As the Pendulum Swings
Make no mistake about it, the pendulum does swing. Yesterday, the Olympics opener in Beijing, proved to the world that the pendulum has swung back to the right — the east, the orient. If your professor once wrote the west as the West, then brace yourself as the East has proven itself worthy of both attention and admiration. To think that fifty years ago, the Asian continent just wanted respect and self-determination from its Western administrators. It has gone this far and in so fast a time. Indeed, the tigers of Asia have awoken and it has taken a number of prolific Western academicians to bash others in the head of what is about to happen. We should all enjoy this ride. But first, just how did we get here?
Let’s set our point A 500 years ago. The pendulum swung from the east to the west. Europe and moreover the Americas were in a time of darkness and unrest. Knights in metal clanged each other’s helmet looking to deliver that killer blow for a feudal lord fattening himself with large beef cuts and with the wives of slaves waiting in his bed chamber. Farther west, the Incas and the Aztecs were flourishing in their own way and in a remarkable light but still the action there was disconnect from the rest of the world. The action was in the east and had been there for some thousands of years. China was the darling, the Middle Kingdom and rightfully so as its emperors conducted themselves as emperors — pushing for the refinement in the culture and letters hitting the peaks of exploration with scientific and military advances. Arabia was then but a side story with desert routes paving the dangerous way for silk and spices to hit small and rivaling Italian city-states, notably Venice. India was isolated by towering mountains but also took pride in its Indus roots. Southeast Asia was another collection. So was the remaining Oriental empires. And let us not forget that Genghis Khan and the Mongols had devoured the Eurasian continent some centuries ago.
Then some supposedly crack pots of men in some small laboratory in Europe risked life and limb to find or concoct an all the more ludicrous artifact called the elixir of life actually came to the fold. They were the side show however for something deeper was allowing such changes to happen. It was nearing the time of Reformation and the establishment known as the Church was turned upside-down by the propositions of another seemingly crazed man named Martin Luther. People were changing and they were led to more productive lives. There is this argument that the Protestant ethic drives men to work harder and live more righteously. There is also this argument that people in the colder sides of the hemispheres are productive out of necessity. The latter I will argue against anytime for leaps in logic. The former however has been considered outlandish as it on the surface can not sum up or categorize in general all wealthy countries of the world. I will get back to this later. So the crackpots, trying to find the truth and hopefully for a divine meaning, became legit. So the princes and their subjects, though structurally in a backward mode of government, began to see the meaning of profit and enterprise. The mighty East simultaneously became stagnant as both China and Japan closed their doors to external contact and internal reforms. The outcome of Zheng He’s navy is the screaming example of this betrayal to progress. The Middle Kingdom, the empire capable of sending 30,000 men all for friendship and goodwill in Africa became the side show and declined to humiliation. Progress now was the battlecry. The establishments of morality and industry had to be overturned and sometimes it had to be done by the sword. Lives had to get much better and in the West, its speed was mind-boggling. It is to be understood that progress was the byproduct of deeper understanding of human existence. Indeed, why bother to excel if it were for nothing? The West found the deeper answers they long had been looking for. Progress in the West was reflected in the Scientific Revolution climaxed by the Principia book of Sir Isaac Newton and the Age of Exploration (and brutal expansion). I believe that it is not a coincidence that this coincided with the rise of the Protestant faith. Again, if it not had been for a profound change in a group of men, big as a society or as small as a denomination, progress in Europe would have been stunted growth. But it ceased to stagnate. Reforms were adapted. And by divine will, kingdoms who shared the same beliefs and the commitment to progress dominated the political arena. Which brings to mind the case of England. The once weak England, thanks to Queen Elizabeth and again, a changing worldview of the grassroots citizens, rose to unthinkable power and prominence. Just how prominent? It owned 1/3 of the world at its peak! This catapulted Europe to newer heights. Action shifted faster. The East lost its answers. It was swallowed by the Western tide. The pendulum had swung.
Allow me to skip the Modern Age as this was also fueled by the advances made in the West. Point B is set on the present. We just need to examine the two faces — the representatives by default of the East and the West to find out that the pendulum has swung. So how? I say an irony. I say a betrayal has done this. The West has been betrayed by its notion of progress; furthermore, by its notion of being human. Just what is that again? I identify three elements: speed, openness and diversity though not consistently over history. Now, my case in points. The United States is a bastion of the three as it is the sole country that can be the face of the West…or shall I say, its battlefield and laboratory. Speed and technology, though most of the time beneficial, is slowly betraying the U.S. People are living a poorer quality of life because of compromises they have taken in the name of productivity and that elusive material abundance. Openness has enabled the United States to adapt to the changes around. By embracing other cultures, it has kept its labor force strong and challenged. However, it has paid the steep price of losing its founding character be it patriotism or a deeply-rooted faith in God and country. We need not cite examples of how many lives has been lost to the American thinking of rights and too much liberty. I am not talking about equal rights here. I think it has saved American from further shame. I am talking about liberties given without a clearer explanation of why they are given and at what cost. Diversity has also betrayed the U.S. as it has allowed organized groups to operate near halls of power with an agenda to turn its people against itself. I am talking about terrorist cells no longer some urban legend but a reality inside America’s campuses. I am talking about the youth, using the same liberties due to them, to bash their government and weaken their stance all the more. The United States is on a decline. My explanation? It has lost its answers. It has used the three elements that has made it so successful to turn away from the absolutes of its being a nation — the principles laid out by its Founding Fathers. I weep for the West because of this betrayal to its spiritual call. I weep because Harvard University has lost its identity — let me remind me of its mission: which is to send out missions and reform the world in darkness and shambles. Now, it is the self-righteous liberal-thinking loose cannonball of human-centered genius.
China has found its answers. It is in resilience and commitment to country. It shames me that the Philippines —my country touched by such a profound belief in Christianity has failed in its purpose of building a nation. Though I have not given up hope after seeing China. What more for us? China, though not and I say not outright in its Christian faith is actually the one succeeding in one of Christianity’s biggest experiments: building nations. On the side though, let me make one thing clear about China and Christianity: there are reportedly 500 million (not 70 M) of them in small, house-based churches. Even Yao Ming has to be so proper and politically correct to say that God has very much blessed him over in CNN. Reminds me of the proportion of Protestants in the whole of Europe. Not a big percent, but a considerable force. And no, I do not think it’s merely political and economic reforms that has brought China to that prominence again. I think it’s because… it has found deeper answers. It has found its moral absolutes and it is sticking by it. Christians or not, China has resorted to strengthening itself from within instead of turning its strengths against itself. Cheap labor, poor quality, human rights, Tibet (oh which has been a Chinese backdoor province anyway since centuries ago) and the endless list of criticisms will always be there. Given the scale with which the pendulum of history has swung, one might consider these as exit costs or collateral. Now, millions are better off. The Olympics is the break-out party for the new face of the East and its cohorts in Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia are strong. Throw in the “Middle East” or Western Asia and you have the rise of the Asian Century. The West knows this. It is giving way. Even the one in the middle known as Russia has, at least in paper, chosen a side. The action is going to the East. Again, when the dust settles and history moves again, what be this force behind the scheme of things and in our lives? I dare say it has to be beyond human. For what changes a man to seek for progress and for a righteous way of living? Where do our absolutes come from? Let me go beyond what is religious and what is spiritual in pretense. I believe in encounters of another kind. Martin Luther had more than one. The Founding Fathers had glimpses of their own no matter their shortcomings at times. We have to find the deeper answers. We have to find them for the absolutes come from the truth that is out there. This truth is rational and is certain. And from it, nations rise and civilizations fall. What more in our lives, our simple and at times senseless lives? Let us take that Olympic leap towards certainty. As a marathon runner, let us endure. Then can we find progress. Then we can find peace. Then we can find meaning. Then the pendulum will finally be on our side.
Absolved.
Leave a Reply