This has nothing to do with Marxism. There are fewer Marxists in China than in Cambridge, Massachusetts. China has been governed by a Mandarin caste selected by standardized exams for more than 2,000 years, and the Communist Party is merely today’s name for the new Mandarin bureaucracy. William F. Buckley said that he would rather be governed by the first 100 names in the Boston telephone directory than by the faculty of Harvard. China’s ruling caste is more like a government of National Merit Scholars. The Chinese look with contempt on a democracy that allows us to elect stupid leaders if we so desire.
Chinese civilization is 5,000 years old. Why has it lasted so long? You haven’t run into any Hittites, Sumerians, or Romans of late. Every time China collapsed it reconstituted itself on the same model. Foreign invaders became emperors and found there was only one way to run the place. So they assimilated and Chinese civilization prevailed.
What is being outlined here is called “peasant mentality”. “I wake up, I go to work; the sun goes down, I go to bed. What difference does it make who’s in charge in the city?”
Meritocracy based civilizations are often very stable, but shot full with corruption
Chinese people have opinions and feelings in about the same degree as Americans.
China is very ... Chinese.
China is reopen for business.
US politicians merely hop around like rabbits.
Chinese parents believe their children should excel.
Chinese children try hard not to disappoint.
Chinese people certainly do have opinions and they will readily express them to and among people they trust. Opinions are often critical of the state. Probably few if any Chinese have ever run a Little League team, but many do run private organizations (which are fine as long as they do not challenge state authority). No question that China is an authoritarian state, but I think it’s good to stay real about these things and avoid exaggerated claims.
I Like Chinese
Monty Python
The world today seems absolutely crackers
With nuclear bombs to blow us all sky high
There’s fools and idiots sitting on the trigger
It’s depressing, and it’s senseless, and that’s why
I like Chinese
I like Chinese
They only come up to your knees
Yet they’re always friendly and they’re ready to to please
I like Chinese
I like Chinese
There’s nine hundred million of them in the world today
You’d better learn to like them, that’s what I say
I like Chinese
I like Chinese
They come from a long way overseas
But they’re cute, and they’re cuddly, and they’re ready to please
I like Chinese food
The waiters never are rude
Think the many things they’ve done to impress
There’s maoism, taoism, I Ching and chess
So I like Chinese
I like Chinese
I like their tiny little trees
Their zen, their ping-pong, their ying and yang-eze
I like Chinese thought
The wisdom that Confusious taught
If Darwin is anything to shout about
The Chinese will survive us all without any doubt
So, I like Chinese
I like Chinese
They only come up to your knees
Yet they’re wise, and they’re witty, and they’re ready to please
All together now
*singing in Chinese*
I like Chinese
I like Chinese
Their food is guaranteed to please
A fourteen, a seven, a nine and lychees
I like Chinese
I like Chinese
I like their tiny little trees
Their zen, their ping-pong, their yin and yang-eze
I like Chinese
LBJ’s Best and Brightest failed miserably.
“China crushed the COVID-19 pandemic (no, it’s not fake news) while we’re still trying to figure out what to do about it.”
I’ve been reading little Oswald for a quarter century and he’s never made sense.
In terms of anything.
Here he doesn’t even understand his own premise.
“China crushed the COVID-19 pandemic (no, it’s not fake news)...”
Not fake news he assures us, but how can he know that?
The entire premise of his article is that there is no free speech in China. No one can have an opinion.
How can he possibly know?
I cant tell you how many ethnic Chinese immigrants I know (many who should know better - from Hong Kong and Singapore) who think just like this. They think Trump's bombastic manner and rude Tweets are far worse than anything Xi does, because Xi is part of the established order and represents the collective will of the elite, while Trump is someone who would never have been allowed to come to power under a Confucian system.
They are all voting for Biden - even against their economic interests. Their minds just cannot handle the disconnect between how Trump speaks, and how they think a leader should speak.
There are only two ways China will surpass the West and the US.
1. If China becomes a nation based on the principles of natural law
2. If the West and the US devolve into 3rd world totalitarian sh**holes.
Intellectuals who do not receive status and wealth, tend to become revolutionaries. Example: Karl Marx.
The way to preempt that tendency, and thus achieve stability, is to absorb the intellectuals into the system, and let them expend their ambitious tendencies in internal political intrigue, rather than organizing revolutions.
The stable bureaucracy culture lets them plan far in the future without having an election that will completely reverse their plans every four years. Our system is inherently more susceptible and vulnerable to foreign political interference. Our foreign policy can potentially change radically every four years based on elections. The CCP/Chinese bureaucracy culture doesn’t have to worry about this.
Freegards