I was listening to an account of the Russo-Japanese war. The Japanese troops were well-discipline and treated the common people well. The soldiers even raised money for the common folk. The degeneration in their behavior in the 20-odd years between the war and the Manchurian Incident, then, must've been due to the deleterious effects of their National Education.

An interesting idea is that Slavery was an advance in human morality because it meant you didn't need to execute people you defeated in battle.


Historical narratives are like hypotheses - they describe reality, not seeking to describe the totality of the situation, but to pare things down so they are tractable.

They are different because of wrong/incomplete facts, or personal bias, not because no true narrative exists.

With complete information and no bias, we can get one that completely describes the world.

Of course you can say we will never achieve this situation, but that does not mean we cannot get closer and closer to it.