Regarding professor Jeff Kingston's Aug. 25 column titled "Gay marriage in Japan? Only over the reactionary LDP's cadaver": The theory that the dinosaurs died out because they were as stupid as they were huge has long been debunked, but the notion that human beings who resist social "progress" are to be compared to the extinct reptiles lives on. Kingston falls back on that metaphor in deploring the failure of the LDP to get on the evolutionary ladder of same-sex marriage. Ho-hum, I thought, just another example of the modern mammalian herd mentality, particularly among Western academics-cum-journalists.
As a staunch supporter of both the LDP and one-man/one-woman marriage, I feel the urge to offer a little tooth-and-claw resistance to Kingston's contention that the triumph of the same-sex marriage cause is inevitable and that we tail-dragging dissenters are doomed.
There are intelligent, well-educated, and non-reptilian humans of good will on both sides of the issue. The history-is-on-our-side claim tends to be circular, with statistics manipulated to suit it and "majoritarianism" applauded only as long as the majority is on the politically correct side. Would Kingston change his mind about the death penalty if it turned out that the government's claim that most of us support it is true? Somehow I rather doubt it.
I believe neither in the myth of progress nor in the golden hearts of the masses. For all I know, the Japanese will eventually succumb to the same moral madness that we are witnessing in the post-Christian West. I am nonetheless inclined to believe that, at least for the time being, despite all the one-sided propaganda in the media, common sense will prevail.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.