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Five Decembers Q2: Duty and promises
McGrady isn't driven by personal needs and desires, but rather than a sense of duty and fulfilling promises. Kansei tries to serve Japan even when it puts him in danger. John Smith follows orders, and even gets a job in the American consulate in Hong Kong to save his countrymen.
Is anyone driven by base desires? Who betrays ideals of duty for love, greed, or even just survival? When should we pursue duty over self?
How do you balance the emphasis of duty (to a greater whole) with the focus on individuals and individual action?
Comments
So far as I recall, all the major characters (good guys and bad) were duty-driven - probably the main exception is Fred Ball who apparently gets far too much pleasure in working over suspects. Conversely, Takahashi (father, not daughter) acts much more on his own initiative and much less according to imperial duty.
My feeling was that this was a deliberate authorial ploy to set against the standard trope Japan = driven by duty vs America = driven by individualism, as (by and large) the key players do the opposite of this.
I was struck by the tension between the "rugged individual" self-image of Americans with the ideals of patriotism. How can a sovereign individual be loyal to a country? How can a patriot put themselves above their fellow citizens?
It's a challenging question for our age, I think. Over many millennia we have expanded the group of individuals to which we feel allegiance family -> village or clan -> tribe -> region -> nation. Lots of speculative fiction assumes that this will continue -> planet -> solar system -> empire/Federation/Ekumen. But as well as trends towards globalisation we are seeing counter-trends towards fierce small-scale loyalties and rivalries. Is there (at least at our current stage of development) a size of group that we can no longer identify with and so we revert back to smaller units again?
When the funds were frozen for the Canadian convoy, a Texas attorney general announced he would be looking into this as many ‘patriotic Texans’ had donated. What causing political upheaval in in an ally nation has to do with Texas patriotism escapes me.
I have to confess that I was unaware of this convoy issue, and have just now read up about it.