How the West Got China Wrong
Thomas Hobbes would have approved. Famously in the Leviathan he argued for a sovereign commonwealth, a sort of autocratic monarchical rule with no separation of powers. In order that the system be stable freedom of expression is subordinated to the sovereign as is the system of law an the free press.<p>Hobbes&#x27;s Leviathan is China. Because Hobbes lived through a very tumultuous period of strife and conflict what he optimised for is stability and peace and prosperity at the expense of individual freedoms like the ability to choose one&#x27;s destiny through either representative democracy or direct democracy.<p>If the lives of the vast majority of Chinese are improving, who is to say their system is morally wrong?<p>In fairness, the West only has itself to blame. Nobody with an honest heart can look at the post-colonial period and say that the West has not meddled in the affairs of other sovereign states. Also, many of the West&#x27;s so-called republics and democracies are very hollow and corrupt often veering towards plutocracy, the system of law and political legislation is controlled by money and so corporate lobbying and eventually even political capture by corporations is rife. Workers rights are trampled at home and abroad though international agreements. Corporations evade paying taxes, they pollute the environment, collective bargaining is seen as a communist horror rather a democratic good.<p>The West is in <i>no</i> position to point fingers. That&#x27;s what gets my goat up. Who the fuck do we think we are that we can tell others how to run their lives. What fucking gall. After all we&#x27;ve done? And we wonder why others respond indignantly and with contempt. I don&#x27;t blame them. Get your own house in order first as Peterson says.<p>No, the correct response the Xi&#x27;s power grab is not a suicidal arms race or political pressure. The correct response is to make the West an example others want to follow. We could start by taking back democracy by making citizen rule more direct so that people feel empowered. Let&#x27;s move to the Swiss model. Let&#x27;s reform the courts so that everybody has a fair chance, not the just the wealthy–it does not matter a whit if everybody is equal before the eyes of the law in theory if in practice they are not. We need to counter the evil of nationalism. We need to be sympathetic towards migrants. We need better separation of powers and we need to reject all forms of fundamentalism. Identity politics is a side-show, the arc of history is clear. Most importantly I think is that we need to place real limits on social media companies and we have to dismantle global surveillance, this is an evil so large it boggles the mind. We have to figure out how to combat rising economic inequality! We really do.<p>They built Leviathan, we built the Panopticon.<p>I recognise the freedoms we do have, such as my ability to criticise the system without repercussion, though if you agitate too much various agencies may open up a file on you.