Re:Hong Kong Backs Down on ‘Moral Education’ Plan
by ChuckMcM on Saturday September 08, 2012 @06:52PM
(#4494291)
You are fighting a losing battle here I think but it is a reasonable question. In political studies folks often use economic success as a proxy for evaluating the quality of governance, by that analysis the US system would score highly. and African feudalism would score poorly. However such discussions are fraught with conditions, such as what are the natural resources available? What are the hindrances? China makes an interesting case because its economic growth under strict communism (Mao's model) was quite poor, whereas its economic growth under a more capitalist system (Den Xioping's model) has done much better. But its also perfectly valid to wonder if economics is a good proxy. What about life expectancy? happiness ? hunger?
Ultimately though you are going to run into debating philosophy and that makes for wonderful rhetoric but few conclusions.
Re:Hong Kong Backs Down on ‘Moral Education’ Plan
by andrewflnr on Saturday September 08, 2012 @07:10PM
(#4494334)
Aren't all those other factors pretty strongly correlated with economic success? "Happiness" is obviously slippery and hard to measure, but to the extent it's not dependent on the individual's choices, it depends a lot on physical/emotional/economic comfort. And money works pretty well for getting medicine and food.
Re:Hong Kong Backs Down on ‘Moral Education’ Plan
by ChuckMcM on Saturday September 08, 2012 @07:29PM
(#4494391)
Yes, they correlate, although the causal linkages are subject to debate. It is is also one of tenets of American politics sort of "If you're so good how come the economy has tanked while you were driving?" this encompasses both the evaluation criteria and the assumption of causality.
As a thought experiment, consider what a hoplite educated in a Spartan agoge would think of your views. What about an aristocrat educated in Antonine Rome, or in France under Louis XIV? Would they share your sanguine views on the wisdom of the People? If not, why not? How confident are you that you are right and they are wrong, and what is the basis of that confidence?
None of this is a defense of current Chinese government policy. My point is that using official education for brainwashing and political indoctrination is par for the course in a country founded on the principle of popular sovereignty. One consequence of this is that virtually every educated Westerner, including most readers of Hacker News and the New York Times, has been exposed to the same sort of brainwashing and political indoctrination decried by the protesters in the OP. One effect of this is a reflexive support of popular movements of all sorts without an appreciation of the potential costs of that support.
Louis XIV might even have been sanguine, but his descendant Louis XVI would know what I mean.