Posted on 12/03/2001 1:48:46 PM PST by Enemy Of The State
The Bible and Nostradamus
The things said most confidently by advanced persons to crowded audiences are generally those quite opposite to the fact; it is actually our truisms that are untrue. Here is a case. There is a phrase of facile liberality uttered again and again at ethical societies and parliaments of religion: but they are the same in what they teach." It is false; it is the opposite of the fact. The religions of the earth do not greatly differ in rites and forms; they do greatly differ in what they teach. It is as if a man were to say, "Do not be misled by the fact that the Church Times and the Freethinker look utterly different, that one is painted on vellum and the other carved on marble, that one is triangular and the other hectagonal; read them and you will see that they say the same thing." The truth is, of course, that they are alike in everything except in the fact that they don't say the same thing. An atheist stockbroker in Surbiton looks exactly like a Swedenborgian stockbroker in Wimbledon. You may walk round and round them and subject them to the most personal and offensive study without seeing anything Swedenborgian in the hat or anything particularly godless in the umbrella. It is exactly in their souls that they are divided. So the truth is that the difficulty of all the creeds of the earth is not as alleged in this cheap maxim: that they agree in meaning, but differ in machinery. It is exactly the opposite. They agree in machinery; almost every great religion on earth works with the same external methods, with priests, scriptures, altars, sworn brotherhoods, special feasts. They agree in the mode of teaching; what they differ about is the thing to be taught. Pagan optimists and Eastern pessimists would both have temples, just as Liberals and Tories would both have newspapers. Creeds that exist to destroy each other both have scriptures, just as armies that exist to destroy each other both have guns. The great example of this alleged identity of all human religions is the alleged spiritual identity of Buddhism and Christianity. Those who adopt this theory generally avoid the ethics of most other creeds, except, indeed, Confucianism which they like because it is not a creed. |
The Western Energy that Dethrones Tyrants
(Strangely enough, no mention of the "saving graces of Western Materialism" all the rage among the New Physics, New Age, New Order sorts these days.)
HEGEMON: Confucianist on the Outside, Legalist on the Inside
Further to: After Liberalism: What if Confucianism Becomes the Hegemonic Ethic of the Twenty-first Century?
How is the government in China any more "without legitimacy" today than it was under Mao? Or Deng? Or any of the other gangsters who have run it in the last 50 years?
Whenever there is any serious civilian revolt, both the leading power factions unite to squash them unmericifully. The tianemen revolt, then the falung gong movement show that.
Just the falun gong have (estimated) 150 million adherents and they are completely buffaloed, almost helpless to do anything but meet in secret now.
It would take a leading general to completely seize power in some province, and to be prepared to use full military force to stay in power in that region to even get it established-as to any "freedom" movement. That takes almost his entire officer corps to be in on it, and that's not likely to happen. The people themselves really can't do much, we've seen reports of mass riots involving thousands, they always get massacred, as soldiers follow orders, the orders they get are "waste 'em".
Nope, I think it's unlikely at this time.
As to "communism collapsing" in the soviet union, it's a scam, it was planned as a scam. They never really had communism, all they really ever had was fascism, and mostly it's the same old bozos still in charge. they claim poverty and are rolling out the road mobile topol m's as fast as possible. they claimed to adhere to the anti-biowarfare treaty and secretly had entire factory complexes turning out thousands of gallons. they still continue to dig in underground cities in the urals and elsewhere, and stockpile them for years underground. They still are arming all the regimes they used to arm. Putin recently took SLAVES from kim il dungeater in north korea as a payment for some jazz they bought.
I'ver seen all kinza folks say "look, they have their own islamic problems", double phooie, if they were having a "problem" to the extent that they claim and some believe, they wouldn't be selling advanced MISSILES and the tooling to make them to the islamics, would they? Or nuke tech to them either, but they are.
Sometime in the future (this decade probably) china and russia will zap the west. China wants to go west, scratch that NEEDS to go west for more oil and fresh water and arable land, russia wants europe, and they want the US neutralised at some point. Maybe not totally destroyed, just so neutralised as to never be a threat to them ever again. They will temporarily combine forces to pull this off, and then sort out their differences later. A temporary alliance of convenience. Both of them are sucking the west for all they can get right now. all these western businessmen investing into china are going to wake up with their assets nationalised, and with half the money they invested turned into a military advantage, assymetrically. China and russia both are creating the younger generation into ruthless predators. russia is using chechnya to build a blooded officer corps. they cut the size of their standing army two years ago, and at the same time they institutited total miliotia training for 15 year olds. they cut their land army budget to one third, and now have a land army potential 5 times bigger. China promotes aggression constantly, all their pronouncements and propoganda are telling their people they deserve more, and it's the wests fault they don't have it, and that they should get strong and go long to defeat the west. The latest most popular video in china, the wtc attacks, serious clueski there. Like- rhetorically speaking- what about this is hard to understand? It's not all domestic consumption, they are ruthless dictators, they fully intend to not only stay in power but expand. They will give japan one choice, 'with us, you'll be the big trading partner now and maybe we'll give you some oil" or be nuked into oblivion". They will tell india to stay neutral or the same thing. Russia and china both will tell india and japan that simultaneously, after the first salvos hit, and the first secreted backpacks go off. I just will not swallow what the chinese leadership or russian leadership say publically in english for the western press consumtion or what our "leaders" say publically, when the actions say otherwise, and all the actions are pointing toweards a war of agression sometime soon. The technique is age old, it's called "feign weakness" and also "feign friendship", then WHAMMO, cold cock, or as the cold warriors used to say a "a devastating first strike".
Sounds like Buruma believes the communists have lost the Mandate of Heaven.
well, simply put...Its not! How is it that the Taliban Can take over Afghanistan and the UN refuses to see them as the ruling body of the Afghan people but the Communists took over China (similar situation, different culture) but the UN and the rest of the world refuses to recognise the nationalist party as the Official Government of the Chinese people? Im not sure if I got my thought worded clearly and correctly but I hope you get idea of my question...
To be honest, your title put me more in mind of this pithy little post: The Specifics of Perestroika in China
Reading you loud and clear, myself.
All true in the UN's universe.
well, simply put...Its not!
Right. And going back to the original idea, we see how they act in a crisis. They massacre civilians like in 1989 or they jail and torture like with the Falun Gong in the past couple years.
People are starting to realize that they were never legit in the first place...
But the shift toward a market economy and the collapse of European communism have exposed the ideology as bankrupt. China today is simply an authoritarian government with no ideological basis other than it sort of works.
China has no democratic tradition. Historically, China was governed by an Imperial system with Confucian regional and local administrators. When the Empire disintegrated, regional warlords and mandarins took over. Unless a bold reformer is given power in Beijing, I fear the transition from the present government could involve another warlord era.
The danger for the US is that the present regime may resort to nationalism and war to try to confer legitimacy and hold onto power. That's bad news for Taiwan, S.E. Asia and Japan.
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