(05-04-2020, 03:52 PM)David Horn Wrote:(05-04-2020, 11:58 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(05-04-2020, 10:20 AM)David Horn Wrote: Most conservatives are part of the 'Live free or die' crowd. That's an individualist position. What the Koreans did was about as communitarian as it gets. I haven't seen any of the Progressives out in the streets demanding that the rules be dropped so they can do as they please. I've seen plenty from the right, though.
Like you said, the South Koreans were better prepared and more experienced than us and their culture as a whole is probably more strict and less wishy washy and less concerned about peoples feelings. I saw a bunch of them sitting in seats and wearing their masks while watching a world figure skating event in Soul during a pandemic just before things went nuts over here. So, why aren't we watching baseball right now? Aren't there enough masks yet? Don't we have enough factories to manufacture enough masks HERE or don't we have enough manufactured materials HERE to manufacture them either? What's up, where did our manufacturing go? I haven't been to a Twins baseball game for over twenty years. The last time that I went to a game, I watched a Twins pitcher throw a no hitter. How do you top that? You probably don't, so you stop going to games and watch them play ball at home instead.
Masks aren't enough if the prevalence of the disease is too high for protection, and we let it get there. Also, note: Asians tend to wear masks if they are ill, regardless of the background state of affairs. When I was stationed in Japan over 50 years ago, mask wearing was no less common than it is today. Asian societies tend to be communitarian by long-held custom. That's not the case here.
Maybe we Americans will start acting more like the Japanese and South Koreans (not to mention Chinese-Americans). In many respects that would be an improvement. Let's start with better schooling, less crime and personal violence, more attachment to classical music, greater artistic achievement... If our politics were more rational we would never have Donald Trump even getting close to being President. Irrational thought feeds unreason such as Donald Trump in political life.
It may be simplistic, but if I am to describe the difference between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean art... Chinese art seems baroque, Japanese art Impressionist, and Korean art fauvist. Not bad!
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.