Down with the Cities!

e cities will survive, and "Prosperity for the citi

ation, There Is No Future

extravagant and convenient life, the survival of humanity (as well as the lives of all other living things) is completely assured. However, if the entire planet is urbanized, the

onut phenomenon (the building of more apartment complexes) occurring around the big cities. Just look at the plastering of everything with concrete and the leisure facilities along train lines and roads. Just look at how the polluting industries are evacuating to the country.

ities means the decline and fall of the country, which is the city's life line, and

o the country, we will have eternal regrets. Time has all but run out, and it may already be too late.

t rid of t

City We Will L

pect to save ourselves while preserving the city. If we exterminate ourselves we w

l have to defend it e

nue with it even if it

ll pursue it even if it

ntain it even if it

onvenience, extravagance, and ease, as well as traditions and customs. Even while humanity is still around they are not worth a pig's tail (this is because they come about by oppressing and exploiting th

SHO

Taught Us to Er

at which therefore conceals this theft... Learning is scheming words meant to deceive the people and eat gluttonously, and is a great fault. Therefore the idleness and gluttony of the sages and Buddhas is a stinking and filthy evil. Learning is a means of hiding this stench and filth." (This quote and the

created with private law - this is the truth which Shoeki expounded. We must not, I should think, pre

the preaching of the Dharma, and storytelling are all ways of justifying theft, and nothing more. Their books, which number in the millions, all record justifications for theft; the more wise their aphorisms, and the more clever their turn of phrase, the more they justify theft, and the more w

eover, education is aiming for more than that. It is no overstatement to say that, either directly or indirectly, all education exists

turally till the soil, and naturally weave clothes, that is, we produce our o

e do not need all yo

tion [31] depends onl

of Heaven in which w

tu

nd with the advance and retreat in the motions of the essences, we are living with the Way of Heav

ordance with the flow of Nature (the cycle). Shoeki saw from the beginning that progress in agriculture spurs on the development of the secondary and tertiary industries, that is, the city, t

Money are t

il; business in its profit-se

profit-seeking... They are the men of monstrous profits and harmful greed. They wish to make their way through the world without tiring themselves with labor; they curry favor with those both above and below thems

vil. Since the appearance of money we have lived in a

the same in the pr

e always been the s

s, and beautiful chambers, or for military purposes. And the artisans curry favor with those of all classes by

ly waste resources and spew forth pollution, and in the fact that the manufacturers of weapons and explosives hope that there will be a war, that pharmaceutical companies hope there w

isen, all arts, drama, plays... are the evil accomplices of confusion and disorder; they are all worthless amusements of

Leisure! say our modern tertiary industries (the city), investing great amounts of resources, time, and money in th

nous Dominators "Sh

at

the secondary and tertiary industries (the city, i.e., an assembly of the idle), their thie

nals who steal the True Way of Heaven and Earth... Though they be sages

other name

men are the leaders o

is another n

hem the scholars and the clergy. This is because horse manure has more value." ("Schola

luttonous) with such half-baked methods as trying to educate them. It is impossible to change these inveterate

ing to do but to overthrow them. This is nothing oth

hink that Shoeki's theory is backed by thorough revolutionary thought and a penetrating view of society th

e and the proletariat, Ando Shoeki found it in those who practice direc

o Shoeki, who thought that they too belonged to the idle and gluttonous classes, and that if we do not

Urbanizing Mechanism

olu

al population - the city - which loomed behind them. (The scholars, clergy, and officials were subjectively the chief instigators of plunder, but object

e the ultimate enemy while believing that the great hordes of the idle and gluttonous slithering in the shadow of the

ng of the city, that is, the liquidation of the idle and gluttonous. Without the overthrow of the urbanizing mechanism in human s

s but a precursor of the communist revolution): power, oppression, progress, expansion, modernization,

hich All Till the So

Groups

equality. It was a primitive communist society which could not be realized without, first of all, the overthrow of the bloodsucking ruling class, and then that of

hieve the transition to communistic society (of course, this assumes the abolition of capitalist society), ca

ajime, lamented, saying, "If agriculture declines, how can business and industry prosper?" But in his book Respect for Japanese Agriculture he wrote, "The development of a healthy national economy depends u

if they are able to make the transition to the communist revolution, but have not dismantled the cities. In other words, we end up with a situation in which state power, in place of the bourgeoisie, carries out oppression and exploitation. This is a mere passing of power from one hand to another (I will disregard here

ion, and Money as Ins

aws take the place of these, but behind the laws is the force of arms (the military and the police), and out in plain view is money, a

truggles between the Taira and Minamoto, the Warring States, the feudalist military government, Manchuria, the China Incident, and so on without limit. In addition, as everyone knows, in between these big wars and incidents the

fucianism) has been an advantage to the dominators, and a disadvantage to the dominated. Good examples of this are the elimination of those in the way by harakiri, and the honoring of the war dead at Yasukuni Shrine. The dominators have always deceived us wi

their branch temples, missions, and other splendorous buildings, ostentatiously display their decorations, feed their priests and officials, and scale the heights of prosperity with only contemptuous regard for the poverty of the people. And very important here is the fact that the dominators, in the shadow of religion, have used these

oney, the Citi

d religion, money has been an instr

the functions and activities of the city are supported, and the means by which people so freely manipulate the city's functions in order to bring about prosperity. The reason burglars and thieves (in this case I am not referring to the dominators) always take money

age where we get rid of the cities), dictates that all

ually proved it could be done (forgive me for harping on this one exa

ses its voice and orders the citizens to till the fields, once the people have had a taste of idleness and gluttony they squat in the city and refuse to budge. The Pol Pot regime, which had come to the end of its rope, prohibited the use of money and made everyone barter. So the citizens, who could no longer ge

uctivity Remarks by S

onalization in agriculture, and included in the book Food, published by the Asahi Shimbun.) He also said, "Rather than having the farmers produce crops, it would be better to hand them money and let them be

is. It is natural that there is a difference in the productivity of industry, which night and day produces things in time intervals of minutes and seconds, and agriculture, which harves

food runs out). If you try to exchange 1,500 Sony transistor radios for one bag of rice, do you think the farmers will l

ducts should have 1,500 times the value of industrial products? This is the reason that, if we were to barter, you would not even be able

ice with the R

read water, and the cities will die, but is there a mouse with the bravery to put a bell around the cat

we get rid of money, the first to be put out on a limb is none other than "the government" itself. Is

nconceivable that people would abandon it, at least voluntarily. (Of course, if the situation grows object

the Food Sup

movements of raw materials, wastes, and merchandise will slow, and the functioning of the city will become paralyzed, but the city will not perish immediately.) B

want to stay there, no matter how well they hunker down, no matter how many new and wonderful machines they make, no matter how rare the arts they display, no matter how far they pursue

of the city; it is the city itself. Even if the heavens and the earth reversed themselves, it is doubtful that the co-op would ever stand with the farmers. The co-op makes it look as though it is the ally of the farmers, but this is a mere gest

uss the traders and the wholesalers. Shipping r

armers Cannot Bec

use to supply the city with food even if the military came with their guns, and there was a little bloodshed. The city can live a bit longer by importing food (the

many farmers who, taking advantage of a food shortage, sell food for high prices in secret deals, any efforts to stop the sale of food to the city are bound to end in failure. The "farmer power" of those farmers who gird thei

as been deeply implanted in the farmers who for generations have suffered from the poverty brought about by cruel pl

uel and subversive, but it is nothing compared to the unmitigated robbery a

ng and Destructive

sive E

ing, "Give up your extravagance." We are saying, "Stop your insatiable plundering." We are saying, "Dismantle that mec

? Why is it wrong to say "Stop driving others into poverty so

lents were the feudal lords (idlers) who, in order to continue their own extravagance and gluttony, cruelly robbed the farmers. And their spirit of idleness comes all the way down to our modern city. Even now if we were to say, "Stop plundering for your own extravagance!" "Stop destroying for your own ease!" or "Be satisfied with a life of auste

hankful" for Ur

tant than anything else; that the city, the value of which is absolute, is contributing 100 percent to such; and that the city is sacred a

a wonderful world we live in?" they say. Who are they kidding? This silver-tongued, idiotic lot of singers, these idle and gluttonous bloodsuckers, go from Tokyo to Osaka on the Shinkansen which wastes incredible amounts of energy, assaults our ears with noise, and runs on rails ov

ssing of our modern urban civilization. They say that the ability of international traders to jet to other countries and quickly conclude business deals is due to the sam

own countries. And as I have said before, progress and prosperity are inseparable from environmental contamination and the destruction of the Earth. Should we really be than

in their warehouses is clearly the result of squandering resources and squeezing labor to produce more than is necessary, they believe implicitly that this state has come about because other countries do not buy, so they

y of foreign scenery? Are there no mountains in Japan? Is there no ocean? There is little difference between the ocean at Boso and that in Hawaii. In the mountains near their homes there are places they are unfamiliar with. All those people who have no time to consider the appearance of

ch foreign sexual customs

and destruction. Even in Japan there is much of this going on, but in whatever country it is the extreme of evil. Are we supposed to be thankful when people go abroad for sight

is the "city." We must take drast

dicate the Cities, Th

t's possible to get rid of the cities, then go ahead and try,"

sible to banish currency or get the farmers and co-ops to stop food s

tions, the cities are in actuality bound to perish (I will treat this in a later chapter)

se will all lead to uninhabited cities. But the city's swaggering, unconcerned attitude toward these things will only bring about a crises state that much sooner. As long as the city continues to underestimate the dangers, to waste without a moment's afterthought, to make mo

he sky, and humanity will face annihilation. This would seem to be right on target, since the cities are heading for destructi

Cities in the Twe

o live. Even if we do nothing but stand by and twiddle o

te (and assuming the absence of epidemics, war, and starvation), population density 700 years hence will be such that there is one person per each square foot, including the mountains. If people estimate that in the twenty-first century 20 million cities will swe

long right on course. From whatever angle, and with however sympathetic eyes, we look at the city,

r the accuracy of his prediction, and laughing at the insatiable

no mistake in predicting so. Even if the sun rises in the west, and even if the rivers run upstream, there is no way to stop

Ourselves and the Ear

rom t

ish anyway, why not just let thing

trying to ruin the whole Earth in order that they themselves will perish. We must not allow ourselves to be dragg

n their contraction. And this is not impossible, for our ancestors long ago did the same thing. Let us

me to Escape

e city to give up those white co

possible the contraction of the city by 1/9,000,000th. It also makes

els cannot last much longer, but it is also a withdrawal from the position of t

ng villages to stop producing vast quantities o

0,000th of the city's population out of the city, and reduce the city's evils by the same amount. (At present 10 percent of the Japanese population farms, and the other 90

orts. It can import all the vegetables, fruit, meat, and eggs that

ent farmer - I can c

luti

ent the expansion of the cities and begin their contraction. I am sure that this is the one ray of light, the one h