What’s your price? People would often quote some absurdly large number, without truly understanding how inconsequential money is to the question posed. When a person looks to buy your soul, he will do so in installments, and he will tell you there are no refunds. This global pandemic is something we’re in together, but let’s not forget how we got here in the first place. Americans chose to compromise on our stated principles, looking to enrich ourselves by investing in an authoritarian government. Capitalism is a tool that can work wonders for people who know how to use it properly and with proper wisdom, but it is absolutely not in one’s best interest to sell weapons to someone who is deeply unprincipled. There was a hope by the public that opening up China to capitalism would liberalize its government. We intended to buy into the system and strongarm the Chinese government into changing their authoritarian practices. Where was the effort made to address the human rights abuses? Instead of making public threats to pull out of China, businesses continued to apologize for China’s savagry, keeping their heads down. Businesses quietly made excuses saying that if they don’t participate in the Chinese market, then their competition will do so anyway. Companies justify their participation with the conceit that they are morally superior to other companies, and so would not be vulnerable to the temptations put forth by the Chinese Communist Party. Each unholy compromise twists the soul; every excuse taxes the mind. Mistakes are forgivable, but today we are taught that any mistake is irredeemable, so rather than acknowledging our own wrongdoings we divert the attention to bigger fish. We have been conditioned through educational institutions and social media to avoid mistakes and to not get caught rather than learn and become better people. In a healthy compromise you need accountability. We didn’t hold China accountable for their atrocities and found ourselves controlled by their interests.

        Among the informed participants of the Chinese economy there are two classes of people: the one who is fully committed to the evils perpetrated by the Chinese government and the one who can’t face the reality of the evil they’ve been a party to. It is a moot point to discuss the former. The latter is in denial about their situation, being placed in a position where there appears to be no way out. I have witnessed Chinese students in America vehemently defend China and deny claims against the Party’s blatant human rights violations: imprisonment and “reeducation” of Muslims, harvesting the organs of Falun Gong practitioners, and cracking down on Hong Kong’s civil liberties, to name a few recent examples. The defense for these students is that their families are held hostage by the Party, but that’s precisely why one should revolt. Why choose to live a pitiful life of false security when you can take a chance at freedom? No, there is no choice between safety and freedom. How long until the Party asks for your mind and your body in service to a “greater good”? Those families that the Party keeps as hostages, they’re dead unless the Party is ended. Both classes live in the delusion that they won’t be affected by the evils of the Party whether by the safety of keeping their heads down or being too important to be vulnerable to the same consequences, but well, coronavirus is a thing.

        People tend to be complacent about problems until those problems are at their doorstep. Well, the China virus is knocking at their door, the door of every American family and hell the door of basically all the world’s families, China included. It’s not the literal coronavirus that people should have been vigilant for; it’s the panic and the people who spread the panic. COVID-19 is just a medium, a vessel for the incompetence of the Party and bureaucrats everywhere; let’s not single out China. Who is responsible for the mass panic? Doctors in Wuhan had reported the existence of the virus for months, and in those months the Party silenced doctors with the intention of curbing panic. Unsurprisingly, the virus spread and so did the panic. Rather than solving the underlying problem and acknowledging their own mistakes, China decided to reject America’s offer to help and instead impose draconian measures on its citizens in order to curb the spread. Now rather than taking ownership of the problem, the Party decides to pin the virus on America. Okay bro, you keep welding the doors of your citizens shut and leaving them for dead. I’m sure your credibility hasn’t completely tanked yet. I mean you have American news whores shilling out lies to the world. Even while the people of China are struggling to survive, the Chinese Communist Party is desparately trying to spin the narrative in order to retain their power. The handling of the coronavirus isn’t the first example of this kind of behavior, it’s simply the first one that has hit Americans and the rest of the developed world in a very real way. For a long list of Pooh and the rest of the Party’s misadventures, I recommend China Uncensored on Youtube. There has never been a more opportune time to reconsider our institutions and tear them down if we find this kind of behavior permeating them.

        I’ve been mulling over the phrase “if you see something, say something” a lot. In the context that it is often conveyed, this adage is often a mantra for good, but in practice, I have more often seen the principle behind the phrase ignored or misused. Describing the latter case, there are times when flaws are pointed out in an ineffectual manner, whether by timing, focus, or attitude. One should always consider the maxim “there’s a time and place for everything” but should never use it as an excuse for avoiding an issue altogether. Even with ill-timed or ill-mannered acknowledgement of a problem, there is still acknowledgement of the problem. I understand the necessity for prioritizing issues with the best possible knowledge, and I understand that people are truly ignorant of the problem at times, but it is the height of hubris to believe that you are ever safe from tyranny. Never take for granted the comforts that our predecessors died to achieve. It is not our responsiblity to uplift others from poverty, it should be our pleasure to. We should not profit off the misery of others, while turning a blind eye to their inherent flaws. We should never have done business with a system that is as ethically flawed as China without leveraging that influence to impose our values on them. How do I know the American value system is better than China’s? Well say what you want about America, but… no seriously, it’s a free country.

#partysover