When I was in high school, a friend of mine told me this.

"If the Soviet Union invaded Japan, would we be in any trouble?"

The Soviet Union, a socialist country at the time, nationalized all property, forbidding (Officially) the ownership of personal property.

He said, "For us common people who have no private property, doesn't it matter whether it is the Soviet Union or the Japanese government that rules?"

But, while Soviet-style socialism may have a lot of annoying things like thought control, freedom of expression, prohibition of personal property, etc., it is still "better than having your house burned down and having your family and yourself murdered, isn't it?"

I remember thinking then, 'I see, that may be true.

-----

Here are my thoughts after 50 years.

"It is a thorough fight."

The reason why I have changed in this way is, in a word, because it is 'troublesome'.

I cringe when considering the pain of accepting the new social system.

I get depressed to death just by changing the OS of my computer or the UI of Office, and now, at my age, to have to replace the entire social system (judicial, administrative, and legislative) is really "no joke."

This is what we call conservatism.

In a word, they are "absolutely against any change.

-----

'Ebata, you actively support LGBT and same-sex marriage, don't you?' The reason for this is apparent.

Because I (Ebata) don't have 1mm of disadvantage about LGBT or gay marriage

Why should I oppose a system that reduces the number of unhappy people? Are you bored? Are you stupid? I am tempted to ask.

However, I cannot approve of big changes that shake the very foundations of our social system.

"Fighting" is troublesome, but so is "adapting to a new society" -- if both are troublesome, then (taking life expectancy age into consideration) the "status quo bias" wins.

-----

I have written that "being angry" is enough to fight without patriotism.

In addition, I think 'it's too much trouble' is also a good enough reason to make me fight.

That aside.

-----

The Taiwanese government has never officially said anything about "independence from China."

The people of Taiwan just do not want to have China's authoritarian one-party dictatorship policy imposed on them.

I have thought that if mainland China adopted a Taiwanese-style democratic policy, Taiwan would gladly be a part of China.

But -- as far as Hong Kong, Tibet, and Uyghur are concerned, the people of Taiwan are thinking, 'Hey, we can't work with the current CCP. Let me see how it goes for another 100 years or so.