Let's be honest, maybe democracy is not for everyone. This admission is difficult for me as I stood behind a president that took our country to war on the basis of spreading democracy. But just as companies fail when they try to enter new regions without first conducting the necessary due diligence, so do nations and ideals. We do a lot of things well in America, but we need to lose this assumption that because things work domestically that they will succeed abroad.
Maybe the United States went to war for oil, maybe it went for the purposes of spreading democracy, maybe a little of both. We believed that the Iraqi people were being denied a freedom of speech, a freedom to choose, and a freedom to vote. And hell, who wouldn't want those? As Americans, we believe that our American rights equate to basic human rights and to happiness. But to see why this is not true around the globe, we needn't look any further than China.
The Western media portrays the Chinese government as an evil oppressive group of men who slip babies the "blue pill" at birth to keep citizens in the dark and shielded from the horrors of the world. I imagined government officials lurking the streets and kidnapping people they've tracked online while other rebels slip into speakeasies to gripe about the local regime. Is China a communist country with regulations on free speech? Yes. Is it oppressing the Chinese people? That could not be further from the truth.
Taking a step back, when Americans study US history, we have just over 230 years to cover. The Chinese have thousands of years of history to study, and out of that history comes this weird thing called "culture." As a country without culture, it's hard for Americans to fully grasp this concept and how it affects every person, every day. The Chinese are a hard-working people, though their motives have begun to shift from country pride to self worth, but they are hard-working nonetheless. They are prideful, but also collectivist. It's engrained in their being to work hard while they have the ability to do so. The average Chinese man retires at 55, average woman at 50. After they pay their debt to society, the government takes care of them. They believe it is the government's responsibility to solve their problems. They appreciate what the government does for them. According to Hofstede's Dimensions of Natural Culture, the Chinese rank 3rd highest in the world in a category called "Power Distance," meaning they accept that power in organizations is distributed unequally (with the Russians being the highest as proven by their acceptance and love for Ivan the Terrible, Stalin, and Putin). There's something to be said for a one-party system, too. Ultimately, the government has the final say in anything that will affect the country--business, economics, social science, etc--but if it wants to accomplish a goal, guess what happens? It gets done. No bickering, no petty debating, just action. Need to rebuild an entire district by next summer for the World Expo? No problem, done. Need to enact a new governmental policy? Done. I'm sure the government makes mistakes, but instead of living with a terrible decision until the next vote comes around, it justs takes more action to remedy the problem. And you know what? The Chinese people are okay with that. As my wife and I toured the Temple of Heaven and witnessed seemlingly euphoric retirees singing, dancing, playing cards, and relaxing, she said, "These people are freer than we will ever be."
The only reason I know this is because I was there. Not to say that our government officials haven't, but did it really take President Obama 11 months to make his first visit? China is a country that, because of its growth, production capacity, and innovation, will dominate the globe one day. They're smart about it, too! The English language is circulating and growing in the country, and China is preparing to adapt to other cultures in order to maximize its potential for succeeding in business around the world. Can we say that 1% of Americans speak Chinese? Why don't we get it? What are we waiting for? Is it nieivity? Stupidity? Arrogance?
To stay with the "Matrix" analogy, you could argue that the Chinese people are shielded from the outside world and that everyone should truly know about the world in which he lives. But you have to first understand the culture and what is important to them. Just as we are having trouble establishing democracy in the Middle East, democracy would never work in China. But it doesn't have to, not every country needs democracy. Americans need to stop trying to change everyone and instead work on understanding everyone.
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