Sunday, February 20, 2011

Impressive China

If what started in Iran a year ago has landed in China now, this is some serious news. There's not enough Islam in China to railroad this revolution (but there are a heck of a lot of cops to slow it down). I guess this would end up CCCP Redux, but who knows?
A better question than, "What's going to happen?" is "Why is it all happening now?" My gut feeling is that people all over the world have felt the sudden absence of the USA. In would-be Sharia dictatorships of the masses, the feeling that Obama would back their local dictators was about zip. This partly, perhaps, because of the idea that Obama represents a new flaccidity in the US and wouldn't defend national interests as usual, and part, as with Krushchev with Kennedy, the smart ones think it's a good time to catch Uncle Sam with his pants down. The incompetence is damned hard to miss out there.
With China, I would guess that a billion cellphones and Facebook are hard enemies for the government. Anyway, in a few years, there will be a lot different in the world.

7 comments:

Tecumseh said...

My gut feeling is that people all over the world have felt the sudden absence of the USA. In would-be Sharia dictatorships of the masses, the feeling that Obama would back their local dictators was about zip. This partly, perhaps, because of the idea that Obama represents a new flaccidity in the US and wouldn't defend national interests as usual...

I dunno, Rot. This point of view, which may have some validity (why not), sounds a bit too Americanocentric to me. Sometimes things happen just because they happen, not because of Bush or Obama or whoever. C'mon, you should know that.

Mr roT said...

Yeah, sure. The Germans went crazy on their own. Caesar made short work of them and then a couple C later and they're grilling Bratwurst in the Forum.

You need some big picture, Tecs. Enough of these compact manifolds without boundary. Add some boundary; let one go on an end or two; integrate by parts....

Tecumseh said...

Manifolds? Nah. How about reps of Lie algebras? Why don't you meditate on that, for a change?

Mr roT said...

\exp them for me and we'll talk.

Mr roT said...

Ahhh, Tecs says, but the world is totally disconnected.

Mr roT said...

Damn! Shoulda said,"Tecs fails to connect the dots."

Tecumseh said...

No dots to connect. It's all random.