Chomsky nails it, Tracy doesn't

[Michael F]

the Chinese?  Very interesting.

A quote from one my favorite essays by Frenchman Paul Valery.  In this
essay he discusses a conversation he once had with a Chinese scholar.
The Chineese scholar lectures him:

"In your land, power can do nothing.  Your politics consists in
changes of hear; it leads to general revolution, and then to reaction
against revolution, which is another revolution.  Your leaders do not
lead, your free men are forced to labor, you are afraid of your
slaves, your great men kiss the feet of the crowd, worship children,
and depend on everybody.  You are at the mercy of all the ferocities
of wealth and public opinion.  By now glance with your mind at the
subtlest of your erros."

Paul Valery "History and Politics(373)" 1953.

I see this presented in the fictions of Pynchon.

Mike

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 5:23 PM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> Maybe Obama should hand the mess off to the
>> Chinese. Let them take a crack at it. I read they have plenty of
>> Chomsky-types in China's prisons.
>
> The Chinese could free them and make a plan to make Peace in the ME.
>