I’m no fan of the CCP, but watching what’s going on over there vs. what’s going on over here (the US, but also Europe, and to some lesser degree, even other Western aligned Asian countries), I can’t help China is doing more things right than us in the goal of raw progress. Or at least, less things wrong.
Now, you can argue whether sacrificing various things for the sake of raw progress is worth it. But what if that question becomes no longer askable in the future in a planet dominated by China and the CCP system?
That day might come sooner for some of China’s neighbors. It may come later, or even not at all, for the US or Europe. But the age where the West dominated global policy via a more or less liberal democratic model, and by extension, arguably the general direction of the human race, may no longer be taken for granted.
What happens then to some of your precious “freedoms”?
> West dominated global policy via a more or less liberal democratic model
This model only ever applied to Europe. Fruit companies and oil companies were more important than democracy elsewhere. South Korea and Taiwan were both autocracies for decades while we sponsored them in the name of freedom.
What we did have was a foreign policy that mostly encouraged peace and prosperity via trade, which was nice while it lasted.
If by progress do you mean rental housing, roads/bridges, computers, food, and gig work? Do we have a shortage of them? I keep hearing about everyday life we've had for generations like it's an earnings report.
I personally understand people wish they were better off, and I do understand the sentiment myself as a middle class, tax paying citizen with a family but in my opinion, people were just told America is bad and horrible and needs fixing, I don't think America is a bad place at all. Those who wanted to get elected just told a lot of people it was horrible and a lot of people bought it.
Whatever issues existed economically, I think the "rip the country apart and tear down the government" approach was the most stupid path we could've taken,,,and here we are.
The USA and other western countries have their issues, but to pretend like western countries are bad places to live... IDK anymore.
“I think today the world is asking for a real alternative. Would you like to live in a world where the only alternative is either anglo-saxon neoliberalism or Chinese-Singaporean capitalism with Asian values? I claim if we do nothing we will gradually approach a kind of a new type of authoritarian society. Here I see the world historical importance of what is happening today in China. Until now there was one good argument for capitalism: sooner or later it brought a demand for democracy … What I’m afraid of is, with this capitalism with Asian values, we get a capitalism much more efficient and dynamic than our western capitalism. But I don’t share the hope of my liberal friends – give them ten years [and there will be] another Tiananmen Square demonstration – no, the marriage between capitalism and democracy is over.”
Now, you can argue whether sacrificing various things for the sake of raw progress is worth it. But what if that question becomes no longer askable in the future in a planet dominated by China and the CCP system?
That day might come sooner for some of China’s neighbors. It may come later, or even not at all, for the US or Europe. But the age where the West dominated global policy via a more or less liberal democratic model, and by extension, arguably the general direction of the human race, may no longer be taken for granted.
What happens then to some of your precious “freedoms”?