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China To Launch 2 Into Space In September
Doug Dante writes "China Daily reports that China's space agency plans to launch two Chinese astronauts into space for a 6-day mission in September. The spacecraft includes both a re-entry and an orbital module. The article, an official publication of the Chinese government in English, also extends a plain invitation for the U.S. to partner with China on space."
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!! (cough, Stalin) HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (cough, Hitler) HAHAHAHAHA!!! (cough, Napoleon) HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! (cough, Robespierre, various Russian Czars, Lenin, et al.)
No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
people don't revolt when, overall, living standards are advancing rapidly.
I work in the hard sciences and at one point a few years ago was part of a lab that had a large number of Chinese students and postdocs. Most of them were pretty indifferent to politics and were more or less permanent expats, but one was considerably more nationalist and intended to return eventually. He was pretty honest about their political system - he didn't consider it communist, but had no illusions about it being a dictatorship. I asked him why the Chinese put up with their tyrants, and he told me "It's because the economy and standard of living keeps improving. If we hit a depression, maybe people would revolt, but as long as the government seems to be increasing prosperity, we're inclined to ignore the abuses."
interesting that the 'totalitarian dictatorship' China uses 'positive' tools to manage the population while the 'anti-communist democratic republic' is today using negative ones.
There are many objections to this, not the least of which is that our government does not have the ability (yet) to exercise control over all aspects of life. The USA is under constitutional rule with a system of checks and balances and official accountability (yes, I realize this isn't perfect). The Chinese government is not. Which means that the range of "population control" devices available to the Chinese government is vastly larger. If this were China, Michael Moore would be rotting in Guantanamo. At least in America we have official recourse when the government abuses our rights or its power. I do think there needs to be more accountability and transparency in our government, but we did just have the opportunity to penalize our leadership for its transgressions. (An opportunity we missed, but this says far more about the American voting public than about our system of government.)
I realize the USA isn't perfect, and I didn't vote for our current abyssmal leadership, but I fail to see the equivalency between their system of government and propaganda and ours. Besides, the people I most often hear these complaints from tend to be the type who argue for a more powerful government, not less. I'm not averse to regulation, limited social welfare, and some taxpayer-funded programs (like roads, public schools, and scientific research), but I can't understand why anyone who wants the government to respect individual rights would trust their economic fate to a bunch of bureaucrats.