This seems right to me.
I don't know what the cause is. But my guess is that it has to do with the KIND of threat that each adversary poses/posed.
We COULD acknowledge that maybe Japan had some things right. But we can't acknowledge that about China, without loosing our soul.
I don't know what the cause is. But my guess is that it has to do with the KIND of threat that each adversary poses/posed.
We COULD acknowledge that maybe Japan had some things right. But we can't acknowledge that about China, without loosing our soul.
https://twitter.com/mr_scientism/status/1372227593991290890
The fear of Japan was concrete: in near-mode.
We were afraid that they were going to out-compete us by just being smarter and better at the capitalism game.
They were another western-ish liberal Democracy, like us. But they were going to be better than us at it.
We were afraid that they were going to out-compete us by just being smarter and better at the capitalism game.
They were another western-ish liberal Democracy, like us. But they were going to be better than us at it.
The fear of China is different. It's is ideological, far mode.
Like, it isn't just that they'll win on the merits, but they'll win with (because of?) their evil system.
It's not just a material threat, but also a spiritual threat to American ideals.
Like, it isn't just that they'll win on the merits, but they'll win with (because of?) their evil system.
It's not just a material threat, but also a spiritual threat to American ideals.
We could learn and copy Japaneses systems and methods, but we can't copy Chinese systems and methods, because the latter are bound up in ideological commitments that are anti-American.
If we looked close at what works in China, we would have to face up to the practical tradeoffs of democracy and freedom of speech. We might notice that they have costs.
But, we're really proud of those institutions. We feel that we're better than the likes of China because of them.
So if we looked close at China, we would feel the fear of needing to face up to how maybe we aren't God-blessed for our Democracy. Maybe we're not enlightened. Maybe the American ideal doesn't work as well as we thought, and maybe other things work better.
This is an ego-threat.
(An "ego" is the story that an entity tells about itself to maintain coherence, so that it can act predictably to itself, despite being complex and multi-faceted.)
(An "ego" is the story that an entity tells about itself to maintain coherence, so that it can act predictably to itself, despite being complex and multi-faceted.)
A FULL cultural realization of even the _possibility_ of America's ideals not ultimately prevailing, would prompt a crisis of faith, or if you prefer, a cultural ego-death.
That's some heavy shit. You need to have a paradigm shift sometimes, but it is destructive. You don't want to do that all willy-nilly.
I posit America has a collective blind-spot around China because we can tell, from our "peripheral vision", that the existence of China _maybe_ undermines our organizing faith that democracy, freedom, etc. is the best system.
It would be critically bad (for our cultural suppositions), if what China is doing WORKS for building and having a good society. And we kind of suspect that it MIGHT work.
So we're carefully, if unconsciously, not looking.
So we're carefully, if unconsciously, not looking.
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