Posted 27 Mar 2008 · Report post More news of China's path into the modern age.MIT Review takes a look at China's multimillion dollar project to control 2008 Olympics weather, a totalitarian PR move calculated to show itself in a good light, on the backs of millions of its own citizens:http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20463/In other news, not only has China cruelly cracked down on Tibetan rebels, its army agents in fact posed as those rebels in the first place, so as to to allow the military to have an excuse to come in and violently squash down any potentially dissenting voices:http://www.infowars.com/?p=1085 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 27 Mar 2008 · Report post More news of China's path into the modern age.MIT Review takes a look at China's multimillion dollar project to control 2008 Olympics weather, a totalitarian PR move calculated to show itself in a good light, on the backs of millions of its own citizens:http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20463/In other news, not only has China cruelly cracked down on Tibetan rebels, its army agents in fact posed as those rebels in the first place, so as to to allow the military to have an excuse to come in and violently squash down any potentially dissenting voices:http://www.infowars.com/?p=1085All powerful states have often used games/carnivals to distract the attention of the populace and show themselves as progressives, whether it was ancient Rome, or Hitler in 1936 or the 1980 Russians, and I'm tempted to add the 2012 NuLabour party Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 27 Mar 2008 · Report post No there's a difference here -- ancient Rome was not a totalitarian society but freest at the time, and they aimed at celebrating civilization and law amidst a barbarian world, not a grandeur of a totalitarian society and subjection of the human individual. But that's indeed what Hitler did try to emphasize by upstaging the Olympic games and trying to demonstrate the superiority of Aryan athletes (and failing); that's also what China is trying to celebrate today, by showing that no expense or human cost will bar it from projecting its outward shiny lustre to the outside world. Notice the exactly opposite attitude of the United States -- outward shiny lustre be damned, it's more important that people and sanctity of life be respected. As a result, in the West the lustre becomes both outward and inward. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
