Philosophy of Struggle
Article by Tetsuro Tanaka
I would like to write down the knowledge I learned in my struggle.
Anger
and hatred are different.
The struggle coming from an anger against an injustice can make people
happy.
The action came from hatred towards trying to make others unhappy.
It has strong power for a short time, but it will gradually destroy you.
When you struggle against a powerful opponent.
Trying to defeat and trying not to be defeated are different.
Even if the opponent is strong, so you can't defeat him, you can not
be defeated.
When you continue the struggle, sometimes it has meaning for society,
and actually has the "meaning of winning."
Know your own weaknesses.
To not be defeated, you should recognize your
own weaknesses, physically, mentally, economically, and socially.
To not be defeated, you should recognize your organizations weakness,
structurally, logically, economically, and socially.
Find virtue in your
enemy, find evil in yourselves.
Usually people think they are right, and that enemies are wrong.
But there is no person 100% good or 100% wrong.
We should always recognize that selfishness will appear in our minds
and try to control that.
Especially we should not trust too many of our leaders.
Hatred makes
enemies strong
When your opponent is wrong you should accuse it severely and logically.
But you should not negate the whole personality of the opponent.
You should accuse or criticize them, keeping in mind that they may still
have virtuous thoughts.
When you accuse them with a mind full of hate it amplifies their hatred
against you, and make them strong.
When you find the opponents weak point
you should attack it.
But sometime through the attacking, you create your own weak points.
You should use caution when speaking so that your words may not be used
against you to the point that you may be arrested or accused as a defamation.
You will get revenge and be exhausted, and your solidarity will be broken.
You should attack carefully and not allow yourself to be destroyed before
your opponent is destroyed
Trust and depend on some body are different
things.
A person in a struggle should not depend on supporters.
If your request is betrayed by your supporters you may bear a grudge.
We should have gratitude when our supporters support us. If they don't
support us we shouldn't bear a grudge.
My motto is "to hope for support but not depend on it"
You shouldn't try to keep your supporters from departing from you, after
you show them the principles of your struggle.
Sometimes your supporters may become bigger enemies than the opponent
of your struggle.
The struggling person should always show his principles
clearly to supporters and society.
Why are you struggling? To what purpose are you struggling?
In the case of a struggle against wrongful dismissal, even if the purpose
is only to make the company withdraw their dismissal, it is important
to show the aim of the struggle.
The aim being, to restore the economical damage to the person struggling,
or to cause the company to acknowledge their fault in the case thus deterring
such future dismissals from occurring.
In the case of a struggle to restore
economic damage to an individual, when the struggle gets drawn out for
an extended period of time, the
struggle will get harder and harder.
The person attempting the struggle should be independent economically.
During the early stages of the struggle the person struggling must depend
upon economic support from the supporters, but they should try as soon
as possible to be independent from those supporters if they intend on
struggling for an extended period of time.
Supporters should urge the struggling person to become independent economically
as soon as possible.
Supporters should not attempt to make the person struggling to end their
struggle when the struggling person desires to continue.
If, for any reason, the supporters want to abandon the struggle they
should do so immediately without a word.
Don't believe any information
100%.
Even if it is believed that the information is certain, without a doubt,
you should be prepared for such a case when those "certain things" may
be proven otherwise.
You have to decide which action to take but be careful to not choose
an action that may destroy you if the information is wrong.
You shouldn't
be scared, when there is no apparent person trying to kill you.
Nobody will kill you just by expressing your freedom of speech.
Recently, there are a lot of people who are afraid to print their names
in flyers of their civil activity.
If you seriously want to change society for the better you should display
yourself with courage.
It will be too late if the era comes, when people are killed for their
speech.
When you recognize your mistakes you should acknowledge that
you must apologize completely not half-heartedly, to your opponent
and to society.
You must show your apology publicly so that society may see your apology
to your opponent.
After your apology, you should insist that even though you may have
been at fault in some matter, that does not negate the fact that
your opponent
was also at fault.
If you ignore or try to run away from the matter your opponent will
pursue you with accusations, and you will lose your power of persuasion
for
society.
You should withdraw yourself immediately if you know that the cause
you are for is flawed.
If you don't change your course in this case, by your vanity, the
damage will be compounded against your struggle.
Notes
Many thanks to Tetsuro Tenaka for permission to add this article to the Union Songs website. Visit his website at: http://www.din.or.jp/~okidentt/ and listen to his songs. Visit also documentary film Tanaka-san Will Not Do Callisthenics