that sounds like a football game anyway

I don’t doubt that they have problems, but I think the government here clearly thinks that it can maintain consent of the people as long as they maximize opportunities for the people to make money. Bobbitt calls the Market State of consent, which he says is replacing the Nation State even in the West.

And it made me think–for people undergoing that kind of change, who would you rather have in charge of your security? The state, or the gangs?

And given our–until recent–stupor on politics, it’s not clear most Americans WOULD choose democracy over the change in China.

What you’re not seeing, though, is the insecurity of both the migrant workers–who live in substandard housing in the big cities and often are abused by their employers, nor the terrible pollution in the rural areas. China’s got a great deal of instability in rural areas.

And frankly, most of their “middle class” are still so poorly paid that when inflation hits–as it is hitting–folks won’t be so happy anymore. The kids I worked with in car dealers made about $200/mo selling cars with prices equivalent to US cars (more in Beijing). That’s not enough for long term security or happiness, and while factory wages are going up, the middle class is getting further out of reach for a lot of Chinese.

The “market economy” however, is many millenia old. Bread and circuses have been the mainstay of rulers regardless of form of government.

That China (like its neighbor Russia) have reverted to, returned to, or even just resumed after a slight interruption, to the only market mechanism that works, is not that all surprising.

No, Democracy is neither a prerequisite of a “market economy” nor a outgrowth of it.

Sadly, Democracy may have just been a fluke of human history whose presence was tolerated for a while but eventually subsumed by:

Multiple Choice Answers:

1. Neglect.
2. Design of the Rulers.
3. Votes of the Ruled.

Yesterday, we saw the beautiful Summer Palace, and the Lamasery Temple. It confirms my view that there is little change in the Old China. The construction is the same, and the best that can be said is that some of the cross beams in the long corridor have little paintings instead of geometric designs, and that the the Dowager Empress put in a phone shortly before she died in 1908, at the end of the feudal period.

We also went to the Silk Alley, a shopping bazaar in the Guangzhou style, but cleaner and newer, and somewhat more sedate.

I have been reading Terror and Consent, by Phillip Bobbitt while traveling. It is not terribly convincing, but it got me to thinking about something I see here. Years ago, as I was waking from my political stupor, I read a book by Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, which argues that capitalism and Christianity go together, and that democracy follows in their path. China gives that argument an empirical challenge. The government isn’t at all democratic, and capitalism is flourishing. Even the State enterprises, like the huge Cloisonne factory and the Agriculture Museum have entered the capitalist fray, with huge factory outlet stores offering a great array of finely crafted products, and delicious tea, in a perfect capitalist form.

And the people, meaning my guides, since I cannot talk to anyone else, don’t seem to worried about the lack of the trappings of democracy, like voting, and a free press. My guides seem quite happy with the government, which is doing an excellent job of maximizing their opportunities to make money and do stuff and own stuff. My guide here tells us that her parents own a business making cooking oils, soy and sunflower, and selling at wholesale and retail. They have done very well, educating their three kids and setting them up for the future, so well that none of the kids seems interested in running the family business. It is hard to imagine what democracy and voting would add to their lives.

Reading here and elsewhere as time permits, it doesn’t sound much like the US government is at all responsive to the concerns of the populace on major issues. It looks from here like the US is intent on proving that capitalism doesn’t have any interest in democracy. It is only interested in money, and if that means a surveillance state, as here or in the US, then fine, let’s do it.

The trappings of democracy, like voting and a capitalist media, don’t really influence anything in the US either. All of the anger and action of the late 60s and early 70s didn’t bring any change. Neither has this round, even after the republicans were thoroughly crushed in the 2006 election. The politicians do whatever they want, and there is no way to hold them accountable. On major issues, our policy is made by intrigues that would shame the Dowager Empress Cixi. The same people who gave us Iran-Contra are now lined up to bomb Iran. Nothing changes.

works for me

we talk bout other stuff (and mcsame makes a very shallow reflecting pool)

some of us even watch baseball and stuff

btw, anybody else impressed by Fresno St ???

first time I ever made a positive reference to Fresno that wasn’t preceded by the words “compared to Bakerfield”

The media image of McSame has been created by his handlers/backers and complicit MSM groupies.

In that sense, EW’s post allows us to explore the pushback that we’d like to see eventually crawl, on hands and knees if necessary, from the blogosphere into the addled minds of the Talking Heads and Gotcha Gossips who claim to represent known reality.

No sense in letting them paint him as a Prince when at best, he’s a frog.

If we don’t take on this mission, who will?

Remember the last time the MSM got a frog in their hot little hands. Coming up on 8 years of insanity that even they have to admit is our daily reality.