-- On 14 Nov 2004 at 12:33, Tyler Durden wrote:
When it comes to China, even some of the Han-dominated areas are incredibly difficult to get to, and when you start talking about Southern parts of Yunnan, most parts of Tibet, and places like Qinhai and Xinjiang, the idea of a lightening-fast and efficient despotism starts to sound dubious.
I have never suggested that any despotism was lightning fast or efficient, and totalitarianism, such as that of Mao and Qin, is even slower and less efficient. It is not travel distance that makes for slow reactions, but the fact that everything has to be cleared with the top, the fact that low level people are forbidden to think. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG 56D0bYHQzFhVoqs5hSQzS0qvgik5OwJHVAMVGSfz 4FvsMZXY2Yed7To20MoGIPJ3rszxf79ZaE6XvYlpG