Stardate 20010726.1003 (On Screen): A Book of Five Rings by
Musashi Myamoto is one of the finest books to come out of classical Japan. It is a deep book, although brief, containing much insight. Musashi lived during the beginning of the
Tokugawa Shogunate (perhaps 30 years after the events on which the book
Shogun was based) and was a ronin who legend has it was the best swordsman in Japan. (The lead character in the excellent comic book
Usagi Yojimbo is based on Musashi.) His book became one of the bibles of later Samurai philosophy. If you've read
Shogun or seen movies about Japan, you'll know that sometimes people felt compelled to commit ritual suicide. Men would do it by ripping open their stomachs. Of course, this is actually a very difficult thing to do and extremely painful, and usually there would be a "second", a man standing behind the man commiting suicide, who would swing a katana and take off his head. Actually, the stroke usually came as he was reaching for his blade, since that was enough to prove his courage. (The supreme dishonor would be to not be able to go through with it, and this prevented such dishonor.)
Musashi states in his book that no-one should ever volunteer to be a second at a suicide. If you perform well, no-one will notice. But if you perform badly (and wound but not kill, requiring a second stroke) then you are seriously dishonored because of sheer incompetence. There is nothing to be gained but everything to be lost, and thus you should not do it unless ordered.
Using the same logic, the teachers union in the UK is telling its teachers to refuse to accompany students on field trips and vacations for the same reason: if nothing goes wrong there is little reward, but if a kid is harmed or killed, the teachers can lose their careers and even everything they own. It's a high-stakes gamble with no reward; it is a stupid thing to do. And they're right. Kids are stupid, and sometimes they'll get hurt. A kid who refused to listen and skied somewhere dangerous got badly hurt, and now his school is being sued because the teacher involved didn't forcibly take away his lift ticket. But if the teacher had done so, and if nothing had happened, then the kid's parents would have been livid. It's a no-win situation for the teachers; the best they can do is to avoid the situation entirely. It's unfortunate that it's come to this, but that's the price you pay for not taking responsibility for yourself. (discuss)
