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Originally Posted by tirsales
That is correct so far. Nevertheless e.g. Mao tried to destroy the cultural heritage of the chinese people (e.g. religious parts).
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He tried to do rather more than that in his "Great Leap Forward". He was ultimately unsuccessful. Cultures change at glacial speeds. Indeed, that's one of the problems. Practices arise to meet changes in the environment in which the culture exists. It's possible for the environment to change in such a fashion that a practice can be anti-survival, but the practice became a cultural pattern which persists long after its value no longer exists.
Cultures can become insane, just as individuals can.
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One of the differences - a chinese has told me, I dont know if it is that important - the emperor should have viewed himself as being the "father" of the chinese people - what the actual regime does not.
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I think your Chinese acquaintance is qute right. The critical social unit in China is the family, and the society is tied together by relationships between families. China as a whole can be viewed as a family of other families, and the Emperor is the father of that family, who should try to do what is in the best interest of the family.
It's the old conundrum of authority and responsibility. A society needs people in authority to make decisions that affect the society. The problem is making them responsible to the society so that authority doesn't become simply a means of securing their own power and furthering their own interests, with a means of removing that authority from those who aren't responsible.
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Dennis