I prefer the actual quote by Pascal: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God….”
John Pade
2 years ago
I don’ know, but I think the CCP is trying to fill a vacuum in all places where markets and freedom are present or, especially, predominant. That vacuum is the place left by vanished duty. Great Britain and its Commonwealth may have been the last holdout of duty during World War I , when it was epitomized by Lord Kitchner’s “Your Country Needs You” recruitment poster and the response to it. In truth, that was but a rear guard action against the advancing forces of atomization released by who-knows-what many, many, years earlier.
Everyone wants to be free. Free people will do whatever is pleasing to them. What is pleasing to one will be hurtful in some way to another. Free people will become indifferent to each other. Society will be impossible.
Duty, whether felt or coerced, is the only remedy to impose society on freedom.
Anne Torr
2 years ago
I think we’ll get a better idea when such centres start sprouting up here, starting in our Universities already in hock to Chinese money
Chris Wheatley
2 years ago
If you read the book ‘Free’ by Lea Ypi, the author describes her coming-of-age in communist Albania.
Big houses, which might have been owned by pre-communism ‘decadent’ people, are used as social clubs or charity centres. As a schoolchild your only possibility for entertainment on evenings/weekends is to go to one of these centres and help to look after orphan children, to join in maths games or to have communal singing.
Despite having no freedom to think, despite having to queue all day for milk, despite having no hope for the future except as a Party slave, the author makes this seem to be a warm and cuddly existence. Well written and informative as long as you don’t fall for the Marxist propaganda.
That’s interesting. It did occur to me that the Chinese have at least identified there is something deeply meaningful missing from our societies. Western governments don’t even seem to be aware of the hole.
Whether true community spirit can be generated from the top down is doubtful, and coercion seems to be built in with participation targets, but identifying there is a problem is a useful start point.
I’m not sure the CCP can really be ascribed a left or right tag. While they call themselves Communist, their rise has come about through hardcore right leaning Capitalism, especially the neoliberal reforms of the West. The only description that fits is authoritarian
I suppose, strictly speaking, “fascist” is the term that fits most closely. The state does not own the means of production, but it does control it. Of course, fascism is also a doctrine of the left.
CCP: doctrine of racial supremacy, check. Nationalistic ideology, check. Crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities: check. Irredentist foreign policy: check. Corporatism, with close links between industrialists and governing party: check. Authoritarian system of government: check. Control over sources of information: check. Cult of personality: check. Yep, definitely fascist. Only don’t tell the wolkies, they think that only white people can be fascist.
The story refutes that totally. Theos in Theocracy = God, and as they are an atheist group they have none of that. Mao did push the ‘Cult of Personality’, but that was totally discredited after he died by the ‘Gang of Four’ and Mao’s wife who had committed all manner of excesses with out his cult status so they would be tolerated. Future leaders decided to not go that way either.
CCP is an obedience-autocracy with is based on nothing but obedience, and therefore is existentially Nihilistic. In the West the Academics have created an Atheist Postmodernism Nihilism belief system which worships minorities. I doubt that would work in China though, it is just not their thing, so they are trying this plan.
Ed Cameron
2 years ago
“For the CCP, apathy is ultimately almost as terrifying as resistance.” Really? I’d wager that the CCP would be more likely to run a column of tanks over the resistant than the apathetic.
Just because there was one such incident in the past does not mean it is contemplated again by the CCP. If this were true, would they not have put down the Hong Kong campaigners with tanks?
The West badly misunderstands China because they think Chinese people are like us and that the CCP is a dictatorship in the style we have seen in the West.
Mike Bell
2 years ago
You can’t understand China unless you know a bit of history. Some important dates:
Waring States period
Century of Humiliation.
China united by Mao
Communism doesn’t work.
Deng Xiaoping reverts China not only to capitalism, but also revives traditional values (Confucius etc)
China develops into consumerist society.
CCP seeks to counter hyper-consumerism
Christian Filli
2 years ago
Probably the most important (and most terrifying) post by UnHerd this week. However, the title is very misleading, as this obviously has nothing to do with spirituality. The same phenomenon is already happening in the West – brainwash the masses and you create a very efficient bottom-up authoritarianism.
I prefer the actual quote by Pascal:
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God….”
I don’ know, but I think the CCP is trying to fill a vacuum in all places where markets and freedom are present or, especially, predominant. That vacuum is the place left by vanished duty. Great Britain and its Commonwealth may have been the last holdout of duty during World War I , when it was epitomized by Lord Kitchner’s “Your Country Needs You” recruitment poster and the response to it. In truth, that was but a rear guard action against the advancing forces of atomization released by who-knows-what many, many, years earlier.
Everyone wants to be free. Free people will do whatever is pleasing to them. What is pleasing to one will be hurtful in some way to another. Free people will become indifferent to each other. Society will be impossible.
Duty, whether felt or coerced, is the only remedy to impose society on freedom.
I think we’ll get a better idea when such centres start sprouting up here, starting in our Universities already in hock to Chinese money
If you read the book ‘Free’ by Lea Ypi, the author describes her coming-of-age in communist Albania.
Big houses, which might have been owned by pre-communism ‘decadent’ people, are used as social clubs or charity centres. As a schoolchild your only possibility for entertainment on evenings/weekends is to go to one of these centres and help to look after orphan children, to join in maths games or to have communal singing.
Despite having no freedom to think, despite having to queue all day for milk, despite having no hope for the future except as a Party slave, the author makes this seem to be a warm and cuddly existence. Well written and informative as long as you don’t fall for the Marxist propaganda.
That’s interesting. It did occur to me that the Chinese have at least identified there is something deeply meaningful missing from our societies. Western governments don’t even seem to be aware of the hole.
Whether true community spirit can be generated from the top down is doubtful, and coercion seems to be built in with participation targets, but identifying there is a problem is a useful start point.
That does sound like an interesting read!
The left scraping the barrel again.
I’m not sure the CCP can really be ascribed a left or right tag. While they call themselves Communist, their rise has come about through hardcore right leaning Capitalism, especially the neoliberal reforms of the West. The only description that fits is authoritarian
I suppose, strictly speaking, “fascist” is the term that fits most closely. The state does not own the means of production, but it does control it. Of course, fascism is also a doctrine of the left.
CCP: doctrine of racial supremacy, check. Nationalistic ideology, check. Crackdown on ethnic and religious minorities: check. Irredentist foreign policy: check. Corporatism, with close links between industrialists and governing party: check. Authoritarian system of government: check. Control over sources of information: check. Cult of personality: check. Yep, definitely fascist. Only don’t tell the wolkies, they think that only white people can be fascist.
Coming soon to somewhere in the West!
Zuckerberg is putting them into every Metaverse town square as we speak.
The CCP is a theocracy. This is the first thing needed to understand it.
The story refutes that totally. Theos in Theocracy = God, and as they are an atheist group they have none of that. Mao did push the ‘Cult of Personality’, but that was totally discredited after he died by the ‘Gang of Four’ and Mao’s wife who had committed all manner of excesses with out his cult status so they would be tolerated. Future leaders decided to not go that way either.
CCP is an obedience-autocracy with is based on nothing but obedience, and therefore is existentially Nihilistic. In the West the Academics have created an Atheist Postmodernism Nihilism belief system which worships minorities. I doubt that would work in China though, it is just not their thing, so they are trying this plan.
“For the CCP, apathy is ultimately almost as terrifying as resistance.”
Really? I’d wager that the CCP would be more likely to run a column of tanks over the resistant than the apathetic.
Just because there was one such incident in the past does not mean it is contemplated again by the CCP. If this were true, would they not have put down the Hong Kong campaigners with tanks?
The West badly misunderstands China because they think Chinese people are like us and that the CCP is a dictatorship in the style we have seen in the West.
You can’t understand China unless you know a bit of history. Some important dates:
Probably the most important (and most terrifying) post by UnHerd this week. However, the title is very misleading, as this obviously has nothing to do with spirituality. The same phenomenon is already happening in the West – brainwash the masses and you create a very efficient bottom-up authoritarianism.