Eastern Philosophy

The Chinese corporate elite aren't in charge though. The Party is in charge and the Party might let elites in but it's never stupid enough to give them a set of keys.

China went from socialist to capitalistic under the party's rule. They cut themselves a very generous slice of the pie - they are the corporate elite.

What, did you think they had all that power sand said, "Let's give away our possessions, and create ambitious new rivals that want to cut us down to size"? That's not how corruption works.

Lieh Tzu is readable

t. foreigner who has never worked in a Chinese company

Confuscianism, and to a lesser extent Shinto and Shingon school Buddhism preach ancestor reverence and duty to family, that is what republicans site. they probably read a few Confucian aphorisms about heritage and called it a day. It's the same reason a lot of liberal politicians site The Brothers Karamazov as their favorite book, 'old book written by christian author' is all that most people would know about its plot, and that's all the politician needs

The term is corporatist, not capitalist

Fascists called it the third way for a reason, the government still has supreme power over the economy

bump

All right. Was persuaded by the book and it was a Korean who basically helped me to get my student loan paid off, so I thought they were all right. But I heard some horror stories over there as well about business also. So fair enough user, I'll de-tfw that one.

bumping this interesting thread with excerpts Chicken Soup for the Confucian Soul. I bought this book, the Chinese said it was terrible, I enjoyed it, it's not super-profound, mock me, etc

>seriously tho keep going this thread is really interesting

youtube.com/watch?v=ulS-Wsb0IHs
youtube.com/watch?v=9kPERixWpnM

>tfw when I pointlessly conflate Koreans and Chinese
>tfw digging my own hole ever-deeper
>save me from myself anons

I know this might not be too related to the thread but seems like a good place to ask.

I want to learn about Buddhism but have no idea where to start, I've been thinking about checking out the Dhammapada but I'm not quite sure. Also I'm not particularly interested in a specific school of Buddhism (Therevada, Mahayana or Vajrayana). I want to learn about the philosophy of Buddhism, I guess.

Just read and understand this.
Basically this is the only important work in the world.
Every answer is right here if you're strong enough to take it.

This is true religion stripped of all politics.

Can confirm. Soho was the mentor of Miyamoto Musashi. Kind of a thing.

If you think you can learn about the "philosophy of Buddhism" without learning about specific schools you haven't done your pre-research.

Saved attached from a previous thread. You may find it helpful.

this really good website called google.com faggot

This list wouldn't really explain Buddhist philosophy but rather the religious aspect of Buddhism.

uhhhh wasn't the prime minister found to have let like 30 000 members of his family have executive positions?
china is corrupt af too. their economy is also slowing down so they're becoming more repressive (a sign that things are not going very swell). eventually, they're gonna have to make a jump to being a service-oriented economy. it'll be slow. and very, very painful.

Also Buddhist philosophy is completely inaccessible unless you understand Japanese or Korean other than entry-level Zen historical/lineage texts.

Economy slowed down cause they couldn't maintain their GDP growth by building projects extensively that their economy and population couldn't keep up with.

Don't be such an idiot it has nothing to do with repressing them.

...

You don't learn Catholic philosophy by reading the Bible.

>and very, very painful.
Would it be extremely painful?

Nice bait

If you have a truth boner you might not like eastern thought as much. Many philosophers and great political thinkers have a very "these words will make you think of x, which will get you closer to getting my point" way of writing, so you may find yourself struggling to accept some of what they're getting at.

I recommend you grab the book of tea by Kakuzo Okakura first, as it's short and was written to introduce a western audience to eastern thought by a bilingual Japanese Taoist between the world wars (so no possibility of poor translation).

Afterwards I'd go with the Tao.

Chinese corruption is different though. Not better or worse, but there's still a line between the corporate elite, the self-made "new rich", and the Party elite.

You'll need multiple lifetimes to get through that reading list.

I'm interested in reading the Tao Te Ching. Is there a consensus on what the best translation/edition is?

You think the two or three rewrites of Zen Mind every year is the pinnacle of Buddhist philosophy?

>Eastern "philosophy"
What the fuck happened to Veeky Forums that this thread is being tolerated?

>Although enlightenment through any form of literature is unlikely.

True but it helps.

Jay Garfield's translation and commentary of Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamakakarika is great, as is Huntington's The Emptiness of Emptiness which contains a translation of Candrakirti's Madhyamakavatara. There is good shit out there and you're a snide shit hole who would rather assume posture of superiority than direct someone to something worthwhile. I bet you don't even know what you're talking about though.

It would be much better, desu.

I find the post-political nature of Asian societies to be a relief.

I hate whenever I come back to be amidst this trench war of ideologies and some shitty group, be it alt right or BLM or whatever the fuck is new, stirring shit the next week.

And we don't get anything in return for it. What we get is this constant unease.
They have just as good a living standard as us over there. Not to mention it's much safer than over here.
Free speech? Who gives a flying fuck really. As long as the government provides. As long as you have a society based on laws and norms. What we get with all our bullshit is chaos constantly in a 50/50 fight with order. Over there chaos is mostly subsumed... And I like it.

Of course I meant to say it's much safer over there.

I see a lot more cops here than over there. Be it Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, whatever.

First of all, i have to give a shout-out to my man here for sharing with us the words Truth Boner, which is absolutely top shelf. god i wish i could play guitar

I share your feelings. I lived in Korea for several years and found it to be basically exactly what /pol/ dreams about. The worst part about it was honestly the foreigners who acted like assholes and fucked everything up (like me, until I settled down a bit)...

I think is right though, and in my own experience (very limited!) i can confirm: the unease is there, but it's all managed and kept kind of out of sight. Comes with its own problems.

But yeah, I mean...I didn't intend to stay over there as long as I did, but it was really great. Never made it to Singapore but everybody I knew who did said it was the world's greatest city, hands down.

Maybe I should be working on my 2nd language skills...I loved Asia, I really did. In the *very* brief time I was in Japan it's not like that feeling went away either.

It's why I read Chinese philosophy all summer. Fuck it, maybe I'll get back into it again this winter.

Thanks for prompting this, kind user, you're making me remember some very good times.

>The worst part about it was honestly the foreigners who acted like assholes and fucked everything up

What did they do that bothered you in Korea?

I was particularly bothered by the foreigners in Shanghai and Tokyo.
I never met more "muh dick" idiots than I did there. Sexpats truly. Not to mention the fact they get drunk/high on such a basis that it's not even funny anymore. They get the crappiest of the girls of course ( it's not a perfect world, but def far far better imo ).
But they're far from "cucking" Asian dudes. I saw lots of happy couples ( you probably too in Korea, they even dress the same haha ).

As much as this website tries to convince us blacks are the biggest degenerates.. Truly... Black expats are far more well-behaved than the whites there, believe me.

Basically just confirmed too many negative stereotypes about Westerners, and who failed to realize how outrageously good we had it. It was just a thing that I became more sensitive to as time went on and I slowly found myself just liking the place enough to want to be on the side of the general coolness of things, and try to respect it. I really liked the city I was in, the culture, all of it. Felt right at home after a while.

Saw lots of happy couples, although the same-dress thing never caught on among the foreign/native couples. Still pretty charming.

I didn't really notice any disparity among shitty behaviour, but I'm sure that black co-workers got the shit-eye from students. The thing is that you can actually see what might be called 'real' racism over there from time to time, but it's not like it is here, with people losing their minds over getting triggered and so on. Like students saying they don't like getting handouts with black people on them, and you say, don't be retarded, and they stop, and that's the end of it.

I never even gave two shits about politics or Trump or any of that while I was over there. Now that I'm back I fucking care way too much about it and I don't actually realize often enough how much I sound like an ass. 2015-2016 were pretty crazy years tho.

Made me realize Confucianism is a superior ethic and Taoism is a superior metaphysical outlook, without getting cocky about this realization towards others, or even start proselytizing. Not even gonna ponder if we should import it. Not gonna happen probably, Westerners will take their sense of superiority with them to the grvae, so why bother.
It just works for those societies. That's it. And it provides.
And all our crusades seem so petty compared to it.

Nothing but agreement from me there sir.
I happen to really like philosophy and for me Confucianism/Taoism is awesome. I really love it. Don't get me wrong, the Western tradition is boss as hell, but I've gotten into a perspective of complete economic determinism at this point and Chinese thought makes me feel really centred about all of that. The Great Learning, Analects, the TTC, Xunzi...I don't know about the other anons in this thread but I thought it was super interesting. I read a lot of Western stuff first, and you always want to have a balanced perspective on stuff, but yeah, the East is a beast.

I mean, of course, with 1.3+ billion people I have no illusions that China is going to be no utopia. But Chinese philosophy gets me, as they say, right in the feels. And it is very pragmatic. I mean, any philosophy carries with it the potential for abuse and so on, but I have to say, Confucius gets me. I mentioned earlier that I enjoyed Yu Dan's book as well. It's not super-deep, and the Chinese themselves shit on it, but I liked it. Maybe just the way it fit in my hand. I don't know.

One of the best (and short!) texts I read was here, enjoy if you're into that stuff.
faculty.smcm.edu/jwschroeder/Asian_Religions_2015/textdownloads_files/Confucius chp1&2.pdf

Plus there's also Alpha Centauri's based neo-ubermensch Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang for vidya fun.

you're fucking retarded

Are chinamen even aware of their own histories? Doubt it.

You guys live in the same Asia I do, right? Confucius fucked shit up over here. I know so many Chinese who are immensely unhappy because of the pressure placed upon them by their culture, Chinese who have friends who killed themselves in high school, Chinese women, for instance, who every week are lectured by their parents that they should quit their careers and get married and have kids already because otherwise they're going to be failures. Not that China doesn't have a great culture in many respects - it does, Daoism is the tops - but I think you're both romanticising this stuff a little much.

*a* utopia

Sorry user, it's getting late over here and my typing skills are starting to go to shit.

Sorry user. I know it's bad over there. I will admit to being still more on the romantic/sentimental side of things by nature, so I tend to get blown away by most things I read, esp philosophical literature.

I don't mean to trivialize life over there, b/c no doubt you have more experience with China than I do. So I'll admit to romanticizing this stuff to some degree because I feel so thoroughly exhausted with the West sometimes - was maybe just the buildup to this year (and, of course, the sense of what may follow from it). For whatever reason I find that thought very good at lockpicking the conceptual traps that Western thought I feel sometimes winds up in; and who knows, maybe it would be just as possible to see things the other way. I only have this one perspective, and I try to be as open-minded as I can.

Being in a conservative part of Korea, which is already a pretty conservative country, painted a good picture of things for me. But I know life isn't the same everywhere.

Korea seems a lot more...relaxed. Like China or Japan but doped up on capitalism. Over here it's crazy, and most foreigners are willing to blame Marx or Mao but really the biggest problem with China is that Confucius is still number one. Don't be sorry, though. Admiring these things too much is way better than the haughty tone most expats end up taking about Asian society ("why don't they just do things like us", etc.). It's good that you're so interested still.

You guys keep talking about how you saw the light, but what are your specific criticisms of the west? Not trying to offend, genuinely curious.

what's some good Chinese philosophy my dude?

Cool, thanks. It was pretty relaxed (well, when I left - getting pretty crazy there now, it seems). I also worked for a really good company, which is rare. So yeah, Asian thought still appeals. In the end maybe it's just that I'm sick of existentialism and deconstruction and I quietly like religion but not theology. Confucianism and Taoism (and to some degree the Vedanta) fit the bill. I'm sort of all over the place, but I try not to be a complete dilettante and actually try to have *some* idea of what I'm talking about. In that PDF I linked to above the author really nails what I like about Confucian epistemology, that's it's about conscience, the discrimination between possibilities, and not the tragic or fateful Choice that...well, I have some questions about.

I've been considering the possibility of doing some more overseas teaching, this time in China, but everything I read is depressing as fuck. I know a little bit about how foreigners tend to talk about their own companies, so I don't take everything too seriously. At the same time, etc. How are you finding it there? You said it was crazy, want to elaborate? Not that I want to talk too much about work, because I'm very happily unemployed right now and catching up on reading, but at some point I will have to enter the job market again and I had thought about seeing China first hand.

>Confucius is still number one.
yeah plenty of western people do not like this

>maybe it's just that I'm sick of existentialism and deconstruction and I quietly like religion but not theology.
Ever check out pic related? He's like a French Xunzi, and ironically you can trace Nietzsche back to him through Flaubert (and then through Baudelaire).

For example he accurately predicted that science was a purely a dissecting force and advised that, like the Romans did with the Greeks, an empire ought to let a subordinate state in charge of that if it were to be long-lived.

Wall of text inbound gents.

For me at least: too much second-rate Nietzscheanism, Heidegger I love but probably does not belong to the computer age, deconstruction is exhausting and I grew up on it, Baudrillard I like but his whole thing was a lament for modernity, Jacques Lacan I believe in but desire needs a little mystery, Rene Girard is where I am today but he says I have to read the Gospels and I don't want to. That's quite a summary but more or less it. I can go into further detail or specifics if you like. If you like my opinions (and who doesn't? hey now), there's a thread around here somewhere about the Frankfurt School where I am pontificating a fair bit on these things.

Oh man, what a question. I can only tell you what I've read and enjoyed.

1. The good old TTC. I like the Lombardo translation. Also the Wen-Tzu by Thomas Cleary, which is fucking incredible and totally slept on.
2. The Zhuangzhi didn't do it so much for me as I would have expected, but it does contain the story of Cook Ding, which is inexplicably wonderful. (bopsecrets.org/gateway/passages/chuang-tzu.htm)
3. The Analects, Doctrine of the Mean, and Great Learning. Plus Yu Dan, who is just cozy and nice to read.
4. The disciples, interpreters, and rivals: Mencius, Xunzi, Hanfeizi, and Mozi.
5. Sun-Tzu, of course. Once you realize he is a Taoist it makes more sense. Ralph Sawyer's book of the Seven Military Classics is also quite interesting.
6. Historians and other writers you can generally trust: Roger Ames, HG Creel, virtually anything translated by Cleary.
7. If you read all of that stuff you'll have earned the right to watch a few episodes of the based 2010 adaptation of Three Kingdoms, in which Chen Jianbin/Cao Cao steals all the scenes.
youtube.com/watch?v=_8rkcJ5sYDI&list=PL46NnZF5rkhehGRuhnGUI0phBmYmFposP

That's plenty. And I loved this shit. I loved that they were thinking about war and peace, ontology, conscience, all of that. That they were relentless monists, and didn't go in for dualism or the linguistic turn or any of that. Chinese philosophy, so much fun.

shit thanks for the thoughtful post user, got the analects hauled up now will get on it

I love de Maistre! Never thought of him as being a French Xunzi, but that is a crazy interesting thought and I guess makes sense, now that I think about it. I also had no idea about the Flaubert/Baudelaire connection either...that's good stuff user, thanks.

Gotta go with the awesome Vogelstein portrait. But yes, de Maistre is that dude. I read the reflections on France, part of the letters on the Pope, not yet the St. Petersberg dialogues. Completely looking forward to it, though.

Basically I used to think religion was for pussies or goofballs who couldn't handle Nietzsche. Thankfully I'm less obnoxious now. Religion actually seems pretty interesting to me now...

no problem, was glad you asked. enjoy!

I was the guy talking to you about Taoism in that thread.

Yeah, those guys were already contesting progressivism way before post-modernism came around. It's funny seeing who influenced who in Western philosophy because when you things get a lot less dogmatic. Take how Schopenhauer was dircetly influenced by the Upanishads. But nowadays it's been mostly reduced to Marxism, Nietzscheanism filtered through Marxism and some psychoanalysis.

Jung might be another guy you might want to check out if you're interested in religion as a form of social cohesion instead of repression.

Also Stirner as much of a meme Veeky Forums makes him out to be. If you can get a social plan that can address Stirner in any way you know you have a solid foundation, because he really doesn't pull any punches, runs with the assumption that men are a heap of desire, and leaves everything behind.

>Go wif the frow
>Be nice
>Obey famiry
>Respect aufority
>Become junzi

Wow I just summed it all up.

Ah yes, cool. I looked into those excerpts you suggested, much appreciated. I presume you selected those specifically b/c of stuff we were talking about in that thread, which makes them more interesting than usual. Thanks again, that conversation is interesting.

It's funny, you're the second person to recommend Jung to me recently, and he's someone I have hardly read at all (although my father is crazy about him). And of course, there's Jordan Peterson now, who also likes Jung...noted.

Max Stirner...ugh. I read Ego and Its Own about six years ago and I really wanted to fling that book out the window. This was before I came to Veeky Forums, where I see him popping up on Veeky Forums all the time. I really was glad to see the end of that book, if only because Nietzsche seemed to be so much more enjoyable to read. But different strokes, I guess.

Given that you are into the Tao, you might enjoy Heidegger. He was fairly well-received in Japan, and I've read a fair bit of East-West stuff where people compare his thought to Taoist stuff. He's famously dense at first, but then something clicked for me and the rest of it was smooth sailing.

I'm into psychoanalysis today, and I've started a couple of threads on Veeky Forums that seemed to be popular. There was one guy who was really into Hegel who was good to talk to. But yeah, Eastern philosophy...it makes a lot of sense in a kind of practical way, which is ultimately what analysis is supposed to get one moving towards. Economic determinism has for me kind of taken the bloom off the rose of much Western thought, b/c I just see capital, capital everywhere now, and philosophy doesn't have that nice feeling of reading the Republic and really feeling like you are thinking about the noble, wise, and good life. Deconstruction permanently monkeyed that up. Fortunately there's Confucius.

Or zen, if you just want to get right out. The Unfettered Mind is a good read, as suggested. I've always been tempted by the monastic life.

Anyways gents, it's getting late over here and I have to turn in. It's been a pleasure, thanks for making Veeky Forums the cool place it is.

Don't the asians have their own version of Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau? Don't they have a deeper understanding based on philosophical texts in regards to what is man (Is he an individual part of society, or a human part of the collective?), how and what should ideal politics look like in Asia and all that?

I basically want to find what keeps the Asian civilization alive in terms of moral, intellectual and spiritual baggage.

For example i know the Chinese are very collectivist. That they favor the group instead of the individual, and thus they put a big emphasis on things like family and state. But i was wondering if any of my assumptions regarding the Asian world are true, which is why i want to dig deep down and get a clear perspective on the cultural and social picture of the Asians.

Read the Mulamadhyamakakarika by Nagarjuna. I know, it's a mouthful

just a question, how old are you guys who are making all the sweet posts? You seem very knowledgeable and have a lot of life experience, and I feel like a relative pleb for knowing nothing.

>Max Stirner...ugh. I read Ego and Its Own about six years ago and I really wanted to fling that book out the window.
I can totally see Stirner being horrible if approached in a certain way, yeah. I think you need to be working on certain assumptions to really get all the juice out of him, because he builds up on Hegel and the discussions that were going on around him, so he's extremely compressed and has you reconstruct a lot. The first chapter of his book alone sets up a complete metaphysical and political stance in only a couple of pages, so if you trust your first impression it'll just seem like he's spouting a lot of nonsense in order to beat his chest--which is a part of what he's doing but far from all of it.

As for Heidegger, he's been on my mind. Specially his views on time and thrownness interest me. I'll check him out. I have to say, it's nice having omeone so eager around.

Seriously ... do the asians have no in depth philosophical treaties on government, politics, society?

Did they just rationalize the family and authority over the entire course of a couple of thousands of years?

You guys need to get over philosophy, east and west.

Buddhism for Dummies, second edition.

I still don't get this book

That is a typical analysis, yeah. But remember 100 years ago that America had practically no international relations either.

Believe it

It's kinda sad they chose to public under the "for dummies" brand because the book is written by three leading academics.

You mean just like Europeans rationalized God and Man for a couple thousand years (and still do).

Pretty much all Chinese phil has political content. Even something as poetic as the Tao Te Ching is intended to be a guideline for government. Rousseau's spiel was already a couple centuries old in China by the time it surged in Europe. "Chinese philosophy" is also far from being a Confucian monolith because you have at least three other big schools which are distinct from it (Moism, Taoism, Buddhism), and even then you have people inside of it which glaringly don't agree (Mengzi vs Xunzi).

Why don't you actually try to look at this stuff and see what you can do with it before complainng that it's not like what you're used to? Why the hell would you want the whole planet to be like the West anyway?

In fairness, we've mostly been talking about Chinese philosophy here, but Eastern philosophy does include India. So maybe the Arthashastra is what you're looking for?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthashastra
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanakya

And you can read it for free right here. Enjoy!

lib.cmb.ac.lk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Arthashastra_of_Chanakya_-_English.pdf

Got to love that typo, but English is probably not the first language going on there. Still tho.
What happens when you put Kierkegaard and Machiavelli in a blender?

Spies, that's what. Lots and lots of spies.

>Fiery spies, hidden in an underground chamber, or in a tunnel, or inside a secret wall, may slay the enemy when the latter is carelessly amusing himself in a pleasure park or any other place of recreation; or spies under concealment may poison him; or women under concealment may throw a snake, or poison, or fire or poisonous smoke over his person when he is asleep in a confined place; or spies, having access to the enemy's harem, may, when opportunities occur, do to the enemy whatever is found possible on the occasion, and then get out unknown.

Source:
public.wsu.edu/~brians/world_civ/worldcivreader/world_civ_reader_1/arthashastra.html

See
The concept of separating religious, political and philosophy is a western concept that didn't really catch on elsewhere.

Small correction, the book of tea was written in 1906 before the first world war.
Perhaps you might be thinking about the Russo-Japanese War 1904-5.
I think that's a great book, also recommended
Tao te ching as it's such an easy low investment.
Any book by Alan Watts or listen to one of his maaany talks on youtube, he has a great understanding of eastern philosophy and he will relay it in an occidental cultural context.

>and I quietly like religion but not theology

lol. Cuck.

...

I'd like to see two things:

1) Eastern Philosophy meaningfully brought into the 21st century.

2) The gap between Eastern and Western philosophy bridged - to whatever extent possible.

>The gap between Eastern and Western philosophy bridged - to whatever extent possible.
see

There's no gap. They're all talking about the same thing. All humans are. Yes, even "those" people.

>Yes, even "those" people.

Get fucked.

>They're all talking about the same thing.

In very different ways. Compare Hobsbawm talking about Marxism to Deleuze/etc. Two very different interpretations about the same thing that need bridging.

>Max Stirner...ugh. I read Ego and Its Own about six years ago and I really wanted to fling that book out the window.

Quite ironic considering that's what Stirner thought, people should do after reading the book.

>China takes over the world

Nah, too much corruption and social and environmental problems. If they can't even fix their domestic problems, how can they be expected to rule the world?

>Get fucked.
lol

>Compare Hobsbawm talking about Marxism to Deleuze/etc. Two very different interpretations about the same thing that need bridging.
Yes, but notice how those two people aren't from different continents? Differences in philosophy have more to do with the differences in the attitudes of particular people, than with distances in time or space. If you take a similar stance as someone you're likely to end up in the same place, come up with the same arcuments, refutations, proofs, analogies, etc. Now of course people are more likely to share the opinions of those around them than those not, and in that way you could talk about a certain national character, but the popular opinion isn't what we're discussing here.

Plus, let's be real here, how are we supposed to bridge that gap? All the Buddhist and Christian sects haven't managed it for their particular schools in a couple millenia, and you expect us to do it in the space of a Veeky Forums thread? To order practically all of philosophy, and do it justice? Plus, what would we be bridging? Neither has one single doctrine which we can compare one to one, then you have the fact that they have influenced each other in various way, that the "East" is really "not the West" (i.e. most of the world), and finally that the whole thing is moving and developping in this very moment, right here even, and has been forever.

So if you were to actually do that you would have to take my first point, disregard my second, and don't think of it as a gap to be overcome, not taking the generalities that you can get as more than they are--and read the thread because we were already on it.

/lecture

Makes sense.

You're right, and I can't really disagree. And to be honest you my whole post is pretty fucking stupid on review. Of course I have no real idea what could happen next. I mean, if Trump *does* blow it, and China *does* move into that position that people have been predicting will happen for a while, then, okay. But really tho my comment was bad and I should feel bad about it. Even I will admit this.

So what's the prediction then for China, and China vis-a-vis the rest of the world in the 21C? What happens next over there in the age of Trump? I'm curious about this stuff. You guys have seen the god of war statue, yes?

boredpanda.com/giant-war-god-statue-general-guan-yu-sculpture-china/

Essential Tibetan Buddhism - Robert A.F. Thurman

China is a pseudomorphized state subject to the Western world ( read Spengler ).
It's a Pontus-tier enemy.

I really don't expect much from China. Having lived there for a while, it's an irredeemable corrupt mess that is only growing because the West needs it and would be an African tier shithole if it wasn't for based tier Han genes.

Sorry for the late reply, maybe you're still here, user. Personally I love China because it's crazy: it's very different to Japan and Korea and many foreigners bristle at that, leading to the kind of stereotypes people have about subhuman rude mainlanders, dog-eating communist savages, etc. It's rougher round the edges, sure, and there are many Chinese habits I hate, like spitting in the street or letting your children go to the toilet wherever, but those are country folk who've gotten rich too quickly, and as many Chinese hate it as foreigners do.

Working here isn't so bad. Bosses are the epitome of the "crafty Chinaman" stereotype but they also hate confrontation, so if an employer is funny with you all it takes is standing up to them, even politely. The only thing I really hate is the Confucian family stuff that makes so many of my co-workers and friends seem so perpetually unhappy (and is the real cause of the greed and selfishness that have infected the country since Deng). But it's relaxing, interesting stuff is always happening and Chinese people are mostly not the assholes you see in news reports. They're rough but always friendly (unless you have a Chinese girlfriend and they're an old man in a Mao cap).

Mostly American expats who still complain about everything even after 10 years of living there.

>pontus-tier enemy
>my sides

Really? That bad? Damn. Nick Land is usually singing their praises, and he lives there. Guess I'll have to reconsider a few things.

I had to pleb it up on wikipedia to remember what pseudomorphosis was. It's been a while since I read DotW but Spengler really is awesome. It's the grand style - is there anything grander? - and it always gets me. I have a long document on my computer somewhere with pages of quotations from him copied out of that book. Every once in a while I think of him saying: *fuck philosophy and literature, study engineering, learn business skills...* etc. Hard to deny the truth of that. Especially these days. Although apparently Michael Puett's course on Chinese philosophy at Harvard is pretty popular. He's another one of those guys that can go on that list above, a really smart dude.

Also, good post. I still kind of think that transhumanism might eventually be one of those things that link people together, but these are just conjectures. I kind of feel that cultural differences are more pronounced the farther down the economic ladder you go, and that as you go up people seem to magically find ways to get along with each other. Remove scarcity and you remove I think a lot of other stuff that people are inclined to call culture. I like culture, but I'm becoming fairly jaded (that is to say, full of ressentiment directed the wealthy and *apparently* happy...).

My hunch is that at some point it will be necessary to produce a limited sort of one world order and an automatic planet regulated by a board of directors. Washington, Moscow and Beijing all run varieties of state capitalism today and potentially for the long haul, so I feel as though in the long run corporate logic wins out over national interest by becoming one and the same on a planetary scale. So more like Brave New World than 1984.

>hot takes heah, getcha hot takes

Doesn't Spengler classify it as an ossified civilisation similar to islam?
You might be right about the pseudomorphosis though, at least socialism as the Faustian will to power, dogmatic morality has destroyed the husks of already internally dead cultural forms. They seem to be going for the second religious phase what with he the spread of Christianity and other Western-imported ideologies, and the rampant lack of any other values than money and power - thanks to the turmoil of past few centuries and Mao - was the straw that broke the camel's back.

What do you think about the Japanese? Spengler doesn't classify them as a great culture, but their relative isolation, huge population (tens of millions already in the Middle Ages) and almost simultaneous development with the Western culture with similar projectory for a long time seems to point that way?

No worries, and that's very illustrative and helpful user, so thanks. I don't like Crafty Bosses but hopefully I won't make the same mistakes I did before. And generally even when they were Crafty they weren't so bad. In general I have to say that I really liked the Koreans. Was probably very lucky, but hey.

>tfw these fucking things tho
>tfw literally shit-posting
>feels bad man