Why Chinese world-domination would not be cool
0 Comments Published by Icon on Friday, August 22, 2008 at 9:26 AM.
1. We are used to white people running things
It would require change and people do not like change. Right now white people in are in charge and have been since everybody alive has been alive. This is the way things are. Nobody (except for maybe the Chinese) wants to mess with the status quo. There is comfort and stability in the things we have always known, in the sense of predictability we get from not having to learn anything new. The west is populated by white people and those they conquered, everybody is used to it and knows what to do.
2. There would have to be a different universal language
A difficult one based on completely different rules and one which is so arcane that it has become an emblem of things that are hard to learn. English is entrenched, even people who don't speak it know that their lives would be better off if they did. To have to switch over to a new master-language would bog the world down in decades of slogging through calligraphy classes and having to deal with the frustrations of mastering the speech of people who don't look like you.
3. Their movies are not cool enough
Sure, I like Jackie Chan and I like kung fu movies. Every once in a while. I could not subsist on them alone. Do they have anything else? I don't know, I haven't come across anything without martial arts in it and would probably find it hard to pay attention if I did. When I see Chinese people on the screen I expect people to start throwing kicks, otherwise I will not be entertained.
4. They are not varied enough
Part of why American culture took over the world, in addition to us speaking a variant of British English, and thus being accepted in all former colonies, is the fact that there are all kinds of people here. White people elsewhere can identify with the millions of European immigrants, and non-white people elsewhere can identify with the millions of non-white people here. It seems built for the exporting of culture. Everybody has an export market.
5. They didn't have slavery/immigrants to base it on
The melting pot (America's most marketable asset) is due to slavery and people running here. Nobody wants to run to China and they are not going to some vastly different shit-hole continent and hauling people away. They are solidly Chinese. I realize that there are subsets of Chinese people, but those subsets are not visible to most of us who are not Chinese, whereas anybody can tell the difference between, say, Barack Obama and John McCain.
Lest I be mistaken for a Jeff Foxworthy imitator let me point out that not only am I
not a redneck myself, I am a relative newbie to rural America. This list is somewhat more honest than anything you will hear in his routine or read in his (bestselling) books. It is not intended to be derogatory and is primarily based on my experience of this subset of country-folk.
1. Are you proud of being ignorant?
This includes but is not limited a refusal to try anything new, like traveling, or exotic foods. It's a belief that everything you already know is sufficient and that not reading or being interested in the world around you is an indicator of humility and being genuine.
2. Are you comfortable with squalor?
Picture the living-room in a mobile home in which every flat surface is covered with Wendy's paper-bags and cups, or pizza-boxes and there is dirty laundry draped over the back of the sofa. The air stinks from the smell of dirty dishes piled in the kitchen sink and the overflowing garbage-bin under the sink. On the living-room carpet there is an air-compressor that somebody took apart and forgot to put back together and several, Playstation 2 controllers. This is the home of a family of 5 in Northern Florida, and no, I did not make it up.
3. Can you handle people who disagree with you?
Fox News is their idea of fair and balanced,which means that they have no idea what "fair" is and are incapable of tolerating any opposing viewpoint. Voice an opinion contrary to what they believe and you will be met with bitter rage. The violence of this rage, exemplified by the Civil War, the KKK, the general malevolence of the American Right Wing, is what separates them from everybody else. The redneck is, above all, a person who cannot tolerate any form of dissent, even the implied dissent of not being exactly like him.
4. Are you obsessed with territory and the idea of being invaded?
Rednecks are paranoid, fearful, always have an eye out for people trying to take from them, which gives an insight into their own tendencies and intentions. They like the idea of law and order while they see it as being biased towards them. Their weapons-fetish is largely due to this fear of others.
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
not a redneck myself, I am a relative newbie to rural America. This list is somewhat more honest than anything you will hear in his routine or read in his (bestselling) books. It is not intended to be derogatory and is primarily based on my experience of this subset of country-folk.1. Are you proud of being ignorant?
This includes but is not limited a refusal to try anything new, like traveling, or exotic foods. It's a belief that everything you already know is sufficient and that not reading or being interested in the world around you is an indicator of humility and being genuine.
2. Are you comfortable with squalor?
Picture the living-room in a mobile home in which every flat surface is covered with Wendy's paper-bags and cups, or pizza-boxes and there is dirty laundry draped over the back of the sofa. The air stinks from the smell of dirty dishes piled in the kitchen sink and the overflowing garbage-bin under the sink. On the living-room carpet there is an air-compressor that somebody took apart and forgot to put back together and several, Playstation 2 controllers. This is the home of a family of 5 in Northern Florida, and no, I did not make it up.
3. Can you handle people who disagree with you?
Fox News is their idea of fair and balanced,which means that they have no idea what "fair" is and are incapable of tolerating any opposing viewpoint. Voice an opinion contrary to what they believe and you will be met with bitter rage. The violence of this rage, exemplified by the Civil War, the KKK, the general malevolence of the American Right Wing, is what separates them from everybody else. The redneck is, above all, a person who cannot tolerate any form of dissent, even the implied dissent of not being exactly like him.
4. Are you obsessed with territory and the idea of being invaded?
Rednecks are paranoid, fearful, always have an eye out for people trying to take from them, which gives an insight into their own tendencies and intentions. They like the idea of law and order while they see it as being biased towards them. Their weapons-fetish is largely due to this fear of others.
Black Rednecks and White Liberals
