Jeff J. Brown
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
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 The Great Hall of the People- as delegates begin to take their seats for the nation congress of the Communist Party. |
Illicit sex, pedophilia, drugs, high crimes, corruption, malfeasance, incompetence and cronyism are the venue of the day among the West’s leaders, the occasional Charles de Gaulle and Franklin D. Roosevelt excepted. For millennia, we have been so inured to expect the worst, that we don’t even give it a second thought. I asked my wife to list all the outstanding French kings, she said there was only one who was considered “good” and that was the canonized Saint Louis, who rendered a little justice for the poor against the rich. In reality, the church honored him, as he oversaw the genocide of millions of Muslims and Slavs during the Crusades, and the theft of billions of (in today’s) dollars/euros in stolen booty. Go ahead, try to find a Western royal, aristocrat or oligarch who has broadly served the interests of the poor and the landless. The ones who did got ousted or murdered, like Julius Caesar, who was in reality a populist, as explained by Michael Parenti (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IO_Ldn2H4o&feature=emb_title).
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This Western phenomenon of governance and democracy as a spectacle for entertainment was vividly captured by French philosopher Guy Debord, in his much-cited work, The Society of the Spectacle (1967), which can be read for free in English here (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.htm). For an excellent, illustrated summary, read here (https://hyperallergic.com/313435/an-illustrated-guide-to-guy-debords-the-society-of-the-spectacle/). Mr. Debord then followed it up with a shorter, second work called, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle (1988- http://www.notbored.org/commentaires.html). While not light reading, both are highly recommended, as Debord was way ahead of his time. I strongly suspect that the Wachowski Brothers read him before they made The Matrix movies (https://mitvisualarts2014.wordpress.com/body-extension/euipoom-yoon/week-7/).
Contrast this to Chinese governance and leadership, which for millennia have been founded on merit, competence and practical experience. Care and concern for the masses and have-nots have always been the first rule of order for Chinese leaders. The West counts citizen-centered leaders on one hand. China counts its bad leaders with the other one. You sure are not going to see Chinese leaders at any level waving a flyswatter to mock an opponent. Governance is considered serious work, whether you are a village leader or the president of the country, like Xi Jinping.
As I have explained in great and interesting detail in The China Trilogy (see below), the Chinese have had much more consensual and participatory democracy than the West has ever had, especially since their communist-socialist liberation in 1949 (https://chinarising.puntopress.com/search/?q=democracy). I know this flies (pardon the pun) in the face of everything you’ve been taught since birth, but after living and working there for 16 years, I can tell you it’s true.
For most of China’s history, leaders have tended to be people-centered, competent and well-seasoned, often coming up through the ranks of one of the world’s most brutal meritocracies, more so since 1949.
Want more proof? Below, is a short book review of millennia of Chinese writings, which explain the bottom line for Chinese leaders and how they are expected to do the right thing for the broad majority of the masses. It is called The Governing Principles of Ancient China,
You can download the PDF file at the end of the above article/podcast. It’s an easy book to read and since there are 365 short passages for each day of the year, it can be digested over a period of time. This kind of Leadership Handbook is a utopian pipe dream for Eurangloland’s citizens. They’ve never had the pleasure to live it.
The West’s carnival barking, three-ring circus, huckster “democracy” is truly entertainment at its best and Donald Trump’s over-the-top Twitter presidency has taken it to new heights of mirth and enjoyment. Why watch TV or go to the movies? Just follow the 24/7 propaganda cycle. While it’s great for popcorn sales and good fun for the citizenry, it lulls them into believing they really have a choice and are represented by their governments. That was somewhat true for Whites during the 1930s-1970s and Blacks in the 1950s-1970s, but what little they got was all clawed back starting in the 1980s, and now with no end in sight, the oligarchs are digging deep into societal flesh. As hard as it is to confront the ugly truth, the Covid plandemic is their last gasp lunge to take what we have left and it fits their historical modus operandi (https://chinarising.puntopress.com/2020/09/10/im-going-to-be-as-popular-as-the-plague-for-this-very-unwanted-report-pardon-the-pun-covid-is-no-more-dangerous-than-the-seasonal-flu-the-statistics-tell-the-truth-then-why-the-p/).
For 3,000 years, Western governance has been aristocratic, plutocratic and there to serve and enrich the 1%, with breadcrumbs and table scraps for the masses, just long enough to stave off meaningful, bottom-up revolution. There are even words for it. Kakocracy is rule by the worst, most despicable of the people – called kakocrats – who lord over their suffering, exploited and oppressed subjects in a kakistocracy.
That perfectly sums up Western governance for the last 3,000 years.
Meanwhile, communist-socialist China continues to prove itself to have one of the most resilient, consensual, participatory democracies on Earth, where the wants, needs and dreams of the 99% are the #1 expectation among the leadership. These kinds of public aspirations go back millennia.
Given all this, is it any wonder that China keeps pulling further and further ahead of the West? Over time, isn’t taking care of the 99% going to win out over endlessly enriching the 1%?
By the way, I’ve got a flyswatter I’ll sell you for on $5…
JEFF J. BROWN, Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China - The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising - Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and for Badak Merah, Jeff authored China Is Communist, Dammit! – Dawn of the Red Dynasty (2017).
Jeff can be reached at China Rising, jeff@brownlanglois.com, Facebook, Twitter and Wechat/Whatsapp: +86-13823544196.
• For Jeff J Brown’s Books, Radio Sinoland & social media outlets be sure to check this page on his special blog CHINA RISING RADIO SINOLAND
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