China: Update. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China concluded on 14 November after the Congress elected a new Central Committee and a new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
Comment: NightWatch will report at greater length as details warrant. The two most impressive themes that emerged from the early speeches were that corruption is a threat to the survival of the party and possibly the communist state itself and that the new leadership will have no latitude to compromise the communist political leadership. Political reform means measures to ease social tension and increase participation within the communist system. Put another way, free market economics with greater individual entrepreneurship will not lead to Western-style democracy or a multiparty system.
Phi Beta Iota: Democracy is a myth absent Panarchy — 95% of US citizsens have no idea what Panarchy means. In the US, corruption is the heart of the incestuous relationship between crime, religion, high finance, and the two-party duopoly. The only path to panarchy that is affordable and scalable and sustainable is that which creates a Smart Nation, the integration and purification of education, intelligence, and research. If those three are corrupt, the public remains a mix of “useless eaters” and “sheeple.”
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