1. How China Can Defeat America
Very interesting article that posits China can overtake the United States by focusing on cracking down on political graft at home and incubating a stronger Confucian model of morality that eliminates the vestigial and pervasive human rights abuses the current government continues to sanction. Author asserts that if China can get a firm grasp on a moral highground by getting its own house in order, it can begin credibly projecting power and cutting into American alliances with far greater ease. While he also puts forward that China’s military is less experienced, well-organized and technologically advanced, he doesn’t really touch the question of cyberwarfare, in which it seems China has both a willingness and a sophistocation to carry out to their strategic advance (ie – eliminating all of those American advantages and levelling the playing field). What I find kind of funny about this is that it’s a suggestion that China should basically follow the American model, which has resulted, as we see in the present-day, with eventual decline and contraction. Any rising power that seeks hegemony should, before it embarks on that fateful journey, do some soul-searching and decide whether they’d be better off avoiding the role of top dog.
2. The Limits of Altriusm/Ethics/Empathy in Human Behavior
This article touches on some familiar old studies about what human beings are capable of doing to one another as long as they can diffuse accountability onto others (groupthink), or claim they were given orders, etc, etc. It also discusses a recent study about how individuals who make ethical choices that challenge the group are frequently ostracized by the conformist group, even when the individual’s ethical choices are validated, simply because they did not conform.
3. More on Gingrich, And How He Could Win
Consider the source (The Weekly Standard) and the author (Fred Barnes), but this is a somewhat plausible argument for how Gingrich could, against heavy odds, secure the GOP nomination over Romney and go on to beat Obama. If the suggestions that Newt has gotten control of his tongue and developed the discipline to avoid his frequent self-destructions are true (I somewhat doubt it), then great. But even finishing out the primary and general election season with a perfect performance won’t eliminate some of his more damning past misstatements that make easy fodder for the Democrats (his indirect Paul Ryan bashing, for instance, would make a great soundbyte on how even Gingrich, before it became politically convenient, admitted the right wing had overreached in the GOP, etc). He does demonstrate what other conservative candidates miss: that challenging the premise of the questions you are asked can be a winning strategy, and provides ample opportunity to teach conservatism via soundbyte to a nationwide television audience.
4. Hitchens On American Exceptionalism
Hitchens examines the accidents of history that led to the rise of the United States and the fortunes of its predecessors, and bemoans the focus on the amorphous, quasi-spiritual concept of American exceptionalism as a litmus test for conservatives.
