Let us think up a chain whose links are absurd propositions, and see where that will lead.
First link. A five-year-old
toddler watches his mother prepare a formula for his baby brother. The mother
says, all I have is 3 ounces of formula, and that will not be enough. The
toddler points to a bigger cup and asks how big is that? The mother says 6
ounces. The toddler says, well then, pour the 3 ounces in that cup, and you'll
have 6 ounces of formula. No, says the mother, you cannot turn 3 ounces of
formula into 6 ounces.
Second link: A never-heard-off
jockey goes to the owner of a race horse that always finishes second behind a
rival's horse that always finishes first. The jockey says, let me ride your
horse, and I'll finish first. That's impossible says the owner, my horse never
beat his horse. Not the horse, says the jockey, I'll finish first. Impossible,
says the owner, riding my horse you cannot get ahead of his horse or his jockey.
Third link: Tom Rogan of the
Washington Examiner tells America, watch out for those thieving Chinese who
will steal American technology and get technologically ahead of America in so
doing. But this cannot happen logically, says Mr. Common Sense to Tom Rogan who
then takes trouble explaining his theory. He does it in an article he wrote
under the title: “Get ready for increased Chinese intellectual property theft,”
published on October 30, 2020 in The Washington Examiner.
Tom Rogan's chain of thoughts
goes something like this:
Step one: “Beijing made clear
that it intends to double down on US intellectual property theft. It did not
use such explicit words, but that's the key takeaway from this week's
announcement”.
Step two: How is that you ask?
I'll tell you how that is, says Tom Rogan. He goes on to tell that the Chinese
have said they will bolster their technological base by innovating in all
fields of science, technology and revolutionary industrial transformation.
Step three: The Chinese motive
is clear, says Rogan. These people wish, “to ensure continued innovation in
military, telecommunications, and scaled-up hardware industries.” If they fail
to do that, says Rogan, “this will bury Xi Jinping's master plan for eventual
global supremacy.” Which means failure to get ahead of America.
Step four: To avoid this
outcome and get ahead of America, says Tom Rogan, the Chinese will have no
alternative but to steal America's technology. It is like filling a 6-ounce cup
with 3 ounces of formula; like riding a horse that stays behind the one ahead,
but gets ahead of its jockey.
Being at the leading edge of
science and technology, the way for China to move forward is to pioneer new
technologies the way that America and Japan did in earlier decades. This should
gradually replace the system of developing new products based on existing
technologies. That's what the Chinese leaders have urged their people to do,
and this is what Tom Rogan has derided. But what exactly did he deride? See for
yourself; here is what he said: “The reality is that China is only pursuing
this technology agenda because it has lost access to Western technology
assets”.
This leads to the questions:
Can the Chinese do it? Can they unlock the secrets of nature, and open the
world to a new era of discoveries and inventions the way that the transistor
has led to the semiconductor revolution? The answer is that they sure can. In
fact, the Chinese have contributed more than anyone to America's so-called
exceptionalism, a place where the Chinese are no longer welcome. But if they
could do it for America, they can do it for China where they are welcome.
So then, what does Rogan say
about that? He said not a word on this subject. In fact, here is the thought
that he offered instead: “China has been outmaneuvered by Trump administration
restrictions centered on preventing firms like Huawei from accessing US chips
and software.” Well, it must be said that Tom Rogan knows this is a bogus
argument because he is aware that thanks to American Jews and to Israel,
America no longer has a viable chip and software industry. That industry is now
concentrated in the Asian countries, namely China, Taiwan and South Korea.
Having imposed his
intellectual forgery on the readers, Tom Rogan turned around and addressed the
policymakers in Washington, advising them of the following in his closing
argument:
“A serious deterrence-defeat
strategy against the Chinese means establishing red lines. When those lines are
crossed, rapid action must be taken against the Chinese mainframes used for the
attacks. Aggressive diplomatic expulsions up to the ambassador level, and
punitive economic action in other spheres of Chinese concern must follow”.
It is screwed up logic of this
kind that tells you America is doomed to slip into a second-rate power.
Politicians of the so-called liberal democracies are too busy defending
themselves against bullets fired at them from every direction, thus have no
time to govern. They listen to every quack that acts like an armchair commander
in chief, and take orders from every lobbyist that has a Benjamin to spare.
And while this is going on in the West, the Orient is turning tomorrow's marvels into today's realities.