World Order — Buddhism and Technosocial Commentary
We are all one
If there is any one reason I love the Internet it’s because of the discovery. The fact is, I’ve discovered so much simply because someone shared it. World Order is no different. It started with an animated gif of Japanese guys in business suits dancing robotically, but in a way I hadn’t really seen before. Robot dancing styles are nothing new but the fact that there were more than a couple, indeed there were seven, dancers was something different. They had their presentation tight and their moves were amazing.
And they’re Japanese guys in business suits.
Won’t somebody tell me?
The gif was presented without context, as a funny thing on Reddit. Thankfully, because it was on Reddit, there was someone there to provide the context which I desired so badly. The commenter pointed out that this was a sort of Japanese techno group called World Order and the dance was from a music video for a song called Machine Civilization. You could check it out on YouTube.
Naturally, I did. Then I spent the next hour or so watching and listening to anything World Order that I could find and, because it’s the Internet, I could find a lot of it.
As things go, Machine Civilization is a perfect introduction to World Order because it sets you up for much of the group’s underlying themes. There’s a positive message throughout their work and a recurring idea of “We are all one” that’s pervasive in their music and videos. You get a feel for the flavour of the group and how they’re serious about what they’re doing, without taking themselves too seriously. It was enough to prompt some research into the whole thing and see what this was about.
The first fact stunned me, and then everything seemed to fall into place from there.
I’ve never claimed to be normal and, while I dislike violence, I enjoy professional fighting. I love boxing, martial arts, Muay Thai, and mixed martial arts. I don’t jump up and down while shouting “HIT HIM! DRIVE HIM INTO THE FLOOR!” but a beer and a fight is a good time in my world. So it surprised me that I didn’t recognize the lead singer of World Order. He didn’t look familiar, but then I’m not used to seeing Sudo Genki wearing glasses and the garb of a sarariman.
…his unorthodox approach to fighting, like actually having fun while doing it,
led to many opponents underestimating him.
Sudo is a retired mixed martial arts champion and I’ve seen him fight many times. During his MMA career, he was known for lavish entrances with music and lights and choreography — something you’d see in professional wrestling rather than serious MMA. From wearing a KFC helmet that blew its stack to dance moves he’d later utilize as front man for World Order, everyone knew when Sudo Genki was approaching the ring. Likewise his unorthodox approach to fighting, like actually having fun while doing it, led to many opponents underestimating him. They thought he was a clown, an idiot.
They usually changed their minds after waking up on the mat or just about the time Sudo locked in a submission hold.
Another piece that fell into place was the “We are all one” philosophy laced into the workings of World Order. More than once, Sudo displayed a banner bearing the same words in the ring after a victory. Maybe this all sounds strange, or even a little too television mystic for you. Is he reflecting a Kwai Chang Caine character or is he for real? Is this another game?
No. He’s a practicing Buddhist, he’s absolutely serious.
So in 2009 we have a Japanese fighter and Buddhist who retires from the ring and creates a music project. Why not?
Along with six other guys, Sudo continued the spirit of showmanship he displayed in the ring. It was something new — an ex-fighter who sings techno and dances with slick robotic choreography and sings about, oh my god; peace, harmony, and happiness.
The entire thing struck me as a weird amalgam of something straight out of a cyberpunk book, though the reasons may make sense only within my mind. Nevertheless, I think there’s a social commentary in World Order that lends itself well to cyberpunk related entertainment.
The concept of a street samurai was there from the beginning. Molly Millions in Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy is the prototype from which all cyberpunk street warriors were built. She’s everything we expect in a street samurai — intelligent, cunning, adaptive, suspicious, and occasionally ruthless.
Interesting, because those are some highly desirable traits of a businessperson too.
…there’s a looming spectre threatening the new peace,
and oh look, he’s obviously American.
Sudo is a fighter who is taking on the worlds of business and government on his terms, all the while dressed in their garb. In another video, Permanent Revolution, World Order brokers peace between Asian powers. Japan, China, and Korea come to terms that allow them to work together under Sudo’s banner idea of “We are all one.” Yet there’s a looming spectre threatening the new peace, and oh look, he’s obviously American.
As an American, I find it maddening that I have to look so far outside of my country to find out what people elsewhere think of it. I cannot, in mid 2014, deny their visions of the United States as a power hungry giant out for its own purposes. The overhanging vulture that is the USA cares little what happens in the world, so long as the results are beneficial to the USA.
Looking deeper at World Order’s choreography, I see another commentary, this time upon the world of business. I do not think it accidental that World Order portrays businessmen moving in lockstep and in a robotic fashion. Returning for a moment to the stage of international governance, business and legislation are so cozy together that they no longer see any need to hide the relationship. Corporations rule the world, yet another foundation of cyberpunk fiction and the circumstances we inhabit today. The robotic nature and passive expression of World Order’s suits and ties parodies the corporate world with its three piece suits and unfeeling outlook.
If you watch anime or Japanese pop cinema, you’ll notice a recurring disaster, something relatively absent from American cinema. Japan has this nasty habit of getting destroyed. There are deep, psychocultural reasons for this but at its heart, Japan is as yet the only nation in the world to have a nuclear weapon used against it in anger. So it’s not accidental that the methods of destruction revolve around the unleashed power of the atom. Whether it be a bomb or unintended consequences of nuclear radiation, like kaiju monsters and Gojira (Godzilla), the threat and effects of nuclear disaster is prominent with Japanese pop culture.
Yet Japan arose from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and this too is a common theme in anime and cinema. Neo-Tokyo — a newer, larger metropolitan Tokyo — is often literally built upon the ruins of Tokyo. Depending on the storyline and setting, it’s possible that the two intersect and characters explore the ruins of old Tokyo. This characteristic flows through cyberpunk too, most notably in the seminal cyberpunk anime Akira.
In an unexpected parallel, World Order finds itself in similar circumstances. Machine Civilization is their biggest hit to date and it was produced just after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and the resulting tsunami. Unfortunately the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was directly in the path of the oncoming tsunami and the consequence was another real-life atomic disaster for the island nation. As Japan struggled, and continues to to rebuild, Sudo created the song to encourage people to work together, to change in a positive manner. He writes on the music video’s YouTube page:
The world is not going to change. Each one of us will change. And if we do, then yes, the world will be changed. It is darkest right before the dawn. Let’s all rise up to welcome the morning that will be so very bright for mankind.
The sentiment is echoed in the lyrics:
kono sekai wa kawareru no ka (Will this world be able to change?)
kono omoi wa maboroshi ka (Are these thoughts illusion?)
No matter where you are… everyone is always connected.
seem to understand.
Deep within the plotlines of cyberpunk, there is rebellion. Of course there is, that’s the punk part of cyberpunk. That rebellion is there because hope exists. People who deride cyberpunk for its darkness fail to see its light, because at the core of the genre there is a belief that the system can be fought and things can be better. The Buddhist ideal of “We are all one” may seem foreign to the cyberpunk outsider, but it’s an intrinsic part of the story. “No matter where you are… everyone is always connected,” says Iwakura Lain, the title character of Serial Experiments Lain. Artificial Intelligence constructs like Wintermute/Neuromancer or the Puppet Master of Ghost in the Shell are quite literally born from the interconnectedness, the “oneness” of all things.
Cyberpunk references and ramblings aside, World Order is definitely worth checking out. Even if you don’t speak Japanese there’s a playfulness in their music that makes it fun, regardless of a language barrier. It’s the age of the Internet so translations and lyrics are a search engine away. We are, after all, interconnected.
