Civic Duty is Not Draconian Chinese Communist Control. Its Just Civic Duty. And Its What We Need Right Now.

I have fabulous news, the golden path, a wonderful insight for mankind to rally behind right now, for learning to meet in the wonderful place called the middle ground. That's greatly needed at this moment more than it ever has over the entire course of our lifetimes. People are getting more and more frustrated because its not happening.

Until now. As America has most recently come to realize, civic duty is not authoritarian draconian communist control.

On the contrary, civic duty is beautiful. It is admirable. Its good for society. It appeals to our idea of sacrifice, of reason, our adult sense of right and wrong, of pride in duty and responsibility. In this case, to doing our part to protect one another from a common enemy, the virus.

Today, I am seeing a spark of civic duty, glimmering in its hope. But before I explain further, let's do some interesting and important comparisons.

The countries of the U.S. and China begin at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. Yet they do meet in perfect agreement right smack dab in the middle in this place called civic duty. Who the heck can or would argue against civic duty? Wouldn't it be wonderful if these two countries could both finally just sit permanently together right in the middle in their stance on all things for the next century or so? Well, that's a fantasy for another time perhaps.

The good news however is that something magical is finally happening and that is our focus in this piece; these essential values to any thriving society do meet in the middle and finally I can see the glimmers that they are doing so right now.

Beginning on China's side of the approach toward the middle ground, we have a government whose responsibility to its individual citizens is to first provide those citizens with a stable society; this driving manifesto is for and on behalf of its individual citizens, responsible to provide them with a safe, stable, harmonious society within which they can enjoy living, including the fruits of their individual labors and efforts. For example, as employees of a company, as business owners, or simply as family households. And yes, within domestic Chinese society, individual citizens do have all of those freedoms; China is home to the largest, thriving capitalist money-driven middle class on the planet, estimated at well over 500 million people depending on how you classify and categorize middle class. But if they don't have a stable, harmonious society within which to pursue their lives, the government has failed them in its duty to them.

Equally so, in order for the government to be able to accomplish this directive, the citizens are expected to follow a sense of cooperative, civic duty so as to not "upset the apple cart", which could spoil the society in some way. Let me be clear in summarizing it this way; According to the way of the Chinese government system, you are not more important than the society in which you live. The laws regarding freedom of speech, for example, make it very clear that shooting off your mouth to make trouble is simply bad form. Its not allowed. It won't be tolerated. Don't do it. If you do, you are threatening the stability of the government and the society and that's a big fat no no because, paradoxically, every individual needs that stable society to live in.

In this model of governance, the government is pretty much everywhere and that is without apology or any false pretense that its not; the govt is doing its job, doing its part, hopefully fulfilling its responsibility and you couldn't get away from it even if you wanted to. Do you live, for example, in a serviced apartment multi-use tower building with a hotel on floors 5-15? Great, then its likely that once a month the local police knock on your door and ask for your ID. When they've come before and already know you, that's great, they pretty much just offer a friendly wave and smile. But if its a different officer knocking on your door, they have a job to do and they need to see your ID and they are going to ask you a few questions about who you are and where you have been this past month. You are wise to remember the previous officer's name from last months visit and offer a friendly, "Hi, thanks officer! Oh yes last month, your colleague officer Li was here, he's from the same hometown as my family!" Yes, these are often friendly conversations, not draconian oppressive control.

The reason they do this? Because such buildings tend to have lots of short term renters coming and going and they want to keep track of any riffraff. Why does that matter, you might ask? I already told you! To keep the society stable, to keep the neighborhood safe for you and I, the individual citizens who live in it. What a silly question.

But lets hang on a moment. Because back in the United States, cops knocking on your door once a month checking who you are will make the typical American feel like they want to get a lawyer and file a lawsuit for harassment because, after all, you are a "free" person, you have your "rights". And that's unfortunately, also why your neighbors are gun-toting gang members dealing drugs and you can't do a damn thing about it except live in fear. They have the same "rights" as you. Fun, huh?

So now you can more clearly understand the different way which Chinese look at supposed "freedom". You give up some freedom, give in to some control, so that you can live more freely, meaning safely, in the society. And if your government is doing a good job, guess what? This authoritarian central planning type government is pretty damn effective. But if not, then you're subject to greater violation of your existence and there's not much you can do about it. I think most folks call that tyranny and I recall a rather famous band of men who gathered together a couple hundred years ago and wrote a declaration of independence from a tyrannical England and well, you just might be familiar with that story...

In the United States system of governance, we approach the middle ground of civic duty from the opposite end. Your individual rights are paramount, inalienable and granted to you not by the government, but by the Creator of the heavens. Pretty cool, right? And make no mistake, it is really cool. What a wonderful concept, experiment and country.

Structure wise, the federal government doesn't want to dictate what you do beyond the standard set of laws and justice which is in the Constitutional framework of the country. The federal government mostly wants to allow the individual states to handle and dispense the workings of society within their state. The state, county and city governments in turn are supposed to leave you on your own day by day, interfering as little as possible with what you do and when you do it. You are truly free.

In practice, of course, no you're not and that's not what happens. Even in America, society is complex, government laws and rules are often oppressive, annoying and expensive, everywhere you look. In terms of business, you can't do anything without one type of permit or license or another. And that's for the same reasons as Chinese governance, to insure a stable society. In addition, due to technology, you now have close to zero privacy. Thanks to the device in your hand and all the information about your life connected to it, the govt knows pretty much everything about you all the time. It is so pervasively in your life that you may as well do the same as most Chinese, just forget about it and get on with enjoying your life.

However, in the United States of America, you do have the right to scream at the top of your lungs that the mayor of your city is the biggest jerk you've ever met and go to the voting booth to cast your vote to get rid of him. This also sounds great on paper and it is. But again, in practice, such freedom and rights have been substantially diluted far beyond their original meaning and value.

That's because whether this system of government or any other, the vagaries of corruption, the influence of power and money do get in the way and upset the apple cart of pure capitalism and democracy. For example, the person you voted in to represent your state is not beholden to you, they are beholden to lobbyists who offer them millions of dollars in donations and various types of contributions to get their support. What society needs is no longer most important.

As evidenced by what has happened to society, to the middle class in the United States, the system of government becomes irrelevant when it becomes corrupted. Beginning around the year 2000 with the repeal of the Glass Steagal Act by President Clinton, the republic, the democracy accelerated its transformation into the oligarchy it is today, controlled and run by the moneyed interests, the billionaires who have increasingly enriched themselves while neglecting the society. The rich became richer than ever by the billions, while for over the same twenty year period, the common U.S. household's income has barely increased, with their expenses growing and growing. We have Jeff Bezos worth over $100 billion while his employees don't earn enough to pay their bills, thus applying for govt subsidies. Thus, the govt is actually paying them instead of Jeff Bezos. Yet, he is worth $100 billion while the govt is in fact, broke, collecting far less in taxes than its annual budget. Jeff Bezos gets the cover of Time magazine and is admired by all. Sounds upside down and unfair and indeed, it is.

The evidence of this is overwhelming and found in countless books, even movies, so this is not just my personal opinion or whining. And much of what I just stated is exactly why Donald J. Trump was elected President three years ago. If you recall, he ran on a populist anti-establishment platform against those entrenched interests, no matter how much he and his own Trump family empire had benefited them along the way as one of the billionaire families.

Ayn Rand, in her classic book "Atlas Shrugged", refers to this phenomenon as mutant capitalism. When healthy capitalism gets ultimately taken over by greedy vulture capitalists pretending to be benevolent sheep, who just want to get really rich, and that part is pretty OK actually. However, they do so at the expense of the society. The pillage it. They suck it dry as a bone; capitalism becomes corrupted, ruined, they gut the middle class. And that's the problem with this form of governance and freedom. With nobody doing their job "of the people, by the people and for the people", with nobody making sure that corporate profits and shareholder value remain no more important than the stability of the society within which they exist, you end up with today's United States of America. Its a mess.

And that's the comparison which brings us to this wonderful moment today. Two diametrically opposed systems of government each with their own flaws; The accusation against China's government that it is relatively too restrictive on rights, allowing those in power to remain in power; the accusation against the United States' government that it is relatively too footloose and fancy free, allowing those in power to run amok.

And then along comes this damn virus. A biblical plague upon us all.

I listened for the past few weeks to the American government and many of its leaders and media pundits swear up and down that China's draconian authoritarian lockdown of human beings over the past few weeks was an affront to our freedom and rights, even abuse, that the Chinese government did it once again to control people, that it was just another example of China's abuse of human rights! Bad communists, bad! We westerners are morally superior to them after all.

Until yesterday. That's when something finally changed with President Trump standing at the podium. He got serious. That wonderful moment when the American leaders and citizens finally collectively figured out they should be shitting their pants. 15 days they said. They saw the writing on the wall, that China wasn't lying about how serious it was, that Italy and Iran were going through the same thing, with dead bodies piling up, and that the virus train wreck was really and truly coming soon for everyone else next.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about Americans in particular. Not at all, Because all people are emotional human beings who do what most everyone does in the beginning, they are in denial, frozen like the deer in the headlights, they suspend reality as they think "nah, that won't happen "to me" or "to us". Like that idiot who owns all the bars in downtown Nashville declaring last night that he refuses to obey the order to close because its "unconstitutional" Let's be sure to check in with him in a week or two.

We've hit the moment we have needed to hit and I see a blossoming of the middle ground;

Civic duty.

Yes, the ultimate inarguable value. Civic duty is a really wonderful moral and ethical concept that cuts through the politics.

All of a sudden, telling your neighbor who has the virus that he needs to stay home or the police are going to come and arrest him makes you feel safe. Good. Being told that if you're sick and hide it and get on a crowded plane, you'll be detained, arrested, banned from the airline, too. Yea, good. Following your civic duty for the good of others around you. Yea, good. That's the spirit. Mom already knew. She taught us this as children.

But wait, because that's not a Chinese spirit that motivates you, is it? Its not an American spirit either. It suddenly matters not at all what system of governance you live under or even believe in and demand. Your constitutional "rights"? That's an admittedly important but funny concept right about now, don't you think? I have the right to be an idiot and endanger everyone else and die and everyone else has the same right as me. Yea, OK. Not today.

What matters right now is this beautiful wonderful middle ground called civic duty. Cooperation. Sacrifice.

CNN exercised it today. Shockingly, Dana Bash in particular said it first, noting that President Trump was acting like a leader. I thought it might have been a deep fake fake news.

Let's have more of that please, from both President Trump and CNN. New York Governor Cuomo has just stepped up and shown his good character, too.

And so did Bayer corporation. They fired a woman who refused to comply with her 2 weeks quarantine orders back in China. Sorry lady, you don't have that "freedom" because if you have that freedom you're taking away everyone else's freedom. Get your butt back in the house and stay put.

I am sorry we have had to come to such an extreme place, with so much loss and pain. We all are, but that's beyond our control. I feel good because a glimmer of hope and light is in me. Because this is the first time I have seen these deeply divisive parties in a very very long time starting to arrive together at this beautiful neutral place called the middle ground.

So then that is my rallying cry right now. Not to say "forget politics". Not to say "forget the left and the right". Not to say "forget socialism vs. communism vs. democracy" Not to say "Trump vs the deep state" None of that. Let all of that go right now.

We have found the magic place, civic duty, the paradise where every man and woman, where every mother and father and where every leader, politician and pundit willingly embrace one another to do exactly and only what needs to be done right now, where nothing else matters, not even your own opinion or feelings about it. You do what you must with character and integrity.

Lock down. Shut it down. The world needs to go camping for a month. Shut down what needs to be shut down.

Just like we did so perfectly in China. I know, I was here. I have been here for 21 years. I know what we did. Believe me. China is not bullshitting you about it. We locked down and we conquered the virus here in one month's time. And now we're heading back towards normal.

We know what can be done. The entire world can do the same.

Willingly locking it all down. The perfect middle ground that transcends every conflict and every political idea. Civic duty.

#Shutdown2020

#Civicduty

Now.

God bless you all, every person, every country.

Mario, Shenyang, March 18th