From: Bo Xiong <xiong@BSU-CS.BSU.EDU>
Subject:      Forwarding: Re: On Elitism
Reply-To: Bo Xiong <xiong@BSU-CS.BSU.EDU>
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 20:15:37 GMT
Comments: To: china-nt@uga.cc.uga.edu

The following is a forwarding, standard network disclaimer applies.

-------------------------- Forwarding Begins ---------------------------
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 11:42:25 -0500
From: ~{QG9p~} <yawei@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: On Elitism

As a part-time net junkie I have trouble keeping up with many of
Mr. Anonymous' great works, and I have to beg his pardon for
instances where I might have to ignore his comments. While grateful
to him for all the hats he have bestowed upon me in this holiday
season, I do find at least one of the hats to be slightly unfitting.

I was taken by surprise by his latest accusation of elitism (6c).
I spent over half an hour trying to connect what I have said with
elitism, and for the life of me I could not find a connection! I was
profoundly confused by Mr. Anonymous's generous accusation. But then
again, maybe I shouldn't.

If my memory doesn't fail me, I already have received another hat from
Mr. Anonymous a few days ago: an anarchist. I have the feeling that
these two hats do not fit on top of each other very well. If Mr.
Anonymous is really one person, I do wish that he would make up his
mind. Santa Claus would have been more careful.

Drawing on one of Mr. Anonymous's secret weapons, the powerful
"parallel syntax inference" technique, I ran into some profound
discoveries. Apparently every time when someone suggests that
CCP -- the power elites of China today -- should give some democracy
and liberty to the Chinese people, it was always saying: the Chinese
people does not need democracy, they need to concentrate on surviving.
Democracy was some fantasy cooked up by some cultural elites,
the "bourgeois liberal intelectuals". (Somehow the term "bourgeois"
has been left out by some members of this net.)  I.e., democracy
is really an elitist notion! Somehow I seem to see a lot of
parallelism between Mr. Anonymous' accusation and CCP's excuses,
and I would like to borrow Mr. Anonymous' expertise in this area
to resolve the implications here.

The best example I can think of a place with lots of fortified
boundaries was China in the early to mid 1970s. The citizens,
especially the peasants, were strictly forbidden to travel even
a few miles from their residence without official paper. The
result was a harsh deterioration of the people's well-being. In
the 80's we are seeing some of China's internal and external
boundaries loosen up, and we are beginning to see an economic
revival. It seems an average citizen would very much like to see
the political boundaries/restrictions eliminated, which would make
it a populist, rather than an elitist notion.

If we come back and really look at what all the boundaries are for,
we would see that they are there to serve the interest of the elites.
They help to keep the power elites in power, and they help the
economic elites to maintain their economic advantage. This would
seemingly make the abolishment of political boundaries an "anti-
elitist" notion.

I don't have enough time to examine the rest of Mr. Anonymous'
hats one by one to see how well they fit. I do feel that maybe
there has been an excessive use of such labels on Mr. Anonymous
part, and I do hope that he doesn't think label making is a
substitute for rational debate. I really don't think labeling
your opponents as tree-hugging, frog-kissing liberal inteletual
cultural elite weirdos is an effective tactical weapon. Even
the Republican Party is having second thoughts, you know.

I must confess that I have indeed hugged some trees, though I'd
denied having kissed any frogs. As to the suggestion about extending
our love beyond human kind,  I don't think it is a bad idea.
To borrow from Mr. Anonymous' words, we are all in the same boat
together (you know).

I haven't seen any good (or even so-so) arguements for patriotism
that warrant a comment, so I guess this concludes what I have to
said on this thread.


   Ya-Gui Wei
   Dec 11, 1992

-------------------------- Forwarding Ends -----------------------------

Forwarded by Bo Xiong in Chicago
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china,soc.culture.hongkong