Good post Mark. Very important to recognize that China, as well as India and Russia, have different educational systems than in the West. While the West no longer actively brings up “elites” to take their places in business and governance, and has no systems in place to identify youth and put them on such a track, China does. We denigrate their social credit system, but that is a way to identify potential elites and put them into the high end education places and career tracks.
The official party school is an example of this. They attempt to understand the places they interact with. China, India and Russia are very serious about developing elites for the coming generations. We are not.
Imagine 25 years from now when young people in the US/West are looking to people outside of the West/US as elites guiding the world. This is what we are facing. While China has adjusted its system for the Digital paradigm and implements this from top down, the West dithers.
The Digital paradigm (see the Trump appointees outside of finance/economics) is destroying what came before…the challenge is to think forward 30 years, which we were not doing 30 years ago, and to then plan for that world: A world of ubiquitous digital tech on steroids: robots and AI. Other places are working towards this. We are not.
We will know that we have changed our ways when places like G’Town’s foreign service school throws out what they have been doing and approaches diplomacy from a humans as spiritual/religious beings, rather than as beings that can be manipulated.
China attempts to met people on their ground. We do not.
Not saying that they are getting it “right” but that they are doing it very differently from how the West views humans. We could learn a lot from their approach, which we could then combine with our pre-modern western cultural history and traditions, which as very focused on humans as ensouled persons. That would get us back to a leadership position in the world.
I didn't find this any more insightful than Goldman's usual ex-Larouchie ideological ramblings. It's full of basic misinformation. He makes a big deal of language diversity in China, but how can anyone discuss that reality but ignore the civilizational unity of the writing system--not a single reference to that great unifying fact? Only a Goldman could pull that off, while peppering his screed with idiocies such as that Mandarin and Cantonese are as different as French and Finnish--the various Chinese languages are, in fact, deeply related, while French and Finnish belong to entirely different families of languages.
He's no better on Chinese history--barely acknowledging the long periods of centrifugal disunity while crucially dismissing what he fails to understand, the deep forces of unity in the common Chinese civilization and religion:
Instead, he laughably interprets a great civilization as no more than a crime family, providing a bare veneer of "profundity" with his usual references to Hegel and use of a smattering of German terms--which mostly illustrate his complete lack of depth regarding Western Christendom. It's all a recipe for misunderstanding that plays into the American penchant for simplification
It's also a typically devious ploy by the Zionist Goldman to advance the Anglo-Zionist empire by false portraits of all other poles in a multi-polar world.
Thanks very much, Ray! This is a great synopsis on Chinese history, government, and cultural mores. Goldman does a great job of making it clear.
Your wife's reaction to this certainly helps validate it. It may be a "duh" to her (who I guess is a very intelligent person, anyway) but to a lot of us westerners this is great information to understand about China. I took a semester of Chinese history in college (decades ago) and probably didn't learn any more about the governance and culture of China than is presented here.
I served our country in the Peace Corps after college. It wasn't the military, but it had its share of harrowing incidents and illnesses. One of the things that inspired me at the time was that the formal US government policy was that the Peace Corps would open up markets for trade. This was during the Reagan years. Yes, he had the wisdom to see that and in fact enlarged the Peace Corps during his time in office.
But... the US companies never came. The goodwill that I, and others, earned across Africa went nowhere. The Chinese took our place.
I am not bitter about it, and am grateful for the opportunity to serve; but it did reduce the point of the whole thing.
I'd imagine that, on the Russian side, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-run Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) is still turning out top-quality product to rival the best China has to offer. I did a work-study program in Moscow in the early '90s with law students from both MGIMO and the more-selective/-prestigious Moscow State University (MGU), and the MGIMO kids blew the doors off of the MGU and (my fellow) foreign law candidates when it came to grabbing up the best jobs at top global law firms and multinational corporations. A classical, well-rounded education to which my most-self-impressed undergrad School of Foreign Service could not hold a candle.
I'm sure that's still true--even more so, if anything. That's why I've several times taken issue with Macgregor's assertion that the Russians have no better understanding of US politics than we have of theirs. Nothing, IMO, could be further from the truth.
My guess during the USSR era ideology shaped their understanding and analysis. Now there understanding is probably better than our own intel agencies on U.S. politics, which is shaped by our woke politics.
Im passing this along from the American Conservative.
He echoes some arguments made by Mr. Wauck and fellow commenters. "Yet there are some important differences between today and the early 90s and early 2000s. First, our depleted, DEI-weakened military is not nearly so powerful as it was heading into those conflicts. Second, putting together a coalition like we had back then is highly unlikely. Third, Iran’s large military is more technically sophisticated than Iraq’s ever was..."
Lebanese-based Hezbollah has struck back against alleged Israeli ceasefire violations for the first time since the fragile truce took hold last week, the militant group said on Monday. Hours later, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced airstrikes on dozens of missile launchers and infrastructure in Lebanon.
Israel has conducted daily attacks on Lebanon, starting the day after the ceasefire agreement between the Jewish state and Hezbollah came into force last Wednesday.
"The situation could spiral into a collapse of the temporary peace..." Sounds like this guy is a little slow on the uptake. This "truce" lasted only a little longer than South Korean martial law.
Good post Mark. Very important to recognize that China, as well as India and Russia, have different educational systems than in the West. While the West no longer actively brings up “elites” to take their places in business and governance, and has no systems in place to identify youth and put them on such a track, China does. We denigrate their social credit system, but that is a way to identify potential elites and put them into the high end education places and career tracks.
The official party school is an example of this. They attempt to understand the places they interact with. China, India and Russia are very serious about developing elites for the coming generations. We are not.
Imagine 25 years from now when young people in the US/West are looking to people outside of the West/US as elites guiding the world. This is what we are facing. While China has adjusted its system for the Digital paradigm and implements this from top down, the West dithers.
The Digital paradigm (see the Trump appointees outside of finance/economics) is destroying what came before…the challenge is to think forward 30 years, which we were not doing 30 years ago, and to then plan for that world: A world of ubiquitous digital tech on steroids: robots and AI. Other places are working towards this. We are not.
We will know that we have changed our ways when places like G’Town’s foreign service school throws out what they have been doing and approaches diplomacy from a humans as spiritual/religious beings, rather than as beings that can be manipulated.
China attempts to met people on their ground. We do not.
Not saying that they are getting it “right” but that they are doing it very differently from how the West views humans. We could learn a lot from their approach, which we could then combine with our pre-modern western cultural history and traditions, which as very focused on humans as ensouled persons. That would get us back to a leadership position in the world.
Insightful essay on China:
https://lawliberty.org/china-as-it-is/
My wife’s comment was basically “duh”. She is from Taiwan, so got lots of Chinese history in school.
I didn't find this any more insightful than Goldman's usual ex-Larouchie ideological ramblings. It's full of basic misinformation. He makes a big deal of language diversity in China, but how can anyone discuss that reality but ignore the civilizational unity of the writing system--not a single reference to that great unifying fact? Only a Goldman could pull that off, while peppering his screed with idiocies such as that Mandarin and Cantonese are as different as French and Finnish--the various Chinese languages are, in fact, deeply related, while French and Finnish belong to entirely different families of languages.
He's no better on Chinese history--barely acknowledging the long periods of centrifugal disunity while crucially dismissing what he fails to understand, the deep forces of unity in the common Chinese civilization and religion:
The Rise of the World Religions
https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/rise-of-world-religionshtml
Instead, he laughably interprets a great civilization as no more than a crime family, providing a bare veneer of "profundity" with his usual references to Hegel and use of a smattering of German terms--which mostly illustrate his complete lack of depth regarding Western Christendom. It's all a recipe for misunderstanding that plays into the American penchant for simplification
It's also a typically devious ploy by the Zionist Goldman to advance the Anglo-Zionist empire by false portraits of all other poles in a multi-polar world.
Thanks very much, Ray! This is a great synopsis on Chinese history, government, and cultural mores. Goldman does a great job of making it clear.
Your wife's reaction to this certainly helps validate it. It may be a "duh" to her (who I guess is a very intelligent person, anyway) but to a lot of us westerners this is great information to understand about China. I took a semester of Chinese history in college (decades ago) and probably didn't learn any more about the governance and culture of China than is presented here.
I served our country in the Peace Corps after college. It wasn't the military, but it had its share of harrowing incidents and illnesses. One of the things that inspired me at the time was that the formal US government policy was that the Peace Corps would open up markets for trade. This was during the Reagan years. Yes, he had the wisdom to see that and in fact enlarged the Peace Corps during his time in office.
But... the US companies never came. The goodwill that I, and others, earned across Africa went nowhere. The Chinese took our place.
I am not bitter about it, and am grateful for the opportunity to serve; but it did reduce the point of the whole thing.
I'd imagine that, on the Russian side, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-run Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) is still turning out top-quality product to rival the best China has to offer. I did a work-study program in Moscow in the early '90s with law students from both MGIMO and the more-selective/-prestigious Moscow State University (MGU), and the MGIMO kids blew the doors off of the MGU and (my fellow) foreign law candidates when it came to grabbing up the best jobs at top global law firms and multinational corporations. A classical, well-rounded education to which my most-self-impressed undergrad School of Foreign Service could not hold a candle.
I'm sure that's still true--even more so, if anything. That's why I've several times taken issue with Macgregor's assertion that the Russians have no better understanding of US politics than we have of theirs. Nothing, IMO, could be further from the truth.
My guess during the USSR era ideology shaped their understanding and analysis. Now there understanding is probably better than our own intel agencies on U.S. politics, which is shaped by our woke politics.
Tucker Carlson is back in Moscow to interview one of the worlds consummate diplomats... Sergey Lavrov. Should be a great interview.
Great!
Im passing this along from the American Conservative.
He echoes some arguments made by Mr. Wauck and fellow commenters. "Yet there are some important differences between today and the early 90s and early 2000s. First, our depleted, DEI-weakened military is not nearly so powerful as it was heading into those conflicts. Second, putting together a coalition like we had back then is highly unlikely. Third, Iran’s large military is more technically sophisticated than Iraq’s ever was..."
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tough-diplomacy-not-invasion-is-the-way-forward-with-iran/
I’m sure our diplomats are much better educated on appropriate pronoun usage!
https://www.rt.com/news/608600-israel-hezbollah-ceasefire-cracks/
Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire cracking
Lebanese-based Hezbollah has struck back against alleged Israeli ceasefire violations for the first time since the fragile truce took hold last week, the militant group said on Monday. Hours later, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced airstrikes on dozens of missile launchers and infrastructure in Lebanon.
Israel has conducted daily attacks on Lebanon, starting the day after the ceasefire agreement between the Jewish state and Hezbollah came into force last Wednesday.
"The situation could spiral into a collapse of the temporary peace..." Sounds like this guy is a little slow on the uptake. This "truce" lasted only a little longer than South Korean martial law.