John wrote:... So I've been trying to figure out how China got to this pathetic
point, and why the hard-working industrious Chinese people are always
led by disastrous idiots, ...
The leaders of China have always been "aliens".
It's a classic case of the Inferiority/Superiority complex.
They "know" (via tradition) that the people, per se, are great (meaning numerous, or "heavy") and therefore "Superior", but that they need a "pointed" leader, or a leader of extremely dense power to properly "use" the diffuse, and therefore "Inferior", masses of the people. Where in the "Chinese Filial Mindset" do you find "pointed leaders"?
China needs an "Other", an alien, to wield it's power.
China has never been very good at producing "aliens". And importing aliens as leaders is "problematic".
The interesting thing to me is that one COULD see Xi (Winnie the Pooh) as really quite "alien" from the point of view of the Chinese masses.
He appears as an admirable "powerful psychopath" that "conquered" China's government from "out of nowhere/heaven/the_west", who nonetheless does "look" Chinese (as did the conquering Turkic invaders throughout Chinese history), and is therefore fit to "wield China".
The question is really why it is that these leaders tend to be idiots!?
I think it's because they don't understand the reasons that their successful "invader leaders" from the past bothered conquering China in the first place.
Why did the Turkic invaders want China?
"China" is a resource to be used, and not a "country" to be "from".
..once their erstwhile successful rulers become "Chinese" the "inferiority" of the Chinese masses starts to creep into the thinking of those leaders, and they start to seek out the next "alien" to take the reins and do what they increasingly can't bring themselves to do to make their country prosperous.
The natural progression of "nationality" is for successful leaders to devolve as many successful methods of "being prosperous" to "the people" as possible, while the leaders claim for themselves only the "connection to heaven/God/National_Identity" sufficient to not appear utterly superfluous.
But the Chinese leader can't unhand the secrets of power, because the masses need him to be an "alien" delivering success/prosperity to them, and CERTAINLY not TEACHING them (aka institutionally allowing them) to be prosperous.
..therefore, increasingly concentrating power is used to counter the ill effects of increasingly concentrating power, as NO ONE is motivated to distribute power because it is simply "Unchinese"!
And that vicious cycle grinds the nation into a weakness that invites conquest and "humiliation".
The "solution"? Break China into the various "republics" that it's regions actually should be.
Obvious, but we'll have to wait at least two (2) 4-generation cycles (176-ish years) before that's even remotely plausible.
[quote="John"]... So I've been trying to figure out how China got to this pathetic
point, and why the hard-working industrious Chinese people are always
led by disastrous idiots, ...[/quote]
The leaders of China have always been "aliens".
It's a classic case of the Inferiority/Superiority complex.
They "know" (via tradition) that the people, per se, are great (meaning numerous, or "heavy") and therefore "Superior", but that they need a "pointed" leader, or a leader of extremely dense power to properly "use" the diffuse, and therefore "Inferior", masses of the people. Where in the "Chinese Filial Mindset" do you find "pointed leaders"?
China needs an "Other", an alien, to wield it's power.
China has never been very good at producing "aliens". And importing aliens as leaders is "problematic".
The interesting thing to me is that one COULD see Xi (Winnie the Pooh) as really quite "alien" from the point of view of the Chinese masses.
He appears as an admirable "powerful psychopath" that "conquered" China's government from "out of nowhere/heaven/the_west", who nonetheless does "look" Chinese (as did the conquering Turkic invaders throughout Chinese history), and is therefore fit to "wield China".
The question is really why it is that these leaders tend to be idiots!?
I think it's because they don't understand the reasons that their successful "invader leaders" from the past bothered conquering China in the first place.
Why did the Turkic invaders want China?
"China" is a resource to be used, and not a "country" to be "from".
..once their erstwhile successful rulers become "Chinese" the "inferiority" of the Chinese masses starts to creep into the thinking of those leaders, and they start to seek out the next "alien" to take the reins and do what they increasingly can't bring themselves to do to make their country prosperous.
The natural progression of "nationality" is for successful leaders to devolve as many successful methods of "being prosperous" to "the people" as possible, while the leaders claim for themselves only the "connection to heaven/God/National_Identity" sufficient to not appear utterly superfluous.
But the Chinese leader can't unhand the secrets of power, because the masses need him to be an "alien" delivering success/prosperity to them, and CERTAINLY not TEACHING them (aka institutionally allowing them) to be prosperous.
..therefore, increasingly concentrating power is used to counter the ill effects of increasingly concentrating power, as NO ONE is motivated to distribute power because it is simply "Unchinese"!
And that vicious cycle grinds the nation into a weakness that invites conquest and "humiliation".
The "solution"? Break China into the various "republics" that it's regions actually should be.
Obvious, but we'll have to wait at least two (2) 4-generation cycles (176-ish years) before that's even remotely plausible.