Note (07FEB2022): Perhaps not so coïncidentally, China and these United States find themselves at similar crossroads albeit by different routes. As described in the posting below, Chinese Communism failed miserably evidenced by 60-million deaths as a direct consequence of its infliction upon its populace. Ironically, Fascism saved the Communists’ power-structure. Now under threat from President Xi, Fascism has been driving the economic success that China enjoys. The cost? Liberty.
Meanwhile in these United States, the Founding Fathers’ vision of liberty has been fading into history. Over the years, The Left has gained a stranglehold over administration of the four cornerstones of society; namely, government, law, education, and medical delivery. At the moment, the struggle over our future rages between Marx and Mussolini — as in China, between Communism and Fascism. The ideologues favor Communism. The pragmatists favor Fascism. For now, the Fascists seem to be winning.
On the so-called Right, opponents of tyranny anticipate a Republican electoral victory in November, should elections be held. They may get their electoral victory but it will achieve little. Recall the Republican victory in 2016. Did Republicans “drain the swamp”?
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The Chinese are trying to sell the world their model of governance. Problem! They are not selling Confucianism. They are selling confusionism.
As noted in a previous posting, the avuncular-appearing President Xi is faced with a choice between Communism, a proven failure, and Fascism, a proven success; economically, at least. He appears to be choosing more Marx and Mao and less Mussolini. So much the worse for China. To choose Jefferson and Madison would be unthinkable.
Despite the present confusion, the commentator, Glenn Beck, opined on Fox News that, given current trends, China and Fascism are becoming predominant and will displace these United States as the preëminent power and system. Meanwhile, our now-fragmenting, declining nation on fire itself is sliding towards American-style Fascism. No, the feckless, hypocritical Republicans will not save us whatever the outcome of the congressional elections in November.
As China flounders given Xi’s placing ideology divorced from reality before pragmatism reflecting reality, he, nevertheless, has learned from observing the mistakes that our nation has made as it slowly commits national suicide. He has promoted masculinity and patriarchy over feminism and matriarchy. He has restricted the budding “celebrity-culture”, confining its members to that which they know — entertaining. He has minimized the presence of “sissy boys”, reversing their pernicious effect upon the social fabric and the nuclear family. He is limiting the expansion of oligopolies through mergers and acquisitions; no lobbyists apparently.
On the societal level, perhaps most important has been his overt employment of Biobehavioral Science in regulating social behavior via “social credits”, a version of the “token economy”. The power of the technology this commentator demonstrated in a peer-reviewed article years ago while he was on the medical faculty at UCLA.* Instead of using that power for goodness to resurrect the vision of our Founding Fathers, our government is using it for evil to erect the framework for a similar system to destroy the last remnants of that noble vision.
*Mann, RA and Moss, GR: The therapeutic use of a token economy to manage a young and assaultive inpatient population. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 157: 1-9, 1973
Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997)
As Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping recognized the shortcomings of the Communistic system. For one, China could not feed its population. Accordingly, Deng instituted a free-market, agricultural economy at the margin. As long as farmers met their governmental quota to be taken from them, they could keep any excess to use as they saw fit. Agricultural production skyrocketed. Accordingly, slowly Deng allowed a limited free-market to emerge. Its productivity propelled it to become the second largest economy in the world. Given Chinese authoritarianism, an enlarging private sector was heading China towards Fascism and away from Communism. With their riches, entrepreneurs such as Jack Ma were gaining social influence.
Xi viewed this influence as a threat to the CCP. All power to the Party! In response, recently he began to suppress private enterprise. Yes, it was a threat to the Party with Communism as its foundation. No, it was not a threat to the Party were Fascism its foundation. What’s a dictator to do? Change the name to the Chinese Fascist Party? He could do so by maintaining Mao Zedong as the national hero for uniting China and forget the Marxism. Sixty million dead Chinese bear witness to its failure.
Will he? Name of the Party, notwithstanding, Xi may be forced to do so by the consequence of choosing Marx and Mao over Mussolini.
Problem! Mussolini was a dedicated anti-Communist. Until siding with a then-winning Hitler whom he viewed with contempt, Mussolini was a hero in the West. Communism and Fascism mix like oil and water.
What’s a Communistic dictator to do? Kill the economic goose laying the golden eggs for the sake of a failed ideology? With Xi gaining an unprecedented extra term and wreaking the economic havoc that he already is unleashing, be failure the consequence, he might find himself on the wrong end of a gun. The mandarins are unforgiving.