On occupied countries, the rareness of liberal democracies, a Trump rally, a plaque at West Point, an industrialist-monk, and more
‘Is Tibet a country?” That is the most Googled question about Tibet. A very interesting fact — highlighted by Sangyal Kunchok, of Radio Free Asia, last week. “Let us be very clear,” he said. “Tibet is a country. China invaded Tibet in 1950 and has kept it under military occupation ever since.”
Yes. For decades, people wondered, “Is Estonia a country? Are Latvia and Lithuania countries?” The Kremlin did its best to Russify them, even as it occupied and brutalized them. Beijing has done its own version of the same, to Tibet.
In the future, what will people be saying, and asking, about Ukraine?
• “I’m almost out of adjectives — dystopian, Orwellian . . .” Sophie Richardson, who is responsible for China matters at Human Rights Watch, wrote these words about this report, headed “New Evidence of Mass DNA Collection in Tibet.” This collection is for the purposes of totalitarian control.
• Here is what Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, had to say about the new U.N. report on China’s depredations against Uyghurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang region: “clear and devastating.”
• Since China has crushed Hong Kong, Hong Kong people need to go somewhere else, if they are to express themselves. Many have gone to Taiwan, i.e., Free China. TaiwanPlus, a news service, tells us about an exhibition in Taipei by Hong Kong artists: “Never Forget Your Name!”
• People need freedom like they need air and water. This elementary point occurred to me as I was reading this article, from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: “Two Iranian Women Sentenced To Death For LGBT Activism.”
• Liberal-democratic societies are so rare, they are borderline weird. “Almost accidental,” to borrow a phrase from Daniel Hannan, in this column. The norm in the world is blood-and-soil collectivism. A free and open society — that is almost contra naturam, like many good things (such as the teachings you’ll find in the Sermon on the Mount). I sometimes think that, here in America, we are living in a parenthesis. Living an exception. We are so lucky. How long will our luck hold out?
For generations, Americans have called their project — their republic, their way of life — an “experiment.” It really is. There is another phrase, too, related to a word I used above: “American exceptionalism.”
• In 2018, Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian leader, proclaimed, “The era of liberal democracy is over.” He is a hero of the American Right, perhaps second to Trump. Is Orbán correct? If his proclamation is true of Hungary — let it not be true of the rest of us.
• Two days ago, David French published an essay centered on Tolkien. Circulating this essay, David summarized,
Tolkien knew that the grasp for ultimate power meant that the contest between good and evil would be transformed into a contest between evils. The raw quest for power — even for allegedly virtuous ends — will corrupt all it touches.
Recently, I have been re-reading John Dos Passos — his journalism. David’s essay reminded me of something that Dos Passos wrote in 1948:
If there is one thing that mankind should have learned from the agonies of the last four decades it is that it’s never safe to do evil that good may come of it. The good gets lost and the evil goes on.
• On Saturday, Donald Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania. One of the speakers was Marjorie Taylor Greene, the congresswoman from Georgia. “You wanna know something else?” she told the crowd. “President Trump won the 2020 election. That’s right, we know President Trump won.”
As a reader remarked to me, “Why can’t Liz Cheney just let the issue go?”
• An article from the Associated Press contained the following sentence: “In one of the nation’s most important swing states” — Pennsylvania — “Republicans nominated Doug Mastriano for governor, even after learning about his leading role in Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election.”
That word “even” is interesting. Maybe “especially” would be better?
• The latest column of Matt Labash, I would like to quote the whole of. I will settle for one paragraph:
Telling the truth shouldn’t be considered a pose, to curry favor with one side or another. It should, instead, be the only available menu option. And if one side or the other can no longer tell the truth, no matter how long that has been “our” side, it no longer deserves our loyalty. Instead, it deserves our enmity. For such dishonesty doesn’t just make a mockery of truth, but of us.
The last several years have seen a dizzying amount of body-snatching and shape-shifting. People have shed their worldviews — even their personalities — for new ones. But Matt Labash remains the same keen-eyed conservative I met in the mid-1990s. Mirabile dictu, as Bill Buckley would say. (He was another keen-eyed conservative.)
• Since 2006, the writer known as “Allahpundit” has blogged for Hot Air. He will soon begin at The Dispatch. In a farewell column for his longtime blog, Allahpundit wrote,
Never forget, it’s not the 30 percent of Trump worshipers within the party who brought the GOP to what it is. It’s the next 50 percent, the look-what-the-libs-made-me-do zombie partisans, who could have said no but didn’t. I said no. Put it on my tombstone.
• A headline from Bloomberg: “McConnell Says US Recession Is Likely, Vows GOP Will Curb Biden’s Spending.” That would be interesting. (To read the article, go here.)
I recall a nugget from a Washington Post story, in 2019:
Trump recently told West Wing aides that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told him no politician had ever lost office for spending more money. Two people with direct knowledge confirmed that McConnell delivered that message in a June phone call about budget sequestration.
As I noted at the time, “He is a canny ol’ bird, McConnell.”
• Generally speaking, I am unshockable. But I was a little bit shocked by this:
For decades, the students at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York have walked past a panel of three large bronze plaques mounted at the entrance of Bartlett Hall Science Center that includes an image of a hooded figure and the words “Ku Klux Klan” written below it . . .
Uh-huh. What the . . . heck? The KKK is America’s ghastliest terror group.
• Can you be “a little bit shocked”? I’m not sure. Bill Buckley once asked me, “Can you be ‘very indigent’?” Upon reflection, we thought no.
• In Sunday School, years ago, a little boy said, “What the . . .” A girl in his class said, “Ooh, Tristan said a bad word!” “No, I didn’t,” said Tristan. “Yes, you did,” said his accuser, “you said ‘what the.’”
I wish you could have heard it. Priceless.
• A little more language? As I was writing something the other day, I thought, once again, “How weird is this language of ours, English! It’s a wonder any foreigner ever learns it.” When a person is “sympathetic,” he has sympathy for something. Or he himself is an object of sympathy. When a person is “suspicious,” he has a suspicion about something. Or he himself is an object of suspicion.
What a weird and cracked language. I love it so.
• “Kazuo Inamori, Major Industrialist in Postwar Japan, Dies at 90.” That is the headline over this obit. I was amazed at the following:
In 1997, he retired to pursue a life of devotion as a Buddhist monk, but was pulled back into the corporate world in 2010, at the age of 77, when Japan’s government tapped him to turn around the failing nationally-operated Japan Airlines.
• Want a feel-good story? I do too. Try this: “San Diego Zoo penguin fitted with orthopedic footwear.”
• I thought this was a really good name for a floral shop. It is, right?
• And to end, a billboard, an ad, that may make you smile. All the best. See you later.
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