Hitler would smile. Slavs murdering each other. Jews and Arabs also murdering each other!
士为知己者死 Perhaps China can offer you a way out?
All the people in that photo up there are dead. Guess how?
How we got into a world where Hitler’s work continues the extermination of Slavs and Jews is an interesting question. A more important question is: How we get out of that particular living nightmare? They are related issues. I have ideas thereto.
Miss Reading China
Basically if you don’t even speak or read Chinese you can’t hold yourself out as an expert on China. China has a history of at least 5000 years. If you wish to claim expertise on China you better know all that too, as well as geography. You also need to know Chinese philosophies, not just Marxism Leninism Maoism but also XJP and of course Mohism, Legalism, Confucianism, Daoism. I know at least a little about all that but guess what? I don’t claim to be a China expert! It’s not the typical Chinese / Confucian humility. It’s prudence! Do you think I can tell you why Wei and Chu fought, who won, why? Of course not! Yet, history shapes the present and informs us of all the path dependant variables which make current outcomes very likely to be similar to past ones! It also isn’t willful blindness, or secrecy on my part! There is a VAST amount of material to know. Speaking of vast, did I mention the Hongmen, aka vast family? One lesson of Chinese history is, even if you are a great person, noble, a 大人,君子,you, even with your family, even with your clan, are just one person in a sea of people an ocean of time. You seriously think you can control it? Can you even know it? But, if you know it you can influence it, and the better you know it the more you can influence it.
If you master yourself, you master the world. If you know China and understand it, only then you can influence it. “Know yourself. Know your counterpart. 100 Battles. 100 victories!” Sun Tzu, Rules for Soldiering.
China says Israel's actions in Gaza have 'gone beyond self defense' (cnbc.com)
Taiwan seeks 'peaceful coexistence' with China, president says - CNA (channelnewsasia.com)
Mazu - Goddess of the Sea (chinaculture.org)
The Imperial Dragon Calls Court
In the face of the war in Israel, China has summoned its trading partners.
Here’s a great example of Western misreading. There’s so much to correct I don’t even know where to start. But go ahead, eat that right up, and don’t be surprised when your misreading bites you in the ass: As Belt and Road Forum Convenes, Time to Rethink Narratives on China’s Economic Coercion – The Diplomat
If - and this is a big if - if China can marshall productive labor in the impoverished world to improve the lives and well being of hundreds of millions of people maybe, just maybe, we should cheer, hm? Where do you think all that cheap walmart swag comes from? I’m not into swag, but most of the rest of you are, and if you imagine returning to the model of autarchic national economies even possible well, expect all that cheap swag to disappear and be replaced with guns and tanks which are pretty useless and hopefully never to be used. “Decoupling” or even “mere” in-sourcing isn’t realistic. You like stuff more than poverty: not my fault, nor my case. I’m totally fine with bitter poverty. But most of the rest of you like prosperity more than war. Health is far more important than wealth, and about that, in case you failed to notice, Americans are now a nation of fat drug addicts. Congratulations, you were self-indulgent and oh-so-tolerant, except of course toward the actually poor. Fuck them. No money in that! So don’t even imagine yourselves capable of the hard economic realities of cutting off Chinese productions from all those fat murricans。If you can’t step back from the all-you-can-eat buffet, or narcotic drugs then you sure as hell can’t step back from the dollar store. This without mentioning the idea that maybe, just maybe, a world where Slavs, Jews, and Arabs are committing murder-suicide is horrible and something we should all be working to change.
《竹枝词》刘禹锡 Bamboo Branches Commanding Words, Liu Yuxi (唐)
杨柳青青江水平,
闻郎江上唱歌声。
东边日出西边雨,
道是无晴却有晴。
The willows so green, the red river’s waters so peaceful
Hear so clear the voice over the river sing
On the eastern side the sun peers forth
on the West side the rain
on the road the weather is not clear,
despite this it is clear… [who draws near]
Clear = Known plain text, or known key (cribs)
East=China
West=NATO
Weather the storms of the times
The poet hears the voice singing of their beloved, so despite the mixed weather, the poets mixed feelings (desire, apprehension), hopeful expectation prevails.
山不在高,有仙则名。水不在深,有龙则灵。斯是陋室,惟吾德馨。苔痕上阶绿,草色入帘青。谈笑有鸿儒,往来无白丁。可以调素琴,阅金经。无丝竹之乱耳,无案牍之劳形。南阳诸葛庐,西蜀子云亭。孔子云:何陋之有?
We burn poems into our brains in peacetime so we can evoke them in war to send secret messages. Not Sorry. This house has virtue.
Israel's Gaza Ground Offensive Looms. What Might It Look Like? - YouTube
Learn Chinese:
Otherwise, no one serious will take You seriously when you try to talk in depth about China. 希望
Did you know? China is the largest contributor to U.N. Peacekeeping.
BRI is only first step in China's strategy for a new world order - Nikkei Asia
神殿为我敞开门。Religions’ Notes
You may find it helpful to see yourself as the divine incarnate, the embodiment of the god form, to see yourself as good, divine, and here to do good to all creation. "Man at birth, is quite good, but by habits, paths diverge." 人之初性本善 -三字经
It may also help you to see that everything is alive, mountains, trees, rocks, streams, planets, solar systems, to see the universe as a giant living organism, whose constituents change forms .
The power and attraction of religion is that it promises to recreate basic family structures. As a child, most of us enjoy, or suffer, at least some form of parenting. Most parenting appears to be benevolent. Now imagine if either or both of your parents were good, perfect, all-knowing, all powerful, eternal, immortal. Who would not want such?
So for example the Chinese Goddess Mazu, which may be seen as a form Aphrodite or Maria, is the Goddess of the sea. She protects sailors, provides them food, brings them home safely or at least offers a quick and merciful death. Adults long for people s powerful as their parents were or should have been.
Hopefully understanding the social impulses which explain religion we can better appreciate its power and attraction to enjoy its benefic aspects and channel contain and control any malevolent aspects of religion.