factors lurking within that are not at all perceived.
     That first factor is medical treatment. Intriguingly, this is a problem that not only is not perceived, rather, that contemporary medical treatment is taken to be the result of progress. There is probably no greater mistake than medical science. When, for example, disease is contracted, various forms of treatments such as oral pharmaceuticals, injections, surgery, radiation therapy and so on are administered, but when these treatments are studied with a dispassionate eye, they are nothing but barbaric. First of all, pharmaceuticals consist of ingredients that have been extracted through various methods from minerals, plants, the organs of animals, and so forth, and, to tell the truth, not one of these materials has anything to do with curing disease. If pharmaceuticals could truly cure disease and if pharmaceuticals are supposed to be so far advanced, the number of sick individuals should steadily be declining each year. Indeed, the instances of unemployed doctors or pharmacists, or of other incidents such as the bankruptcies of hospitals are unheard of, and instead are always heard calls that the number of tuberculosis patients is overflowing without enough hospital beds. Even after application, some patients have to wait from half a year to more than a year to be admitted to a hospital. Varieties of infectious diseases increase each year as well, and the cries of despair are a matter of common knowledge.
     The above facts speak frankly to the complete ineffectiveness of pharmaceuticals. I always say that pharmaceuticals are a method for temporary alleviation of pain and have no effect at all in curing disease. As in the case of illegal narcotics, all that increases is the number of drug addicts.
     Moving on from the subject of pharmaceuticals, the next aspect of barbarism is surgical operation. Neither of course is this true healing. That is because surgical operation is a method that aims purely to treat a specific disease, and in spite of the fact that it is simply a method that injures the internal organs and muscles and skin, or else removes them, because surgical operation cannot truly heal, it takes these extreme measures in an effort to cure the symptoms, so it is merely a desperate measure. At the least it is not cultural and is nothing other than barbaric. Furthermore, because such barbarity is thought to be the progress of medical science, it is an astonishing error. As I always say, because surgical operations damage and remove a part of the precious human body, deforming it, individuals will for the rest of their lives not be able to perform their roles as human beings. And, as regards to physical therapy and radiation treatment, because these two therapies are much the same, I omit commentary on them here, but the point is that the advance of contemporary medical science is a series of barbaric acts that have skillfully been clothed in the robes of culture.
     Next I will take up the subject of poverty. Because the causes of poverty stem mostly from disease, it would be fair to call poverty a derivative product of the barbaric acts previously mentioned. Socialism, communism, and other such isms have come about to resolve the problems of poverty, but as they maintain themselves as isms, are blind to the adoption of peaceful methods, and use measures such as violence and destruction, even if they have magnificent logic and reasoning behind them, it is not necessary at this point to state that isms and ideologies are nothing more than another kind of barbaric act. In an effort to save the many unfortunate individuals who are in poverty, many measures, including Red Cross assistance, social insurance, and relief for the poor are implemented, and although they are useful to a point, as long as these measures do not address the fundamental issues, the results are self evident. Thus, anxiety in society never sees sight of the dawn.
     The last point I wish to address is probably something over which no one on the entire earth does not feel some degree of unease, and that is the issue of conflict. Moreover, unlike olden times, today all issues are larger in scale, global in nature, so wars are not just between two nations, but if they were to begin, would split the entire world into two, with everyone forced to become either friend or foe. Because a stance of neutrality would of course be impossible, thus would form ranks for battle, and probably appear an age of unparalleled barbarism.
     So, as the title states, observed from whatever viewpoint, no exaggeration is it to say that now is an age of cultural barbarism.

Chijôtengoku, Issue 38, page 5, July 25, 1952
    translated by cynndd