MantaRevan
Emperor
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2011
- Messages
- 1,537
I don't think democracy or human rights should ever be curtailed in the face of "larger national goals", but one thing China has right that the U.S. doesn't is that their country is ran by scientists and engineers and that those guys actually *have* "larger national goals" and a national vision. In the U.S. everything happens in 4 year cycles and national goals are an afterthought to ideology and political left vs right battles... (This is true to varying extents in other western nations, but we were talking about the U.S.)
Not only that, there is a depressing air of anti-intellectualism in the U.S., which you won't see in China.
It really seems to me that, when it comes to the actual government, in the U.S. it is often the case of "What does our ideology tell us to do?" or "What will get me elected?" but in China it is moreso "What is better for the country as a whole?" and "What has worked in the past and what does science tell us about this thing we are about to try?".
Now if someone could combine that pragmatism with democracy and human rights somehow..
This. That would be my take of things.