Typed by Kunio Takahashi (Kodokan)

April 10, 2006 (Monday)
TheEnglishman

ERGO Logical.

WasHumorous.

Teach Debate To

Improve Humour.
今日会った英国人はユーモラスであった。だからロジカルだった。ユーモアを鍛えるならディベートを教えろ。

Both the teacher and the student
must enlighten each other at thesamelevel
throughcross-examining each other till thedepth of their problem.
(Krishnamurti)
The guide and the guided can tutor
each other for further illumination.
(M. Matsumoto)Japanese Eton’s parks debate.
A boy’s boarding school modeled on Eton has sparked concerns that egalitarian
education, which many believe has underpinned Japan’s economic success, could beundermined by a trend towards elitism. Kaiyo Academy, built with 20 billion yen (￡ 97million) in corporate donations, opened at the weekend, stirring debate about the futureof education. Some 123 12-year-old boys wearing crisp black uniforms took part in theenrolment ceremony. (AFP)
The above article (page 31) on THE TIMES for today set me off on an expensive(￡ 310) 9-hour driver guide tour to Cambridge University, an elite educational classconsisting of King’s and Queen’s colleges and Eton, hence today’s essay topic:
Education on debate, logic and humour as a bonus.
Humour is derailed train of thought. Weather-beaten rock. An accident that either
turns listeners on or off. A risk worth taking. These are now part of my left-handed
dictionary. And I owe the man a debt of gratitude for the enrichment of my logic that
goes “rusty” with absence of debate.
The man, JIM DAVIES (60) is a former Group Captain in the Royal Air Force anddiplomat-awarded an O.B.E. (Order of British Empire) by the Queen. An elite(Cambridge) and experienced (ten years) British Tours guide, married to a French wife
(historian), two brilliant kids univ. grads. Intelligence does run in families.
He speaks English, French and Welsh (The Celtic language of Wales). His strength inmathematics and physics got him into Cambridge instead of Oxford. Both campuses
encourage debate and competition – competitive debating, and tutorial (one–on–oneprofessor–to–student) dialogue. He’s a poet-turned humorist–debater.
Proof? The Welsh are the Irish who cannot swim. (Jim CAN swim.) Disraeli
answered, “I’m of a religion of few wise men. The name of the religion? Wise men
never tell.” A Jewish humour. An Australian joke: No we don’t want to come back to10

Typed by Kunio Takahashi (Kodokan)

England, that’s where our ancestor came from (exiled as criminals). The United States
wasn’t created by prisoners; it was built by criminals themselves. Margaret Thatcher: All
political careers fail. All scientists are proven wrong. Einstein was a bad scientist. Isaac
Newtown was worse. His was a case of a mathematical genius gone away. He was fromCambridge Univ. We missed the authentic copy of Principia Mathematica, because thelibrary was closed when we got there. Sir Francis Bacon, who could very well have been
William Shakespeare, a questionable identity.
Jim displayed his intellectual integrity by taking no sides on virtually any
controversial topics I raised on the road, in and out of central London, on the way to andfrom Cambridge. He’s a mad far of Carl Popper, Jewish philosopher who hugely
influenced George Soros, who said, “Truths like all hypotheses are destined to bebroken. – disproved. You can never successfully prove anything.” Jim is detached andskeptical, or simply logical. Wait, he’s a disciplined optimist, or simply a humorist.
If both Oxford and Cambridge want to go private to combat financial difficulties, youmight as well take a leaf out of Edward de Bono’s book, and let George Soros buy into
them. His money can buy anything, name or fame. No, you wouldn’t sell out, or bought
off. That would be the last step you’d take. And that’s lateral think. De Bono, my elitist
friend, went to both Oxford and Cambridge to put on a “green” (creative) hat.
He laughed, laughed and laughed.
He and I knew Cambridge would never sell out the soul of its spiritual founder
Aristotle, founder of logic to a global speculator and a debate-promoter with a logicalhead that says money is an ultimate equalizer. Aristotle might say, why not?, because heis known for his politically incorrect statement that the majority of human beings could
and should be enslaved because they are naturally slaves.
Money doesn’t bother Britain; but the lack of money worries Britain. Financial Timesfor today accepts the foreign ownership of its industry, a UK defense company (BAEsystems), arguing. “The British attitude is logical, foreign takeovers have been good forthe country. They have brought investment and raised management standards.” (p. 17).
Logic says if all British seek logic to avoid emotional solutions to emotional problems
such as an immigration policy (more than half of London residents are foreigners), Jim islogical. I sought his logical answer on my hypothetical question: “What would you do as adiplomat and advisor to Japan’s Government, if China continued to threaten Japan
militarily into submission?”
He said, “I’d advise your gov. to take sides with Russia as a counter-threat toChina.” Logic seems to work, because of its inherent mercilessness. Amnesty
International says at least 3,400 people were executed in China in 2004 – nearly 90
percent of the global total. (F.T.)
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