The Blind Squirrel Finds a Nut
For most thinking people Hollywood is the center of unthinking Narcissism and any "thinking" that comes out of the mouth of an actor or actress needs to be taken with several pounds of salt.
Usually
Sometimes they are right, as Richard Gere is today. Understandably unhappy with the Chinese stranglehold on Tibet, he wants the Beijing Olympics to be boycotted over the invasion, conquest and continued occupation of Tibet. Now I am not so sure that I want to go that route, it is still something to think about.
My question Mr. Gere. Would you be that concerned if China invaded Taiwan or the Philippines. Or South Korea? or Japan? or India?
China is a threat to the freedom of many nations. We still have the strength to face them down but we lack the will.
Ghandi's method worked against Britain because the British were a moral people with a government that cared about moral issues. His methods are useless against far too many Muslims and Socialists because they have no respect for morality and will only respect strength.
When dealing with a moral people you base your actions entirely on morality; on those who respect only strength and fear you must base your actions differently.
You're not going to win in China with an appeal to morality.
Usually
Sometimes they are right, as Richard Gere is today. Understandably unhappy with the Chinese stranglehold on Tibet, he wants the Beijing Olympics to be boycotted over the invasion, conquest and continued occupation of Tibet. Now I am not so sure that I want to go that route, it is still something to think about.
My question Mr. Gere. Would you be that concerned if China invaded Taiwan or the Philippines. Or South Korea? or Japan? or India?
China is a threat to the freedom of many nations. We still have the strength to face them down but we lack the will.
Ghandi's method worked against Britain because the British were a moral people with a government that cared about moral issues. His methods are useless against far too many Muslims and Socialists because they have no respect for morality and will only respect strength.
When dealing with a moral people you base your actions entirely on morality; on those who respect only strength and fear you must base your actions differently.
You're not going to win in China with an appeal to morality.
posted by shoprat at 12:58 PM
8 Comments:
China can be shamed into doing the right thing if it is shown to have an economic benefit. I disagree that China is an immoral nation, if you say that we are a shining example of morality. I do not care for thier government, but that does not mean that they are evil.
The reason Ghandi was sucessful is that Britian realized that they couldn't just kill everybody if they refused to co-operate. It was totally pragmatic and had little to do with morality. When they realized coercion was futile, they cut their losses. Not only that, many Indian soldiers helped save Britian's bacon in WWII and were not about to return to the colonial staus quo.
WWII showed the entire world you weak the British Empire really was, much as our inibility to subdue one small country in the Middle East is enboldening our adversaries over there. The only way that we could face down the Chinese military is resorting to Nuclear War, so thank God we lack the will for that!
Richard Gere is a devout Bhuddist, hence his passion for the cause of Tibet. Personally I don't have a problem with the man voicing an opinion or think he's a hippocryte because he's not complaining about North Korea.
Oh please, Tim! China isn't evil? Hah! Not all Chinese are evil but the Communist regime of China is as evil as they come! Have you heard of "Falun Dafa" and what the regime is doing to those who practice it? No? See Falun Dafa Information Center. Have you heard of Cannibalism in China? No. See this: Hong Kong Reports Mainland Chinese Eating Infants Want to tell us again how moral China is? There's more... lot's more, but I have a feeling I'm only wasting my time.
Shoprat, you're absolutely right. We are not going to win in China with an appeal on morality. Any regime that can engage in what I have linked to above is far beyond being reasoned with on that level.
China may be grudgingly responsive to opinion and how they are perceived: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/13/america/web-0413diplo.php ..notes some results from Mia Farrow and Steven Spielburg regarding Darfur.
I don't know if china invading taiwan and friends would upset him, but he'd sure be pissed if America tried to come to the rescue of the invaded nation(s)
China's greatest asset as a communist country is its patience and its pragmatism.
Despite all the global political resistance/dialogue/partisan politics, capitalism is a product of true human nature and actually governs the world. China realized a few years ago that the only way they could hope to expand their brand of communism would be to infiltrate the global marketplace, and for them it must be really funny that the U.S., formerly the greatest manufacturing force on earth, is now importing copiously from them.
At the same time, they've been buying U.S. Treasury issues (T-Bills, T-Bonds, T-Notes) bigtime and they've been multiplying their military technology arsenal.
We can look forward, a scant few years from now, to trouble with China.
I don't know, Gayle. But if America is always going around LOOKING for afight, we are sure to find one. Do you think our "friends" Saudi Arabia have an evil government? Yet you happily defend them as a staunch ally in the made up WOT, right. Pakistan. Now there is an upright, moral nation. We seem to always be picking the wrong friends, don't we. Didn't our parents tell us that we turn out to be like the friends we hang out with? I think America needs to turn our backs on some of these "friends" and start patching up our differences with Europe, and also making some better new friends. We also need to at least talk to our enemies like Iran. Why should they stop thier nuclear program just because we threaten them? How does that effect our sovergienty? You really think that if they get a nuke they'll use it on us? They know what we would do in return. If we really want to get them to stop, maybe we ought to at least talk to them and stop threatening. This debacle in Iraq has proven that we can't just go in and blast our way what we want.
There are going to be disagreements, but let's keep it civil and impersonal. Flame wars are beneath all of us.
Fred Thompson is one actor who makes sense to me. What I understand about him is that he is very strong on three things. 1. America must fight and win the war on terror against Islamofascists and others like Hugo Chavez. 2. America must protect its borders. 3. Tax cuts stimulate the economy and produce more revenue for government, not less.
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