Re: Communism in today's world.......


Haines Brown wrote:
"ltlee1" <ltlee1@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

The majority of the Chinese people do not really care who sit in
government positions. They learnt from history that governments
came and gone. Government is something that can be used but cannot
be relied upon. China has a tradition of meritocracy. Hence she
frequenty got the best minds in the government. These "one in
hundred million" leaders, however, are forces of nature. They could
do great things for the people. But they could also do bad things to
the people.

What you say may be true, but I suspect there are other
considerations.

Culture is never static, but is changing rapidly in today's globalized
world. I can't imagine that what may have been true traditionally will
remain so very long. Does not China's rapid urbanization imply that
Confucianism (or more properly, social and political values that had
their origin in the gentry's Confucianism) will no longer offer a
source of social order?

I believe there's also something to be said for real democracy beyond
merely the question of a government formalism. It is the instrument by
which our personality can manifest itself at the level of society as a
whole. As more and more people become urbanized and globalized, what
mechanisms may exist for the expression of personality at the village
or block level become inadequate. We are all global citizens, and as a
result experience both developing needs and capacities as the
result. I find nothing to admire in passivity, for in relation to a
changing world, it implies stagnation.

If government is something that cannot be relied upon, people are in
jeopardy if they find that their personal needs cannot be met
satisfactorily through local private activity. We are social beings,
and as the scope of that social existence widens, the scope of our
needs and capacities also widens. There is need for institutions that
allow us to express ourselves at this ever widening level and to
control it. It is not simply an issue of political rights or fashion,
but a requirement of human existence.

In a country of 1 billion people, there are 1 billion reasons for the
government to do this or that. It is obvious that the government cannot
be equally reliable for all people all the time.

Government, democracy or otherwise, is not God. It is neither
omnipotent nor benevolent at the personal level. As a matter of fact,
governments do not produce. They mostly take and spend other people's
money. Hence Kennedy's words make sense. "Ask not what your country can
do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." The Chinese
eqivalent is "國家興亡匹夫有責."





--

Haines Brown
KB1GRM
ET1(SS) U.S.S. Irex 482

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