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Okay, so I opened a can of worms in a thread on SA; I had second thoughts and snipped out what wasn't really important to the point I made out of fear of overreaction, but the whole thing says something I wanted to get off my chest for a while, so here's the unedited bit:
The problem is how to stop the whaling. May I bring up what I myself refer to as the "Whale Wars Problem" - people so focused on the culture of an alien species that they forget about the culture of their own. Japanese whalers are doing a Bad Thing, everyone can agree to that. What environmentalists didn't take into account was that Japanese whaling was actually on a DECLINE before the Sea Shepherd intervention - Japan had realized the same thing America had, and the demand for whale-based goods was ebbing away. Simply put, the problem MAY have fixed itself with time.
However, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has called out those whalers, though, and on American airwaves, at that, if not internationally. Anyone with any knowledge of Japanese society can tell you that they're a violently honor-driven people - reporters held hostage in the Middle East were greeted, as an example, not with relief but with "go away" signs. For a single Japanese whaler to hang up his hat now, after how America has basically thrown their superiority into the ring, would be an enormous dishonor; one that could very likely get him and anyone he was related to not only shamed, but potentially killed. Hell, the single Japanese national on board of a Sea Shepherd ship demands to be left anonymous because she knows that should her identity get out, it will harm her family.
By challenging the whalers on the open seas, the Whale Wars crew has stupidly made things worse with their incompetence; it's now a matter of honor to Japanese whalers, so now they aren't even doing it for profit, they're doing it because some stupid foreigners are telling them they can't.
The problem is how to stop the whaling. May I bring up what I myself refer to as the "Whale Wars Problem" - people so focused on the culture of an alien species that they forget about the culture of their own. Japanese whalers are doing a Bad Thing, everyone can agree to that. What environmentalists didn't take into account was that Japanese whaling was actually on a DECLINE before the Sea Shepherd intervention - Japan had realized the same thing America had, and the demand for whale-based goods was ebbing away. Simply put, the problem MAY have fixed itself with time.
However, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has called out those whalers, though, and on American airwaves, at that, if not internationally. Anyone with any knowledge of Japanese society can tell you that they're a violently honor-driven people - reporters held hostage in the Middle East were greeted, as an example, not with relief but with "go away" signs. For a single Japanese whaler to hang up his hat now, after how America has basically thrown their superiority into the ring, would be an enormous dishonor; one that could very likely get him and anyone he was related to not only shamed, but potentially killed. Hell, the single Japanese national on board of a Sea Shepherd ship demands to be left anonymous because she knows that should her identity get out, it will harm her family.
By challenging the whalers on the open seas, the Whale Wars crew has stupidly made things worse with their incompetence; it's now a matter of honor to Japanese whalers, so now they aren't even doing it for profit, they're doing it because some stupid foreigners are telling them they can't.
