[UA] The Masterless Man/The Wave Man/Japanese Mentality vs. American

[Cassady Toles]

I recently had a discussion with my housemate Zoe about the 47 Ronin, and I
realized exactly what it was that made me pair up the Masterless man with
the gunfighter and why I saw this conflict coming into view between the two,
it's also about that conversation we had with web designers trying to be the
Masterless man and something rubbed me the wrong way about it.

I realized it this morning (in the bathroom).  If we assume that the
ascendant of the masterless man was one of the 47 Ronin or some comparable
individual.  The masterless man is a TRAGIC FIGURE.  The reason that idea
sticks with us is because of the tragedy.  Feudal Japanese society was all
about service.  A serf served the nobility the samuri served the diamyo and
the diamyo served the emperor.  The masterless man DOES NOT want to remain
masterless.  He has no other option.  The masterless man's life proved that
he failed once.  And that failure cost his life's purpose.  

It is almost impossible for an American to truly understand this mentality. 
America was raised on concepts like rugged individualism and revolutionary
representation and the idea that all men were created equal.  America hasn't
ever lost territory in a war.  America has never been held hostage.  We
don't know what it is to serve.  We don't know what it is for that to be a
purpose.

The reason the gunfighter resonates so well here is that in America we once
had a soldier who lived to serve a master who truly died.  The rebel soldier
after the collapse of the South and the loss of the civil war.  We had an
individual who held nation above all else and that nation was defeated.  

All romance aside, that figure holds the tragic quality of the wave man, and
of the American Archtypes, it's the only one I can think of that really
does.  I don't see the masterless man as being ascended and replaced by
contract computer employees, or dot-com millionaires for a number of
reasons, firstly, with the collapse of the dot-economy the computer prodigal
is becoming way less of an issue.  Secondly, because, that dot-com
millionaire being downsized or leaving to start their own company isn't
tragic.  In America a job is just a job.  There are a million and one ways
to make a living and you have to find another one.  

I'm not saying that the modern contractor/specialist/outsider doesn't have
some place in ascention, but I think it more threatens the Rebel or the
Outsider, because I think tragic archtypes remain tragic, just like heroic
ones or villianous ones remain those as well.

These are just thoughts, I'm more than curious what all you-all have to say
about them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am the messiah in the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniel's.  Drink of me
and
no peace." -- Cobra Baghdad www.peoplehateme.com
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