@Pluto's Republic

Thanks for your commentary PR. I had some unexpressed reflections yesterday contemplating the "old song" I posted and the contrast between the wasteland at the end of the road to war, measured against a path to peace and prosperity. This is a central theme in the East. It's promise is rooted in the culture and born of thousands of years of continuous experience. Necessarily, the "realists" in the west are skeptical and seek to discredit this historical current. I wasn't going to comment on this because the topic seems too ambitious but your comments encourage me to do so anyway.

I think some analysts whom I don't deny are China experts in a formal academic sense, try to dismiss the concept of China as a civilizational state, spreading its influence by the power of its cultural example and way of doing things. They are not using an analysis I learned in a class on jurisprudence. This is penumbral analysis. One word or concept has many different applications. As one approaches the core meaning there is cohesion and certainty, as one enters the penumbra the concept starts to lose its applicability gradually. The loss of cohesion doesn't happen at a "terminator" that defines the meaning in all circumstances. It isn't black and white. It depends on circumstances in each instance and requires insight, experience and competence to discern. Yet many people cannot move beyond "You're wit me, or agin me." This is the language of propaganda.

Only in the most extreme circumstance, should one abandon the central values of harmony and peace. And even then one should be circumspect and act with great restraint. To abandon these values and resort to violence, signifies loss, poor leadership, poor governance and portends failure or worse. Sometimes, simply letting things take their course, is the way. One should not lightly abandon reciprocity. It can ignite a cascade of damaging events.

Civilizational influence does not necessarily equate to being "civilized" in all respects and at all times. But in the case of traditional East Asian thought, it's obvious that harmony and a natural order of things are to be valued highly; these values were observed to greater and lesser degrees over the centuries, in China and Korea and probably other Asian states, regardless of their unique national identities. Just because one values harmony as a desired cultural value, pursuing humanist goals that only peace affords, doesn't mean that you don't need an army to defend against barbarians or police to guard against public disorder, subversion, and even domestic civil strife. However preparing for conflict and war isn't a way of life as it is in the barbarian world, that is, as in the west.

The best way to avoid strife and disorder is to provide for your own people. This is done by promoting an ethical and behavioral code that respects reciprocal social obligations and rituals, like the ritual of diplomacy for example, respecting others, honoring agreements, and faithfully executing your duties, whether political or commercial. Cooperation in contrast to taking advantage of the other, or just taking from the other, the barbarian practice. In a related vein, it is best to promote learning, merit and achievement over who you know and who one sucks up to. The advisor to the emperor is supposed to give the best advice possible, even if it means telling him, at the pain of death, what he doesn't want to hear. In the cynical west, this is regarded as naive. Who does this in the US and has a future? The west has lost sight of the principle of civic virtue, if it ever was a priority. The west operates on the might makes right principle. The strongest take all. Whatever I can get away with. Tell your superiors what they don't want to hear? You must be kidding. Nihilism rules. This is a behavioral pattern that has very limited utility. It has a short lifespan. The rule of the jungle. In the short run, it may not appear to be so. Over the centuries it seems to be the way.

fwiw

#5.1

.....and profoundly important as the New Silk Road exists in this world. And that it is coming to fruition in our lifetime. It will change the world and empower humanity in unimaginable ways. The countries that it touches so far have experienced strong GDP growth and are undergoing social transformation. Advanced education is becoming a national goal. The Belt and Road is one of those remarkable human visions, like the pyramids or the great cathedrals that fascinate the human imagination. They all suggest a higher power that comes through the enhanced connections between individual human beings forming a collective whole mind — one of the forbidden secrets forcefully withheld from public knowledge and awareness. (Such as the anti-communist insanity and anti-socialist rhetoric that keeps humanity enslaved by the elite.) All of these achievements involve incredible feats of engineering and mathematics. The Masonry and many secret societies grew out of such projects, and the finished projects, themselves, became evolutionary triggers. But we cannot yet see this. That's why the Belt snd Road is so feared and loathed in the West. It establishes connections between individuals to cast a harsh light on the manufactured wars and false gods that undermine and waste the collective powers of humanity.