I love ramen, and when I go out somewhere for the first time, I often look for a restaurant with a good reputation in the neighbourhood on the internet beforehand. And when I actually try it, there are times when I feel that, contrary to the high rating on the internet, the ramen is, well, not quite right. In such cases, I wonder if my tongue is not good enough? Am I out of step with the world's standards? I feel uneasy. On the other hand, maybe the ratings are being manipulated by techniques like stealth marketing, maybe I'm right and the online ratings are just what many people have been led to believe? I can't say to the king of the naked, that's a nice outfit! I sometimes feel that way. I think that my subjectivity should have the highest priority and objectivity is just a means to meet nice subjectivity, that's what I think about the many evaluation systems on the net.
 
Furthermore, talking about the internet, the content broadcasted on Instagram, Facebook, google news, etc. is paranoid. In other words, it sounds good to say that only things that match one's interests and thoughts (tastes) are selected, but it is difficult to do things that are not currently available to you but you will become passionate about in the future, or to modify your thinking by coming into contact with opinions that are opposite to yours and thinking about their background. So it could accelerate intolerance. Like in the USA, where extremism is dominating and dividing the country. Furthermore, you are shown images that stimulate you comfortably one after another, so it is hard to stop. Before you know it, you have lost a lot of time. Like a maniac who buys dozens of the same CD to improve the ranking of his favourite idol.
 
On a similar note, I recently saw a TV programme introducing a book called The Shock Doctrine. Beware of a looter at a fire  that use fear, anxiety and confusion to gain advantage and make money! It's about what it sounds like. Such examples were given of using the pretext of counter-terrorism to justify increased state surveillance by stoking hostility and insecurity. Surveillance is essential for security. Such pretty words make people inclined towards it. If you say that surveillance is a bit..., then it's okay if your child is killed in a terrorist attack? Such dualism makes people think. I don't want my child to be killed, but I also don't want... to be monitored. So I want a better balance, that's not allowed. Because the plotters overwhelmingly want the control that comes with increased surveillance, rather than counter-terrorism.
 
Following on from this, I write shopping, which influences the expression of one's own personality. One after another, new things are released with a slightly different form, with a few added features, or with a different way of advertising. Like the Soviet pole vaulter Bubka, who drew attention each time he broke a world record by dividing it into extremely small pieces. They are somehow made to feel incomplete if they are not new, and are replaced even though they are still usable. The E (Environment) of ESG has become much more popular these days, and I have become somewhat weary of this, but it is still set in the middle where it belongs. It is a shame that companies talk so beautifully about human resources being an asset rather than an expense, but in reality have no regard for their employees. And then, after the purchase, It was not necessary to buy a new one.
 
As mentioned above, there are many difficulties in protecting one's identity. So how can we protect our identity? There are very helpful role models. Jiro Shirasu, who led Japan's recovery from the depths of defeat in the Second World War and was described by GHQ as the only Japanese who did not obey. There is a word that he cherished: 'Principles'. It is a kind of rule that he imposes on himself. He asserted and acted in accordance with these rules, without reading the air. It is sometimes difficult to maintain such a consistent stance in an environment where cooperation is inevitably required. Even so, I want to be like that as much as possible. In closing, I would like to introduce what he said to General MacArthur at GHQ in response to MacArthur's impolite attitude towards Japan, a defeated country.
 
We lost the war, but we are not slaves.