Is China Naturally Authoritarian?
video description
Honestly, I'm weary from having explained what I'm about to get into to so many people but let me see if I can summon up a little extra energy before I turn in for the night and get back to the monotony of a youngish professional in today's America.
Though my parents escaped authoritarianism as exercised by the Communists, they could not entertain the thought that Confucianism had pretty much perfectly molded them from the very beginning into a form of intellectual stupor. Even if they wanted to, they'd find it next to impossible to accept the notion of real freedom.
To be fair, the concept of real freedom is totally alien to almost any person today living in even a vaguely metropolitan environment: Cities draw people in from afar looking to improve their material lot; companies and influential persons also concentrate in those areas in order to best take advantage of influx of new labor; and the masses, unwittingly drink the koolaid of popular narratives of social justice on one hand or make X great again, on the other. Neither one of these catch phrases in America really encapsulate the musings of what I would call a true intellectual: any good intellectual worth his salt would eventually conclude that masses of persons either prefer their ideologies in bite sized form, or must have it presented to them in said sized chunks or else they'd never have any ideology at all. In fact, I'm going to offend more people and declare that philosophies for the masses are generally red herrings. If people really had a clear understanding of their place in the food chain--and if they were suffering, it would set off a revolution.
So, the better solution is to brainwash your populace. Early Chinese rulers latched onto this idea quickly, to their credit. If I was a malevolent leader, I'd probably do the same thing. Step one, back justify your successful and recent overthrow of a previous regime with this notion of a Mandate of Heaven and grind it in your politico-sociological mixing bowl with a few dashes of Confucian garnish. Mix and repeat with a sprinkle of poverty and you get the Chinese mindset.
The Mandate of Heaven should have immediately triggered the thinking person's alarm bells. The theory essentially boils down to this: The ruler that is entitled to rule is the one that rules. If the ruler is deposed, well then--the previous ruler must has lost Heaven's favor and that's why he lost, but why are we talking about him? There's a new guy in town!
It's a complete non-sequitur that frankly, is not needed. One could always arrive at the same result without having to include any hocus-pocus reference to a higher authority. In fact, it could even be seen as to justify an upstart to overthrow a particular regime. Consider if the rebels of the Taiping revolution succeeded? Well, I guess The Empress Dowager lost Heaven's favor!
Unfortunately, a part of me could almost be convinced that much of this may even find traces in CHinese people at the genetic level. Anyone who decided to get too uppity with thought and scrutiny would immediately be given the chop, and to quote the movie Snatch, I'm not talking about his fcking foreskin.
I can tell you that asserting yourself in a Chinese household (at least of the generation I grew up in) would be tantamount to looking down the barrel of a loaded gun. You only spoke back to your elders or even asked questions if you wanted a beating that today place parents behind bars. Intellectual exchange gets halted and moves at a tectonic pace.
I certainly was given plenty of grief for not simply lying down to completely false statement made by family members that had no basis in reality. The fact that so many Chinese succeeded in the sciences is, to me, somewhat of a surprise. Science, we'd like to think, is practiced by those who pursue an objective truth; not just yes-men.
If the Chinese are not just mass bred for authoritarianism, then I can smile widely. I can look with hope to the future that enough of my genetic brethren can say Enough, this is BS, and break out of the mold. But I fear that the apparatus and the apparatchiks themselves will consolidate their power more strongly. There's no mandate, but power does tend to concentrate. But the twist is this: without living like one is an authoritarian state, I wouldn't even recognize such people as Chinese anymore.
Date: 2022-07-15
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Comments and reviews: 9
Mike
Adding to meritocracy, people always argue that the top officials are corrupt and corrupt the lower level officials with them, citing many government officials in crimes. However, I would say it always happen at local government level and slowly moves up the chain. When you are a local government, you are somewhat free to do whatever you do to achieve KPI, with Confucian societal expectation, there is always a notion of taking care of your own people first, whether its village, family, etc. The word GuanXi, meaning relationship also stems from this, I help you and you help me. Thus abuse of power, mismanagement of funs, cover ups all started from local government which the central government has no knowledge about and assume everything is fine, being ignorant and complacent about it. When it reaches a boiling point, there would be public outburst and revolt, which destabilize the nation, imagine it happen in half of the cities in China from ancient times to today.
The lack of supervision over the local government has always been a bane to China throughout history. It happen during the Great Leap Forward and it happens even to this day. The One Child Policy is never about infanticide, its meant discourage babies especially during a time where the agriculture of China is incapable of supporting the population growth, sure, you would be fined heavily for it, but there is no explicit order to kill them from the policy makers. But, its an entire different story with local governments. Village elders, mayors, etc all want to achieve the KPI given to them, so using pressure as collective society, they would pressure the parents to give it away, abandon it or kill the babies. Imagine your village elders, neighbours, relatives, family and friends keep dissing you for being a burden to the society.
There is a reason why CCP is tough on corruption these 2 decades, especially the local levels. Because if unnoticed, it will festered at a local level, causing bad public sentiment which CCP relies on to maintain legitimacy, corruption was rampant after Deng brought changes open up the market, in the pursuit of sky high growth, they turn a blind eye to corruption and bribery. This reach a point where the public sentiment is bad enough to hinder progress and threaten to destabilize the regime. Hence upon Xi's appointment, he take out the corrupted officials which added to his achievements in the local's view of his administration, conveniently taking out his political opponents in the process
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Adding to meritocracy, people always argue that the top officials are corrupt and corrupt the lower level officials with them, citing many government officials in crimes. However, I would say it always happen at local government level and slowly moves up the chain. When you are a local government, you are somewhat free to do whatever you do to achieve KPI, with Confucian societal expectation, there is always a notion of taking care of your own people first, whether its village, family, etc. The word GuanXi, meaning relationship also stems from this, I help you and you help me. Thus abuse of power, mismanagement of funs, cover ups all started from local government which the central government has no knowledge about and assume everything is fine, being ignorant and complacent about it. When it reaches a boiling point, there would be public outburst and revolt, which destabilize the nation, imagine it happen in half of the cities in China from ancient times to today.
The lack of supervision over the local government has always been a bane to China throughout history. It happen during the Great Leap Forward and it happens even to this day. The One Child Policy is never about infanticide, its meant discourage babies especially during a time where the agriculture of China is incapable of supporting the population growth, sure, you would be fined heavily for it, but there is no explicit order to kill them from the policy makers. But, its an entire different story with local governments. Village elders, mayors, etc all want to achieve the KPI given to them, so using pressure as collective society, they would pressure the parents to give it away, abandon it or kill the babies. Imagine your village elders, neighbours, relatives, family and friends keep dissing you for being a burden to the society.
There is a reason why CCP is tough on corruption these 2 decades, especially the local levels. Because if unnoticed, it will festered at a local level, causing bad public sentiment which CCP relies on to maintain legitimacy, corruption was rampant after Deng brought changes open up the market, in the pursuit of sky high growth, they turn a blind eye to corruption and bribery. This reach a point where the public sentiment is bad enough to hinder progress and threaten to destabilize the regime. Hence upon Xi's appointment, he take out the corrupted officials which added to his achievements in the local's view of his administration, conveniently taking out his political opponents in the process
reply
Doug
Authoritarian is a meaningless buzzword, but if were going to talk about authority id argue capitalism is the most authoritarian system as the wealthy elite develop into an oligarchy where the few control and exploit the masses.
There also is no Uyghur genocide, they cant even provide proof, most of their info comes from one man, Adrian Zenz, who is a far right Christian zealot, who doesnt speak chinese, and has never been to china, and he believes god sent him on a mission to destroy china, his numbers are made up, and the charade is easily debunked and the claims are laughable. Social Credit mostly affects billionaires and property owners. Purges happen in the US too, but its via media blackouts and a two party system where both partys serve the interests of their donors, snd are right wing, and the media serves the interests of the class that own them, the wealthy. Just look at Bernie, hes a harmless social democrat, a capitalist who wants a kinder gentler capitalism, they did everything they could to get him to play ball and ruin his presidential run, and even if he won, nothing fundamentally would have changed.
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Authoritarian is a meaningless buzzword, but if were going to talk about authority id argue capitalism is the most authoritarian system as the wealthy elite develop into an oligarchy where the few control and exploit the masses.
There also is no Uyghur genocide, they cant even provide proof, most of their info comes from one man, Adrian Zenz, who is a far right Christian zealot, who doesnt speak chinese, and has never been to china, and he believes god sent him on a mission to destroy china, his numbers are made up, and the charade is easily debunked and the claims are laughable. Social Credit mostly affects billionaires and property owners. Purges happen in the US too, but its via media blackouts and a two party system where both partys serve the interests of their donors, snd are right wing, and the media serves the interests of the class that own them, the wealthy. Just look at Bernie, hes a harmless social democrat, a capitalist who wants a kinder gentler capitalism, they did everything they could to get him to play ball and ruin his presidential run, and even if he won, nothing fundamentally would have changed.
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Christopher
Tardy to the party on this one, but a I have couple of things anyway.
Confucianism is simply stolen Taoist philosophy overlaid with a familial hierarchy, that is why the State adopted it while trying to eradicate true Tao. It is easier to control populations if you merge a system they are familiar with, and the Control system you want (Imperial/Legalist)
Also, there is nothing Taoist about the CCP, or forced/leveraged Globalism. The times you have listed, 1976-2010(2015, is after the Chinese fled to Taiwan, and took legitimate Taoist practices with them. West China then remained communist, and any similarities to Taoism comes from Confucianism's aping of it, Hong Kong, & outside influences.
I probably don't have to point out that the Zen school of Buddhism is the one that sprung from the merger of Taoist philosophy, & Indian Buddhism, & it should not be confused with Buddhism in general.
Really enjoying your insights, and take on things. I'm glad to see youngsters diverging from the Hyper-specific Expert in a single topic, and reembracing the idea of competent generalist with a specialty.
reply
Tardy to the party on this one, but a I have couple of things anyway.
Confucianism is simply stolen Taoist philosophy overlaid with a familial hierarchy, that is why the State adopted it while trying to eradicate true Tao. It is easier to control populations if you merge a system they are familiar with, and the Control system you want (Imperial/Legalist)
Also, there is nothing Taoist about the CCP, or forced/leveraged Globalism. The times you have listed, 1976-2010(2015, is after the Chinese fled to Taiwan, and took legitimate Taoist practices with them. West China then remained communist, and any similarities to Taoism comes from Confucianism's aping of it, Hong Kong, & outside influences.
I probably don't have to point out that the Zen school of Buddhism is the one that sprung from the merger of Taoist philosophy, & Indian Buddhism, & it should not be confused with Buddhism in general.
Really enjoying your insights, and take on things. I'm glad to see youngsters diverging from the Hyper-specific Expert in a single topic, and reembracing the idea of competent generalist with a specialty.
reply
Obergruppenfhrer
A few points:
-Western individualism absolutely did not spring only from the Germanic tribes. First, a sense of individual rights, responsibilities, and a distinct persona were highly developed in the Greek and Roman worlds. It's true there was always a more Aristocratic flavor to this, it was not necessarily the kind of base level populism we see today (although in Rome it did eventually become this) but it certainly existed there well before they had contact with northern Europe. It just so happens that because the dramatic tribes tend to be less urbanized and less materially wealthy, they had a somewhat flattered social hierarchy than the Mediterraneans. In addition, there is another metaphysical been here from Christianity, which by asserting the Spiritual Equality of All Souls (without proof) leads for the kind of egalitarian liberal individualism you see today, which is very different than what was in the classical world.
- The total deaths from the first World War were around 40 million, so more than all those other events you mentioned.
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A few points:
-Western individualism absolutely did not spring only from the Germanic tribes. First, a sense of individual rights, responsibilities, and a distinct persona were highly developed in the Greek and Roman worlds. It's true there was always a more Aristocratic flavor to this, it was not necessarily the kind of base level populism we see today (although in Rome it did eventually become this) but it certainly existed there well before they had contact with northern Europe. It just so happens that because the dramatic tribes tend to be less urbanized and less materially wealthy, they had a somewhat flattered social hierarchy than the Mediterraneans. In addition, there is another metaphysical been here from Christianity, which by asserting the Spiritual Equality of All Souls (without proof) leads for the kind of egalitarian liberal individualism you see today, which is very different than what was in the classical world.
- The total deaths from the first World War were around 40 million, so more than all those other events you mentioned.
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education
I feel like this video was strangely lacking in discussion of Taiwan, which shares the entire cultural history discussed in this video and yet is also democratic. The only real reference made to Taiwan and its democracy is that it's a nation with similar culture along with South Korea and Japan (28: 33. This is a pretty gross oversimplification, given that Korea and Japan are distinct nations with unique cultures and languages albeit with historic Chinese influence, while Taiwan is a ethnic Han Chinese-speaking, culturally Chinese state. I suppose whatifalthist couldn't say too much about it since it would invalidate the entire title of the video, but clearly Taiwan represents a version of China in which democracy was successfully established. Perhaps this video could have explored what factors made democracy possible in Taiwan, and whether the PRC could ever democratize in the future.
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I feel like this video was strangely lacking in discussion of Taiwan, which shares the entire cultural history discussed in this video and yet is also democratic. The only real reference made to Taiwan and its democracy is that it's a nation with similar culture along with South Korea and Japan (28: 33. This is a pretty gross oversimplification, given that Korea and Japan are distinct nations with unique cultures and languages albeit with historic Chinese influence, while Taiwan is a ethnic Han Chinese-speaking, culturally Chinese state. I suppose whatifalthist couldn't say too much about it since it would invalidate the entire title of the video, but clearly Taiwan represents a version of China in which democracy was successfully established. Perhaps this video could have explored what factors made democracy possible in Taiwan, and whether the PRC could ever democratize in the future.
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Darryl
I am writing at the time that Elon Musk just bought Twitter. I understand why the censors of Twitter would take down misinformation, to save face of the leaders of the government. I believe in the west, we use the argumentative in court of public opinion to determine the truth. Scientist discover something and write papers that are published, which are tested and proven or unproven. It is the argument which proves we are right or wrong, and all have an opinion. The one in jail is responsible for his own actions. The one who got away argued he was innocent and was found by trial. We are always trying to set the story where we look good, as opposed to China where they want to save the whole village. Whole villages may have been destroyed because someone from that village did something wrong against another village.
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I am writing at the time that Elon Musk just bought Twitter. I understand why the censors of Twitter would take down misinformation, to save face of the leaders of the government. I believe in the west, we use the argumentative in court of public opinion to determine the truth. Scientist discover something and write papers that are published, which are tested and proven or unproven. It is the argument which proves we are right or wrong, and all have an opinion. The one in jail is responsible for his own actions. The one who got away argued he was innocent and was found by trial. We are always trying to set the story where we look good, as opposed to China where they want to save the whole village. Whole villages may have been destroyed because someone from that village did something wrong against another village.
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yue
I watched your entire video. As a Chinese, I'm pretty sure you're talking too superficially. Your video doesn't delve into any geoclimate famine etc. I recommend you to read this book: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies I'll just say two things here. The first point is that your understanding of Confucianism is too superficial, and its real core is Civilians in China can pass exams to become officials, which is why China is different from the West, so many people can maintain a unified country for a long time. The second point, the two tyranny you mentioned, the first one only lasted seven years and collapsed. The second time, ten years. A total of 17 years. Not surprising in the entire 5, 000-year history. You shouldn't pull it out as a typical cultural trait.
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I watched your entire video. As a Chinese, I'm pretty sure you're talking too superficially. Your video doesn't delve into any geoclimate famine etc. I recommend you to read this book: Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies I'll just say two things here. The first point is that your understanding of Confucianism is too superficial, and its real core is Civilians in China can pass exams to become officials, which is why China is different from the West, so many people can maintain a unified country for a long time. The second point, the two tyranny you mentioned, the first one only lasted seven years and collapsed. The second time, ten years. A total of 17 years. Not surprising in the entire 5, 000-year history. You shouldn't pull it out as a typical cultural trait.
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Peizxcv
I think when you repeat The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia enough times, you'd actually believe China is more authoritarian than it was a decade ago.
Look at events in the west, Eastern Europe are in the hand of right wing NAZI sympathizer while the rest are undergoing a leftist cultural revolution that get's all oppositions browbeat into submission by the police. If they don't paint China as more authoritarian than before and still more authoritarian then even the more authoritarian West, the Chinese model would start to be seem as an alternative.
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I think when you repeat The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia enough times, you'd actually believe China is more authoritarian than it was a decade ago.
Look at events in the west, Eastern Europe are in the hand of right wing NAZI sympathizer while the rest are undergoing a leftist cultural revolution that get's all oppositions browbeat into submission by the police. If they don't paint China as more authoritarian than before and still more authoritarian then even the more authoritarian West, the Chinese model would start to be seem as an alternative.
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Yux. T
13: 19 north korea and china has actually lasted longer than ussr by a few years now (for now, at least)
just a guess =
perhaps for asian cultures, where obedience is seen as SO important, and individualism is seen as less important and now that china's median age has passed 40 = its possible that these totalitarian regimes may last longer than expected?
china is just slowly going to stagnate.
(and once it does become a democratic free society, the median age might be at 50 = where most people by then are just looking forward to retirement and aren't bothered about learning new ideas, thoughts, etc)
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13: 19 north korea and china has actually lasted longer than ussr by a few years now (for now, at least)
just a guess =
perhaps for asian cultures, where obedience is seen as SO important, and individualism is seen as less important and now that china's median age has passed 40 = its possible that these totalitarian regimes may last longer than expected?
china is just slowly going to stagnate.
(and once it does become a democratic free society, the median age might be at 50 = where most people by then are just looking forward to retirement and aren't bothered about learning new ideas, thoughts, etc)
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