From Refuge Farm, we are watching America having a train wreck. It is a curious thing that features some of the political theater that often accompanies change, particularly if it is change many people do not desire. There are things going on that challenge conventional wisdom. For Boomers, it is problematic. As kids, we saw the Civil Rights struggle through the passage of voting and civil rights laws, and then the outbreak of violence that followed Dr. King’s murder. We lived with the laws that were passed then, which became a litmus for managing people in government and private activities all of our professional lives.
The tumult is supposed to be resolved on Monday and passed to the Senate for action before midnight next Thursday, so I am glad to be nowhere near The Hill. It is useful to get a rare flash on what else is going on around us and could contain flashpoints to which we are currently paying scant attention.
I saw an article by a man named Eric Worrall that captured some of the events we were vaguely following, and focused on the context of China, not the domestic circus. If China news penetrates the domestic maelstrom, you may have noted the current real estate default on top of the pile. International impact of that potential collapse is uncertain. 73 container ships are offshore California ports waiting to offload, impacting supply chains and distribution. Military provocations continue over the Taiwan Strait, which may reflect imminent activity. But there is more to it than just the highlights, reflecting some familiar aspects of the social madness that is inflecting Western social values.
Worall summarizes it as though it is 1960s America: “Chinese authorities are struggling to contain their version of a rising 60s style hippie movement.” The results have gained a name: “Tangping” or in English, ‘Lying Flat.’ It is a philosophy of dropping out, ditching high pressure jobs and “going back to the land.”
For Boomers, a lot of that is way in our rear view mirror. Still, there are other parts of that time that have morphed into a Gaea worship movement wrapped in climate hysteria that may alter energy production and rearrange a jumble of modern and ancient global rivalries. The details evoke the mantra “Tune in, turn on, Drop out.’
That translates to Chinese Millennials quitting the ‘996’ work culture to live ‘free of anxiety.’ I had to look up the numeric term. It refers to a workplace schedule of 9:00AM-9:00PM, six days a week. That is a standard 72-hour week. In contrast, having just celebrated our Labor Day, we passed the 40-hour work week on the eve of WWII.
There clearly is an issue of increased stress in this, but also on the block are other traditional values. Those include hard work, home ownership, marriage and children. For some, these are being replaced by taking low-income jobs or not working at all. That is the trick that has the government worried. The previous national policy issue, solved by top-down imposition, were decades of the one-child household mandates. Begun in 1980 under the looming population boom, the policy was not rescinded until 2015. There remains an entirely unbalanced generation 35-years in the making.
In practice, the limitation skewed demographics profoundly. Male babies were preferred for economic issues, 400 million births were prevented, and an aging population increasingly needed support. The “surplus” of young males- some 33 million in this age group- also introduces external pressures on national policy. For all sorts of purposes. All productive labor is necessary, or the complex social structure could collapse.
Read more if you wish: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-23/tang-ping-lying-flat-generation-rejecting-chinas-work-culture/100477716
That is only a drive-by treatment, and hardly authoritative. There are other interesting issues spinning their own webs in the Far East. Some of them are capable nuclear submarines expanding operations across the ocean commons. Others on that Sino-theme include the Taiwan issue. Potential consequences from a kinetic struggle could be horrific.
What are the internal pressures on their decision-making process? Should we do something, or should we just tangping?
Copyright 2021 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com