TJ, I see several faults in your thinking and in the writings you provided.
But there are some good ideas too - such as it would be nice if people would spend less effort attacking other people and taking them over rather than looking inward and fixing up and enhancing the self.
Unfortunately, Taiwan, Okinawa, and everywhere else, reached their current states because, forever, kill or be killed, conquer or be conquered, was how chimps and tribal gangs of people had to behave. That was because people had swarms of babies and had to do so to hold the line against people in neighbouring tribes. But that meant they ran out of their own resources. So they gave their young men sticks, stones, swords, spears, onagers and rifles and told them to go get those bastards on the other side of the river, mountain, or around the other side of the island.
People have been in transition over the last few hundred years to co-operative tribes. But we're not there yet.
Unfortunately, people are now armed with atomic bombs, hypersonics, gain of function genomes, chemistry by the nano particle and too many are inclined to atavistic ideologies. Such as "We the Chinese" need to take over here and there. Such as PNAC [project for the new American century]. Such as Islamic jihad "All must submit and point their upraised bums away from Mecca". Such as ... swarms of such thinking.
Let's start with your definition of "Chinese". A scary concept. I've had more than a bit to do with "Chinese" and of course have excellent opinions about such ideas. Mein Kampf might be useful to you in such thinking. {wait wait wait Mq, that's going full Godwin's law Master Race, and you haven't even made your case}.
Back on track...
I've watched Kim the Fatter's wildly gleefully enthusiastic crowds smiling and clapping like crazy. I wouldn't want to be the last one to start clapping and jumping up and down, or the first to stop. For some reason, the human clones in Mainland China remind me of Kim the Fatter's crowds though much more demure. Saddam Hussein's cabinet members sitting around the table, backs rigidly straight, hands resting passively on the table were similar. He would take people out and shoot them with little provocation, or maybe none at all if things had got a bit boring, just to ensure all knew who was boss. Uday took it to another level of self-indulgent hedonistic cruelty.
While legions of rigidly marching rows of soldiers marching by the thousand to uplifting music is great to watch, impressive and demonstrative, it's not what makes life great. Inventing CDMA, Google, Teslas, steel mills, and the vast accoutrements of modern life is what makes life great, provided private property rights including the self are underpinned to stop megalomaniacs doing what they do. Virtuous Victorian Values are what make life great. Having a civilized state with rule by law and force is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Maximum degrees of freedom enable a million flowers to bloom, and nowadays a billion.
Once we start going back in history to right wrongs, it's like Pacal's triangle = doubles doubles and doubles again until it's an impossible shambles. Because we can't undo what happened.
Where to from here is the only way to think that won't just load more horrors onto bygone terror.
Okinawa for example since you raised it. One of my mother's cousins, Harper Bongard, died in a prisoner of war camp in Japan. New Zealand's oldest man [107] survived 3 years in such a camp, barely [reported in the Herald today or maybe it was yesterday]. One of my uncles would have nothing to do with Japan and would buy nothing from Japan [Harper's cousin Jim Kirk who spent a few years in a German prisoner of war camp after being captured in North Africa].
USA conquered Japan and now occupies Okinawa, along with swarms of surviving Japanese [who didn't die in WWII], along with our Japanese 'son' who is a manager for a brewing company there and whose daughter attends school in Auckland.
Taiwan has a lot of history, including local yokels who were there before the losers in the China civil war took over.
I don't see why Beijing's bosses in China should take over Taiwan, or Okinawa, or Hong Kong, or Tibet. Being "Chinese" in part, depending on your definition, isn't enough for my liking. It's not as though Chinese in those places are badly treated [other than by Beijing's bosses in the case of Hong Kong if they get uppity and start saying things that Beijing's bosses disapprove of}. I'm Chinese [or half so, or something depending on your definition, and a couple of my grandsons are more so and son in law more so again]. You'll find such definitions get really squirrelly really fast.
Paperwork from the 19th century [such as the Hong Kong lease which was hardly a happy agreement] isn't really a good basis for deciding life in the 21st century. Same as USSR paperwork regarding Crimea isn't a good basis for Crimeans when USSR collapsed and signatures were hurriedly affixed to new states.
40,000 tons of dead Ukrainians has been a horrific negotiation on where to from when Nuland, Obama, Hunter, and BigGuy10% got the Kiev coup going. Not only did the Kievans lose, they lost bigly and continue to do so. Odessa is now likely to revert to Russia and Ukraine be subdivided further to the west.
China's marching and threats and lust for conquest has been seen before. I refer again to Godwin's law. During Jiang Zemin's drive by of the crowds during the 50th celebrations it reminded me of the Nuremberg rallies [I can't help what things remind me of]. He would call something like "Sieg Heil" in Chinese, and the crowd would call back "Gung ho". It did look funny him being driven around in the open limousine like any garden variety dictator.
Maybe some gold was stolen from China and carted off to Taiwan by Chiang's team. No doubt some sorts of rules were broken. No doubt there was murdering in Okinawa. But here we are.
I grant you that democracy is hardly perfection, with people voting to take opm and enslave people they deem less worthy [such as Negroes in USA back in the day], like 2 wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. While Mao's dictum that power grows out of the barrel of a gun is kind of true, the power that matters grows out of Virtuous Victorian Values, such as learning, inventing, working, saving, investing with private property rights and maximum degrees of freedom. Economic power enables the military and police force to protect the economic activity.
The way to resolve these things is via voting. If Okinawans want to swap to being part of China, or be independent, they could hold a Brexit vote, Scottish independence referendum, Quebec poll. New Zealand gradually became independent from Great Britain, starting in the 19th century. We never had a civil war. I recommend not fighting and killing. Maybe NZ will vote to join China even though most people aren't Chinese here. It would be a nice province. We could do with some of the VVVs of China where criminals are dealt with effectively and welfare isn't the norm. Maybe Singapore could take over. Or The Federation of Tradable Citizenship States could rule. Or Taiwan could take over China with the backing of 6 billion people who were not Made in China. A blockade of China would be economically destructive. Japan's Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere suffered such a blockade which led to vast carnage, with nuclear war the end result.
It is not yet the End of History.
Maybe we'll have a vast nuclear war with resulting systems collapse in the places not fried, with famine by the billion. Starting again with only 100 million people worldwide would give a clean slate. Fish stocks would replenish quickly. There would be lots of vacant land.
Thousands of megatons are ready to go.
Marching and shouting with stirring music looks good before the carnage begins. It's not so good afterwards. People start saying "Never again", "Lest We Forget" ... which they soon forget.
While they were holding WWI centennial "Lest We Forget" gatherings, WWIII was gearing up in Ukraine and is now full blown. USA and UK and Nazi descendants are losing. They should not have tried to kick Russia out of Crimea and jammed NATO right up to Moscow. See 1812 Overture. They should have offered Russia NATO and Eurostan membership, or friendly associate. But war is profitable for too many in USA so that was unattractive.
40,000 tons of dead Ukrainians is a lot. But imagine a million tons of dead people in China. Hang on... 1,000 million x 70 kg = 70 million tons assuming 300 million survive which is unlikely.
Playing chicken over Taiwan might seem like a good idea.
We haven't seen the final outcome of Eurostan/USA at war with Russia, but Russia and Putin have thrown the steering wheel out the window so in that game of chicken, the USA might chicken out. But maybe not. They are quite MAD as in mutual assured destruction.
I bet there have been many discussions and planning meetings in USA for atomic bombs to force Russia to surrender. I guess Russia's warnings and their history of resistance against Germany, Napoleon will give pause.
Merry Xmas. I do favour the Christian concepts of co-operative people rather than conquest and murder.
Mqurice |
