I don’t follow the Olympics, even when they’re held in countries I like (except, of course, for Norway). But I’ve heard a lot of talk today about how the Olympic organizers replaced video of an actual little girl who sang a solo at the opening ceremonies, and replaced it with that of a prettier little girl, lip-synching to the first girl’s voice.
I’m amazed that anyone finds this surprising.
This is China, still a Communist, regimented society. The reason we care about the feelings of a little girl is because we’re burdened with the cultural baggage of the West. For the progressives of China, a little girl’s feelings are a matter of no consideration at all.
They tell me the whole opening ceremony production was a tour de force of human beings made to operate like pixels on a computer screen. Why should Beijing care about any one of those human beings? If one of them were to drop dead, he could be replaced by another human being, equivalent in every way.
For the Communist Chinese, you can give a little girl a pony, or you can shoot her in the head. Either course is good or evil, not because of what it does to the girl, but because of how it effects the Great Movement.
China may have been Communist in the past. Now it is not. For example, private property is allowed – but everything important is owned by members of the elite. I suspect they reverted to form, which for them is Confucianism.
It’s an improvement, because Confucianism is inherently conservative and does not require violent revolution. It’s still inferior to western values. The feelings of little girls still don’t matter – but at least those of their grandfathers do.
I believe we will eventually assimilate China, but it will take generations of their elites sending their young adults to get educated here and our Disneys and VeggieTales entertaining their kids.
I’ve heard that both ways. Their system is still centrally controlled. The devaluation of the individual is, of course, traditional Chinese. But I’ve heard the Communism issue addressed both ways. I’m not really qualified to judge, but I tend to believe that Communists always lie, especially when they deny they’re Communists.
I feel badly that the little girl can’t have a sister with whom to talk about this.
That’s an excellent point.