X-Message-Number: 16146
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 05:58:32 -0400
From: James Swayze <>
Subject: The China vs Bush issue
References: <>


What Bush said was stupid one for tipping our hand as to our resolve (always 
keep the other side guessing) and two for not understanding the Asian psyche. 
First of all Taiwan belongs to China. What right have we to interfere? Would we 
appreciate China helping out Hawaii to secede? Old Cold War mentalities got us 
involved when Taiwan rebelled in 1949. I think our

paradigm has shifted and if not it should. Nukes or threat of might or old Cold 
War tricks won't bring China out of communism but Coca-Cola will. Business with 
China will go further to coerce them to democracy and free enterprise than bull 
headed antagonism ever will. As the younger generations through global 
communication get a taste of the western lifestyle and

freedoms that free enterprise and democracy allow old ways will die. Communism 
needn't be feared, it is doomed to fail of it's own built in faults. By not 
allowing the individual to profit from their own efforts it breeds apathy and 
stagnation. It was always doomed to fail. Communism took hold of China and has 
held out so long only because it fit nicely into the

Tao based mentality of China which has defined the country for thousands of 
years. Anyone that understands China will recognize that adopting communism, for
the Chinese was merely a matter of semantics.


China was always Communistic if you think about it. The common people were 
always pigeon holed into mostly dictated choices of occupations. A few elites 
ran the country. The Taoist thought holds that you are what you are born to and 
there's no sense wasting time and energy to change that. In communism you are 
what the state tells you to be and an individual's

efforts to do differently won't change it. In other words in both systems the 
individual cannot rise above their station through self improvement, invention 
and enterprise. This breeds apathy. China invented most of the marvels that 
transformed the west long before the west ever discovered them but the Taoist 
way prevented the Chinese from really profiting from

them. They invented rockets and might have took us to the stars long ago but 
they never saw them as useful for much more than celebratory use even though 
they did get some small use in war. The west used invention to alter the world 
the Taoist Chinese didn't believe the world alterable.


Xenophobic distrust also defines China and so does the Asian concept of respect 
and loss of face. Bush acts like he knows nothing about Asia period. Loss of 
face is extremely important and worth going to war over in the Asian mentality. 
However, merely a subtle rearrangement of semantics can alleviate the feeling of
disrespect. The Chinese understand more than

anyone the need for both parties to save face and will always be willing to 
accept subtleties of semantics and actions that afford both respect and 
avoidance of escalation. What was done over the spy plane, apologizing for the 
pilot's loss of life but not apologizing for the plane being in what they 
perceive as their airspace (irritating their xenophobic

propensity for mistrust), was exactly this dance of mutual face saving 
semantics. Then the idiot Bush comes back IMMEDIATELY with a remark that 
invalidates that effort. This was colossal stupidity and extreme ignorance of 
Asian ways.


This is not about facing down a bully. This is about getting widely different 
cultures to understand and respect and trust each other. We suffer from 
communism myopia. In other words we've been propagandized so deeply into 
thinking it's straight from hell so much we fail to see the true nature of it 
from the perception of the other side. Communism is lousy, no

doubt about it, but I hardly think China with it's xenophobia and lingering 
Taoist nature is even in the least interested in evangelizing America into 
becoming communist. Be real!


We should be promoting trade with China with the long view that it will infect 
them with the democracy bug. Instead we've got diehard Cold Warists lamenting 
the bad ole days and focusing on a pebble called Taiwan. Let them have Taiwan. 
Who cares?! The big picture is the mainland. More flies with honey right?


What liberal press? The press is no different than anyone else. Greed runs the 
world. It's stronger than ideology. No press person is going to sit on a story 
and get scooped by a competitor. Stories are the currency of the press. They 
want to sell to the widest possible market so slanting that alienates a portion 
or the market is counter conducive to reaching the

widest possible market. Sure press people are human and will let their beliefs 
influence what they write but how different is that from the reader that will 
see through their own paradigm their own interpretation of what is presented? 
The article I linked was mostly quotes so I hardly see how quoting the 
principles involved is slanting the article with liberalism.


Lastly, readers of cryonet should keep in mind that Bush opposes technologies 
that we need to achieve our main goal. I believe that main goal is immortality 
whether it be through cryonics or ANY other means. For this reason, to me, Shrub
and his ilk ARE the enemy plain and simple regardless of which ideology anyone 
happens to identify with.

James
--
Some of our views are spacious
some are merely space--RUSH

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16146