Here’s a research project for you. What does China think about America? If you spend about 5 minutes looking through the varying opinions – especially those from Chinese nationals that have not been to America – you’ll discover that there is such a spectrum that it’s virtually impossible to conclude almost anything. Europeans, Canadians, even South Americans seem to be fairly predictable, something like: “we beg you for help when a tyrant invades” (WW2), “refugees flood in” (miscellaneous years), or “we need an alternative to our rationed healthcare and the Castros aren’t playing nice that day” (every-other-day). Yet for Europe and Canada beyond that it’s utter contempt of American individualism (aka liberty) as “selfish” and bravado about their unapologetic socialism. They won’t soon be electing another Margaret Thatcher, that’s for sure. They’re running out of other-peoples-money and they like it.
For South America, it’s a desperate and steady flow of those fleeing their various corrupt governments. No matter how many shockumentaries that Michael “Spin Doctor” Moore produces, the overloaded boats, Coyotajes, and all their brothers and sisters keep trying to get here asap. Only the elite in those places claim otherwise.
Yet with China, it’s anyone’s guess. What’s worse, their culture is so dissimilar to ours that even good English may not be enough for us to understand what’s happening there.
Sure, we can understand the economics. They’re on the down-slope of many prior fruitful years. Years gifted to them by progressive American policies that had an expiration date. Socialism has that downside for every society that has ever implemented it. Many of our excess blessings (this is a Christian site after-all) were given away by our leadership via one-sided deals. One-sided for the American people at least, not for the politicians that negotiated them. In the end we traded our high standards of human-rights at an equal exchange rate against their abysmal standards. Standards that would make most Southern slave owners of the 19th century look good.
Sure we understand the military. Chinese culture is incredibly traditional. Giant walls built by slaves a few thousand years ago are synonymous with artificial islands embattled with SAMS, warships blockading international waters, and nuclear subs off the coast of California (mostly still built by slaves). MacArthur’s March to the Yalu wasn’t as long ago as young people think (if they know about it at all).
What we don’t understand is the politics, because it’s not politics the way we know it. It’s tradition, it’s religion, it’s culture… it’s their meaning of life.
In China, atheism is more widespread than anywhere else in the world. Even more widespread than in a liberal progressive convention! As we’ve pointed out before, everyone is religious; especially those that claim not to be. A cardinal rule of communism is that theistic religion must be squelched to as near non-existent as can be accomplished. Why? Because, nationalism must be the religion of the masses. If it is not, they won’t be able to reduce humans to chattel without regular conflicts, riots, and perhaps civil wars.
Culturally, these are not people that will tell you what they think. At least not in the way we’re used to here in America. It’s a difficult comparison to make, because cultural issues are always confusing, but look at it this way. Imagine the most abrupt and opinionated person you know. They can sure make you cringe, no? Now imagine the most soft-spoken, even “shy” person you know. Chances are pretty good that even that “shy” person you know would make a Chinese national cringe the way you do at the outspoken one.
Don’t get me wrong. The culture isn’t “shy”, they are subordinate, and highly hierarchical. They simply “know their place” in a way that most Americans shirk entirely. They aren’t even deceptive, not by their own reckoning anyway. Rather, they are highly organized in their “honor” and their presentation of reality. So organized, that by even American liberal-progressive standards they simply lie, but it’s not that simple in their culture. As Pilate said to Jesus: “What is truth?” (John 18:38)
Their culture is their religion and much like a poker player, they stand to lose a lot if they reveal too much. Perhaps honor (which remains a value worth dying for in many Asian cultures), wealth, advantage… Whatever they stand to lose, you can rest assured honor is the top of their list. A severe problem for modern America and especially the politicians we send their way.
American politicians have no discernible sense of honor by most Asian standards. Not because some Americans don’t have honor, but because for Americans honor is defined much differently. So differently that we’re doomed to continue to elect less and less “honorable-for-Asia” people. Donald Trump is a prime example of someone that many Asians would see as no different than a prostitute. In fact, many prostitutes in their cultures would have more honor than “The Donald.” Don’t think of this as Trump-bashing, we’ve done that in other places, the fact is, anyone who speaks the truth in any form or fashion may well be considered as honor-less as Donald Trump. In other words, Jesus would be hated by them too. (NTS: if ever I need to really stretch the definition of “Christ-likeness” to accommodate Donald Trump, look here)
So what do they really think about the USA? Well, they’ve already told us. Over the years we’ve been less and less honorable, and the bribe we sent them via “Free Trade” thanks to Bill Clinton has been nearly exhausted. So whatever rhetoric Josh Earnest, Jay Carney, Gibbs, or any of the rest of our mouth-pieces spew through the anarchy we call “media” is as meaningless as their salutations, bows, and pomp and circumstance. They are preparing their defenses for the near future when they deploy their offenses. Not likely military offenses, not at first, at first it’s cyber-offenses. Then it will be fiscal offenses. Geo-political offenses… even proxy-war offenses. They’ve closed their door in our faces, hung a DND sign on it, and locked, chained, and dead-bolted it shut as they reinforce it with SAMS and Nuclear Submarines. They are about to do something we won’t like, and they’ve told us so.
It’s almost certain that Putin will be involved. Perhaps Iran too. Perhaps Kim Jong-Un. The latter will be an extremely convenient canary for that mine when they attempt to exploit it. Rest assured, exploitation is coming, and has already come. Their religion demands it, and when it does come it will not be foreshadowed by anything but more of the same from their social commentary. That won’t change a bit. It will remain – like a poker player – frustratingly neutral.
The atheist religion has some specific goals and the marching orders come from the principalities and powers of this present darkness. It may not be tomorrow, or next week, but war is inevitable unless all the people of earth are willing to surrender their theism to the god of this world. Rest assured, atheists may not “believe” there’s a Lucifer, but Lucifer doesn’t just know them, he owns them.