Citizenship for the Masses
And here we're talking serious masses; what's the population of China now? Quick! before another few thousands are born...! Around one point 3 billion? Yup, that's a mind-boggling number, all right. Question is, how does one govern such an ever burgeoning host, a multitude of that scope?Well, 'way back when, there was the Imperial elite and then there was everyone-dreary-else. No empowerment of the masses back then. However, modernity and the 20th century erupted, and then when the great saviours of the great unwashed washed ashore on a tidal wave of change the impoverished became the overseers, while the formerly elite became history.
But for several decades China has embraced Socialist Capitalism, and they like it, they really do. The consumers in the rest of the world like it too. From what other source, save India, are such great numbers of the population engaged in cottage industries producing consumables of every and all varieties, including artwork of one kind or another for export abroad where eager purchasers snap up the spoils at a fraction of the cost it would take to produce their kind locally? Hell forget that! The markets hungry for Chinese imports aren't capable of producing that picky quality or quantity.
So China's economy began to grow, and grow and grow. Hong Kong and Singapore showed them how. Their vast human resources enabled this experiment to become a resounding (hear the clink of cash registers?) success. Now there's an ever-growing social-economic elite but grow as they might, this is one huuuuge population and left behind in the race to prosperity are countless (we're talking hundreds of millions, folks) others, who haven't yet caught up.
Time for a pep talk. President Hu Jintao has issued a series of what? adminishments? blandishments? They're certainly not couched in the language of grim Communist ideals, nor in the biblical language of the 10 Commandments. Still, who could possibly argue with this sterling list for good citizenship:
- Love, do not harm the motherland.
- Serve, don't disserve the people.
- Uphold science; don't be ignorant and unenlightened.
- Work hard; don't be lazy and hate work.
- Be united and help each other; don't gain benefits at the expense of others.
- Be honest and trustworthy, not profit-mongering at the expense of your values.
- Be disciplined and law-abiding, instead of chaotic and lawless.
- Know plain living and hard struggle; do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
And in the best of all possible worlds humanoid automatons whose computer-assisted cerebral circuitry finely honed to accept these aphoristic dicta for Life In The Chinalane, the outcome would be guaranteed. But, um, all these people, that teeming mass of Chinese aspirants are determined to achieve the optimum that life has to offer in comfort, personal security and dare we say, luxuries and pleasures?
How ya gonna keep them down on the farm once they've seen the New Economy?
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 16, 2006
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