China's wealthy bypass the banks
Tyler Durden
camera_lumina at hotmail.com
Fri Nov 12 12:14:51 PST 2004
>That is the revisionist version - that china was a free and
>capitalist society, therefore freedom is not enough to ensure
>modernity and industrialization - a proposition as ludicrous as
>similar accounts of more recently existent despotic states.
I can't tell if you're arguing me with or just yourself. You seem to equate
disagreement with your assessment with a viewpoint that is completely
opposite.
To say that China was "despotic" would, on average, be accurate. But then
again, one must remember that a form of despotism where the despots are
months away is very different from modern forms of despotism.
Today's China is in some ways similar to China during many dynasties. The
emperor sleeps some insect with a big, fat stinger awakens him and then he
gets mad, swats it, and then goes back to sleep. When the locals are fairly
certain the emperor is sleeping soundly, they go about their business.
Call it despotism if you want, but really it's essentially Chinese.
-TD
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