The Nossiter Net The net that shall enmesh them all Edited, Written, and Published by Josh Nossiter |
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Winning Ways Friday, February 2nd, 2007 |
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The Nossiter Net is cast to snare some of the riper rascalities of the day. Comments? editor@nossiter.net | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
And so it has come to this. China, where slave labor is considered a human right, free speech comes with a Go to Jail card, and only atheists enjoy freedom of religion, is lecturing the U.S. about tolerance. Chinese Bureau of Religious Affairs director Ye Xiaowen says the U.S. has sparked an unholy Christian war against Muslims. More terrorism will be the result, he warns, and admonishes President Bush, purveyor of the crusade against islamo-fascism, to recognize that “differences can exist in harmony.”*
Mr. Ye makes a good point. 1.3 billion Chinese live together in perfect harmony, so why can’t we? Perhaps we could, if we learned from the Chinese and followed their Four Winning Ways to Harmonious Living: Young people are a source of disharmony. When they’re not engaged in anti-social activities like drinking or fornicating, they’re inclined to question the establishment. They speak disrespectfully about their political leaders, demand changes to the status quo, and exhibit little regard for property and public order. Troublesome youths of this type are given far too much latitude in the U.S. In China, they are crushed with tanks. This is the Way of All Flesh. Poor people can be a problem. They cling to their miserable existences despite being hungry, over-worked, ill-educated, and ill-housed. They mistake their pathetic hovels and miserable villages for homes and neighborhoods. Sometimes they express resentment when toxic industrial plants are built alongside them, or when the cause of progress demands that their rude dwellings be seized for a higher purpose. In the U.S., such trouble-makers go to court, or call attention to themselves by going on TV. In China, where the poor number in the hundreds of millions, vast experience with such malcontents has led to a different approach. The government first seals off their villages with a police cordon, then sends in hundreds of thugs armed with chains and clubs. Beaten mercilessly, the survivors generally see the error of their ways and leave. The technique has been used in Guangdong, Shengyou, and elsewhere with great success. This is the Way Out. Religious cults are a real nuisance. Not just Falung Gong, but Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism as well. Anyone so minded can start a church in the U.S., but the Chinese don’t allow such laxity. Religious Chinese are free to worship wherever they please, as long as they do so in a state licensed place of worship. Those who do not may be beaten, imprisoned, or disappeared. And it doesn’t do to worship too openly, even in the licensed facilities. Outspoken Catholic bishops seem to vanish with no trace in China on a regular basis. Importing religious material, such as the bible, may lead to prosecution and a possible death sentence, as was the case with a Hong Kong businessman in 2002. Religious feelings are best kept private, or channeled into healthy support for the state or local sports team. This is the Way of Ways. Neighboring states are a source of friction. The U.S. is relatively lenient with Mexico and Canada, even if the former sends its poor north and the latter its disapproval south. In China, matters are handled more forcefully. The Indians were fought to a bloody standstill in the border war of the ‘60s. As for the Tibetans, the Chinese have been systematically erasing Tibetan culture and repopulating Tibetan land with their own Han Chinese for decades now. The process will be accelerated now that they’ve completed their rail link to Tibet, the highest railroad in the world. This is the Way to Go. It may seem incongruous, out of joint, that the Chinese have taken to lecturing the United States about tolerance. We used to be considered the champion in that arena. But in this era of unrestricted surveillance, government run oubliettes, and officially sanctioned torture, with an Attorney General who repudiates habeas corpus and a president who governs by fear mongering and saber rattling, we have relinquished our moral advantage. Or, as the president might put it,“The Four Ways? It’s my way, or the highway.” * http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/asia/02china.html?_r=1&oref=slogin ©Joshua C. Nossiter, 2007 |
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VOL. III, No. 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||