Yellow Dog [Part 7]

Marx,

After I make a couple of “historical” points—keeping in mind you believe any study of history written by anybody is a useless waste of time—I’m going to discuss something of critical importance that undisputed history confirms, but that does not rely on the facts of history.

About Tibet and Texas. I think if Texas had continued to wage its war for independence from the United States for 14 hundred years, we probably would have let them go. The fact of the matter is the people of Texas ultimately chose to join the Union. The people of Tibet have never offered China anything but a war of resistance. China should have let them go. Alaska also chose to join the Union. Puerto Rico stubbornly refuses to join, but the decision has always been theirs in accordance with Article IV of the US Constitution. China’s position on Taiwan is also untenable. If you accept the claim of the mainland Chinese, then the converse must also be true: Taiwan has a legitimate claim to mainland China! They’re all Chinese, after all. Mao had all of the natural wealth of the mainland with which to work. His communist utopia never materialized. The Nationalists fled the mainland and created something great on a relatively tiny island with no natural advantages. Now like all authoritarians through history, the Chinese government wants to loot the tiny island and pilfer its success. It’s like Great Britain, France, and Spain trying to retake the Americas. We were once subject to these powers, after all.

Thanks for inviting me to China! Of course, I can not take you up on the offer. As I thought I made clear, L and I have grown our family. I have twin, 2-year-olds. Did you not get the pictures? You’ve never acknowledged them [preferring to keep our correspondence official, I guess], but they are my heart and my soul. I could never leave them...not even for a summer. Besides, L can’t work and run this entire household by herself, and I wouldn’t ask her to. Am I not being brave, friend?

Finally, I do not share your view that there is no reliable information out there. There are honest, objective reporters across the globe from every nationality, every political perspective. They write honest, well-documented books, too. There is the unofficial media of the blogosphere. There are people just like you and me posting their experiences from day to day across the globe. There is uncut, unedited video out there. To compare these people with that piece of filth Michael Moore is most cynical and disingenuous of you. Reported and recorded history has never been more reliable than it is today because there are so many hands from across the globe actually writing it.

But, I promised an argument that does not rely on empirical evidence. Those most important arguments address the core of human thinking, i.e. philosophy. Philosophy is metaphysics [Your answer to the question: What is the nature of existence?] and epistemology [Your answer to the question: How do I know what I know?]. Ethics is a product of philosophy [Your answer to the question: What should I do?]. The political and economic systems we create are a result of our conclusions about ethics.

The most widely accepted Code of Ethics across the globe is collectivism-altruism. It is the code preached by every faith, nearly every government. It is the code used to justify socialism and communism. It is the code referenced by every authoritarian regime in history. It is the code that, stated most simply, places the will of the community above the rights of individuals. It is the code that demands that individuals sacrifice their own thinking to the will of the collective. It is an immoral code that has resulted in every genocide in history, millions sacrificed for the “greater good” of the collective...whether they call themselves Nazis, Muslim Brotherhood, or the CCP, all share precisely the same core values. All place the will of the collective above the rights of the individual. Your right to your life, to the freedom of your own mind and the products of your genius and/or labor, are always in jeopardy where the collectivist-altruist code is widely accepted.

The moral code upon which this nation was built, Individualism-Egoism, has been under fire from the left [in the economic realm] and from the right [in the social realm] for a hundred years. There are few Individualist [classical liberals, like the Framers, if you prefer] left. Our code is the one that pronounces unequivocally that there is no greater good than absolute protection of your right to your life, to your liberty, to pursue your own happiness.

Given their history, the Chinese may never be able to achieve this moral ideal.

Donn