10-08-2020, 01:16 AM
(10-08-2020, 12:38 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:(10-07-2020, 01:31 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: The contrast is between the cancer of Confucianism and the brilliance
of the US Constitutions, with its system of checks and balances that
prevents things similar to the "Great Leap Forward" in America. I
used the word "Democracy" because the Chinese Communists themselves
use the word democracy as the ideological evil whose only purpose is
to destroy the CCP -- i.e., Chinese Confucianism. But there are so
many destructive things about Chinese Confucianism that a better
contrast will have to be found. What I need is a word that captures
the essence of the Constitution's system of checks and balances as a
contrast to Confucianism. The word "democracy" is close, but not
quite right.
I do agree that the US Constitution has been a big success. It's been great at maintaining continuity through generational crises, which is pretty impressive.
It will get us through the Trump maladministration and the COVID-19 plague.
Quote:Thus far it has only been tested in the gunpowder age, though. We'll see how things go in the nuclear weapons age. My biggest fear is that the stable form of government in the nuclear weapons age may be that of North Korea.
Can our Constitution survive a nuclear exchange? Probably not. What doesn't get nuked will be splintered into city states in the intrestices of the carnage and in larger areas (let us say northern Wisconsin) that have no obvious targets. In the aftermath few will know the present as they know the past. The industrial basis of a modern society will have to be restarted from scratch. Some of those city states will become liberal republics and some will have various forms of despotism.
Quote:Arguing that the CCP is terrible because of Confucianism seems ironic to me, since Mao persecuted Confucians. The CCP is more aligned with Legalism, which is the other major philosophical influence on Chinese history. I would however agree that Confucianism did leave China vulnerable to external invasion at times.
It is difficult to escape the ancient heritage even if one disparages it.
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.
