Yes, I know China’s under-dog syndrome but how can they blame all their sufferings on the Western world (especially the US) when all the sufferings since 1949 are responsible by the Communist?
I don't know that any of us can handle more than a certain amount of guilt earned or unearned. We all humanly look for scapegoats.
The Communists are not about to take wholescale responsibility for 68 million deaths (BTW, what's the ref or even a general/nonspecific level source for that figure?). To do so, they realize, they'd have to surrender power. And they are NOT ABOUT TO DO THAT!
We have seen how the evil duo Dillbo and Shrillery Hellery have refused to give up any more power than absolutely forced to. Certainly the bulk of the senior Party leaders are AT LEAST as bad. There are some encouraging stories of others which should remain private.
I've told this multiple times so hope I'm not boring you with a repeat.
13+ years ago, a student agreed to teach me the half game of Chinese Chess. As we play in the cafeteria, another student will come up. I think--OH, GOOD--I'm the beginner, they have played all their lives--the new comer will help me.
WRONG!
So, a 3rd student comes up who's played all his life. I think--wonderful--2 against 2.
WRONG!
It would often be 4-6 Chinese college students who've played all their lives against the new comer. [I suppose one good result is that now only about 3-5% of college students can routinely beat me. Though most are unfamiliar with the Peng Hu rules I prefer. Kaoshiung residents--maybe 30% know them].
The solidarity is awesome. One would almost think it's genetic. CHINESE AGAINST THE BARBARIANS FOREVER! seems to be the genetic coding.
There is a HUGE CULTURAL "IN-GROUP/OUT-GROUP" (in Freud's terms) mentality.
The ARROGANCE/PRIDE issue is mixed thoroughly into that. I was often amused to shocked in Mainland China when two very rusty and very scratched bikes would happen to touch one another in the crush of bicycle gridlock/traffic jam. The two riders would be at each other's throats with poles--if available. One would have to look with a big magnifying glass to find the NEW scratch amidst all the others but one's pride/face had been affronted and would be seemingly defended to the death.
I'll go ahead and respond to your FREEMAIL here as I think it does belong, in part.
You talk about the Party etc. and the evils fostered, engendered, foisted on the people, culture, world, country. And you understandably blame many evil leaders for very evil decisions and deeds.
There's truth enough to that.
But there's an insidious deception, to me, in your assumptions that seem to go along with that.
A wonderful psychologist/author by the name of Zimbardo did some ground breaking prisoner/guard experiments years ago.
Over a holiday period of 2 weeks, he randomly assigned volunteer students to be either guards or prisoners. I forget, he may have planned the experiment to go longer than 2 weeks.
Anyway--the students really got into it whether they were guards or students--they quickly took on the mentality of their role. And even when the roles were switched, the former prisoners now guards were at least as ruthless, abusive, awful as the former guards had been.
He had to stop the experiment prematurily in the interest of saving life.
He put it very eloquently in the preface to one of his excellent intro psych texts. I don't know if I can do it justice in paraphrase. He's graciouisly given me permission to repeatedly quote him and I may have it exactly somewhere but no time to find it.
Paraphrase: It's not so terrible if the monsters are over there, out there. There are not too many of them and we can gang up on them or at least collectively protect ourselves. But when the monster is in our mirror, within us--ahhhhh--the terror is maximized and most difficult to eradicate.
As Christians, we know only one God-man achieved victory over death, hell and the grave. Jesus The Christ IS Lord of Lord's and King of Kings.
And His Return to manifest His Kingship is ever closer and gives every evidence of occurring in our lifetime. None too soon.
The evil is in the heart of man. Only The Blood of Jesus can deal with it. And He awaits our permission and cooperation in that process though we are legally perfect on acceptance of His Blood as covering for our sins. . . . confess with your mouth, believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord . . . and you'll be saved Scripture teaches.
But the process of rooting the evil out of the fabric of our being seems to be a life-long process regardless of our legally-perfect-in-Him state upon Salvation/Baptism.
Some of us are further along in that process than others.
A key, to me, is humility.
Some wonderfully humble authentic Christians in Mainland China would have risked their lives for me after Tienanmen. We shared many tears together. True saints one and all.
But it's not natural for mankind to be humble. And it seems VERY ANTITHETICAL to the Chinese psyche, culture, bent.
I don't know if Americans or Chinese as a whole are more arrogant. But certainly the Chinese culture seems to have it more engrained in every cell and fiber to the subatomic level as a national priority akin to national defense or caligraphy in national obsession, pride.
Extended families love to put on the front at Chinese New Year or Mid-Autumn Festival or Tomb Sweeping Day--that all is well and the whole family lives in wonderful Confucian harmony.
But you and I know it's at least as rare as such harmony around an American Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner.
The arrogant competition, infighting, rivalry is rife through the whole family and most every family and certainly the culture. Give such people autocratic Communistic tyrannical power--and the problem only multiplies in intensity and scope. Everyone wants to be top dog and damn the details and the cost whether in yuan, gold or lives.
The charades, manipulations, manoeuvers, strategies, games, dances etc. to achieve top dog status are relentless--whether in a marriage, a family, a neighborhood, city, Provence or nationally. And now a billion people are fed the doctrine that they deserve, it is their right, even their duty to be top dog of the world. They have longed for such a status. They will give it a lot of blood sweat and tears to get there. It's virtually genetic. Spiritually, it is genetic--from the pit.
Only The Blood will solve that. The Blood and The Love of Jesus acted out earnestly by those who call Him Lord is the only hope for any of us and certainly for China and the world.
Jesus teaches us to prefer one another over ourselves but in healthy ways. Jesus teaches us to lay our lives down for one another. Jesus teaches us that truth IN LOVE are paragon priorities.
AND, by His Spirit, He enables us increasingly--WITH OUR PERSISTENT COOPERATION--to demonstrate such.
Mercifully, the authentic believers of China will have the most powerful and most lasting impact on China and the world. Already their prayers are having great impacts on the USA and the world. I shudder to think what might have already transpired otherwise.
There are prophecies of further such great impacts when China invades the Western USA. We shall see.
Also, it is wise to keep in mind that satan is not God's opposite equal force. He's merely a useful gnat or less from God's perspective. God may use China to discipline the USA for forsaking so wholesale so many of God's priorities as well as a relationship with Him. And, certainly, if China attempts to invade Israel as some believe Scriptures predict--then China will suffer more than ever--very sadly.
But as I told the party leaders so eager to support THE RULE OF LAW--Scripture tells us that the letter of the law kills--only The Spirit brings Life.
We do well to keep such in mind. Law on it's own is merely polished tyranny. Law without The Spirit and balance and heart is also deadly.
YES! The Rule of Law is better than the rule of might makes right or the most clever and manipulative make right or mob rule makes right or the religion of science makes right or the inauthentic religion of Christianity [vs the Spiritual relationship with Chrsit following HIS Wisdom and Way] makes right.
But The Rule of Law in and of itself apart from Holy Spirit will not solve the problem of evil in the heart of every individual. As we saw with Dillbo and Shrillery Hellery Antoinette de Fosterizer de Marx de Sade--clever people manipulate laws to deadly effect almost as easyily as breathing.
As one of our founding fathers noted--our form of government would not work apart from the Biblical substrate of people earnestly seeking to follow it's precepts. As that substrate has been so fractured and eroded by the Communist's planned and well executed assaults the last 50 years, we are beginning to see the wisdom of that assertion.
I gather you are in HK.
Certainly a dramatic place to be alive in these days. I love HK and miss my visits there much.
Someone I'm easily learning to love wrote this wonderful piece of wisdom:
You never know what living under a tyrany is like until you do. As usual, it is always too late to fight a tyrany when you finally do. Tyrants do not rely on a lot of supporters, they just need the silent majority that never make their voice heard.
Yes, not everyone is a freedom fighter. And there's always someone willing to fight for you But, at least, make yourself someone worth fighting for. How much freedom that a man deserves is judged by his willingness to fight for it.
VERY WELL SAID. THANKS.
But Communist China is not the hub of all evil. We could say that satan is. But it's human hearts wherein that hub reaches out to try and throw sand in God's eyes through. Satan is a destroyer, lier, killer, thief. He seeks only to rob, kill and destroy.
Whenever anyone fails to live and walk and relate in God's Love, truth, peace, hope--abundant Resurrection life--then satan achieves his goal of assailing God's favorite creation. He's still vengeful over being kicked out of Heaven and knows his evil days are numbered before he's locked up for good.
In that state, he's determined to cause the maximum grief for the maximum souls that he can. Those complicit in such evil will bear their own recompense.
The rest of us may be in for vary-ing levels of expensive tuition in the school of hard knocks.
Personally, I pray China has less than she seems scheduled for. She's had enough already. But, as Scripture says, pride goes before a fall.
And as a culture, humility is not the first word commonly associated with China. . . . nor sadly with the USA.
Thanks for your work in behalf of freedom.
Blessings,
Sorry I forgot this in your #54, it should be 65 million. Reference: The Black Book of Communism (Harvard University Press), excerpt:
http://home.att.net/~genocides/bbc.htm
U.S.S.R.: 20 million deaths; China: 65 million deaths; Vietnam: 1 million deaths; North Korea: 2 million deaths; Cambodia: 2 million deaths; Eastern Europe: 1 million deaths; Latin America: 150,000 deaths; Africa: 1.7 million deaths; Afghanistan: 1.5 million deaths; International Communist parties not in power: about 10,000 deaths; The total approaches 100 million people killed.
Communist China is responsible for 2/3 of the total killings. Mao made Stalin and Hitler look like boy scouts.