When I read last week that Woody Allen likes the idea of letting President Obama be a dictator for a “few years” I was repelled; but then I’ve found Allen to be a repellent individual for decades–since Manhattan, at least–so I just shrugged it off as the foghorn bleat of an over-privileged mediocrity looking for some attention.
But then the equally mediocre Tom born-wealthy-high-carbon-footprint-lover-of-Chinese-Communist-Capitalism-I’ve-got-mine-you-should-not-have-yours Friedman let fly with this on Meet the Press:
I have fantasized–don’t get me wrong–but that what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment. I don’t want to be China for a second, OK, I want my democracy to work with the same authority, focus and stick-to-itiveness. But right now we have a system that can only produce suboptimal solutions.
To which Andrea even-more-privileged-than-you-Tom Mitchell chimed in:
“And, in fact, Tom, you’re absolutely right . . .”
The leftist party that these people support is currently in control of both houses of congress and the White House (and they are well-represented within the federal judiciary) and yet, it is not enough. The power is not pure enough, it is not invincible enough; their power is diluted because, dammit, those little people crowing about the constitution all over the internets are mucking things up!
Although, to be fair to Friedman, his China Fantasy is not new; he talked about “being China for a day” with Tom Brokaw in 2008. He’s been hoping for a dictatorship ala China, for a while, now as Jonah Goldberg notes.
Friedman and Mitchell, and even that self-absorbed twerp Woody Allen are all wringing their hands over something they cannot (yet) control; alternative media and how it has contributed to the difficulties of getting things done in Washington.
When the press had a monopoly on information, it was much easier for them to influence opinion; that in turn made the legislator’s jobs easier, too. Now, yes, things are more difficult for the politicians, but that’s mostly because they insist upon working as they always have (the incestuous commingling of pols and media freaks on the left, and pols and business freaks on the right, with back-room-deals-aplenty, back-scratching galore and pork, pork, pork for everyone) while the electorate has decided it wants something different.
So, Allen and Friedman–and others who have kept their faces before us for 40 years by coasting on the work of their youth, because they’ve done nothing memorable, lately–are feeling the shifting sand beneath their feet, and they’re wondering why America can’t simply submit to a fantasy of Limited Dictatorship. It’s so inconvenient for these elites to have to deal with the noise of the bourgeoisie – commoners who presume to opine on anything and who dare to object to the incessant lecturing from their betters.
So, let’s be China “for a little while…” (just long enough to get everything we want accomplished).
Because what they want must, of course, darling, be the very thing that needs doing.
Let’s allow Obama to be dictator “for a couple of years,” because that preening narcissist will certainly give up his dictatorship once the nowhere-utopia of which the left dreams is achieved. Right? Of course.
Ann Althouse writes:
A love of autocracy often lurks beneath the liberal veneer. There’s this idea that the right answers are known and the people are just too deluded and distorted to see what they are and to vote for them.
They propose dictatorship because they are no longer able to get away with their former arguments, which boiled down to: “shut up. You’re stupid. We’re cool.”
They propose dictatorship because they know their lives would be completely unaffected by such a thing. They will still have access to their Park Avenue doctors; they will be exempt from the rationing of medical treatment that the Obama administration now admits will take place. They will continue to be the privileged useful-idiot voices of the politburo. They will still have their limos and their lunches, where they will sit together and bloviate about what must be done for the commoners who cannot be trusted with their own lives.
“And in fact, you are absolutely right…” they will say to each other, and in their insulated little Pauline-Kaelesque worlds, they will not be able to imagine that anyone with any sense would possibly disagree.
Every murderous totalitarian government of the 20th century began with some insulated group of faux-intellectuals congratulating each other on how smart they are, and fantasizing about how, if they could just install a dictatorship-for-a-day, they could right all the wrongs in the world.
It is the ultimate fantasy of the narcissist. And we’ve got whole generations of them, in control of our media and our government, all intent on “remaking America.”
Speaking of the wonderfulness that is China…
Is it wrong of me to laugh at them? Why are they still in our faces, week after week? Why must we even entertain their lunacies?
WELCOME: Instapundit Readers! And thanks, Glenn, for the link.
Related:
The Old-Media Template
Enforcing only those laws we like
The Newspeak Dictionary goes Gallic
Can America last when its leaders side with its foes?
Friedman’s Fantasy
How to Write Like Tom Friedman
“The point of Democracy, Tom…”
A Thug too Far
Friedman’s Power Lust
Joe Biden and the Free World
The Art of the Painless Coup
No abilitity to connect the dots because politics is the religion… not God.
Globalists control the media.
Globalism is godless.
More thoughts from the Bishop at:
link
Ex-KGB spoke of people who have this attitude and said that when their usefulness had expired that they would be lined up against the wall and shot.
Check him out sometime.
link
The only way to combat the subversion process, according to Mr. Bezmenov is to retake the education process, because that is their main weapon. I would encourage every freedom-loving person to use this summer to explore alternate education options. As Americans, I believe we can work around the “system” that produces the Andrea Mitchell’s and Tom Friedman’s of the world.
I have been saying for years that Liberals are Totalitarians at heart. Effectively, this means ALL of them – even the ones who look meeak and mild caring and sgaring or deeply “concerned” about things on the outside.
They want to rule.
They want to control.
They want to have.
They want to implement.
They want it becausxe they really think they deserve it. The world has exacted great cruelty on these souls – they know what is good for everyone; but they can never do it because everyone does not know what is good for them.
This is an ancient war. It’s us or them. If we don’t stop them then there is nothing to stop them. If we don’t stop them it is inconceivable that they will stop themselves.
Read your history. The dictatorial-totalitarian mind and m ovement never backwards. They always get worse and need more as they go on from year to year. They almost all had majorities. They all end in misery, pain, penury, death, slavery.
There are no exceptions.
It’s us or them.
These liberal “elites” clearly are more knowledgeable than we, and know full-well what is best for us and for themselves. Dictators never take any more than they are given, and will always reward those who conspire to give him power, just as Hilter did with the Jews who supported his rise in the 1930s, or Pol Pot with the educated class who counseled Marxist revolution.
I riffed on this a little bit over at my place: link
Even if we’re willing to grant these folks the benefit of the doubt for their intentions (although I’m not willing to concede that in Allen or Friedman’s cases), what they’re calling for is ultimately dehumanizing.
[I apologize if I seem impatient, but once again, for about the millionth time, this is an easy tutorial on how to create links. Comments that are unembedded often go into my spam filter, which I do not check regularly. -admin]
Tom Friedman’s royal we, “where WE could authorize the right solutions…..on everything from the economy to environment” for just one China day, pretty much sums up liberalism. Tom needs to know that Americas other WE sees that the China day he pines for is already ongoing. He and his like minded elites, so far above the fray, can’t even appreciate what has already been achieved by this progressive administration. Their thirst for absolute power will never, ever, be quenched and is why our founding fathers saw the need for a constitution limiting governmental powers.
When they create a big enough crisis and turn loose the purple shirts and others to create chaos, some will start seeing the need for a dictator. If your goal is to redistribute wealth, to change every power structure, to transform America into what Obama and his pals believe it should be, then you create this chaos as rapidly as possible so that there is not time to react. Ever wonder why it is a constant onslaught of attack since Barry took power? If you complain about every attack on liberty which goes on each day by one of the czar’s or others in their immediate circle, they make you look like someone losing your mind. We are at war which is going on at full tilt at this time for the future of the country. If most American’s do not figure this out and engage, they will wake up one day with a dictator and complete loss of liberty and future. If America goes, so goes the world.
What liberals really want is to feed their egos with thought of their (nonexistent) care for their fellow man.
Witness that although liberals earn 6% more than conservatives, conservatives give one-third more to charity. Liberals want the government to do it so they do none of the work, pay for none of it (in their dreams, it’s all the “wealthy”), and still get to preen. They don’t even care whether the programs do what they intend, which is why they object to welfare reform long after it’s clear it’s a trap for the poor.
Allow me to play ‘devil’s advocate” (a term taken from an old office in the Church).
Liberals claim that conservatives, especially religious conservatives, want to control, plan, implement, have, and rule. They point to the likes of Saudi Arabia. They point to the likes of Fransisco Franco. They draw the conclusion that social conservatism and religious tradition are really about having traditional authorities take power and control people’s lives.
How would you respond?
[I knew someone would ask that question. I would respond--as I always do--zealots are always dangerous and that extremists on either end are not to be encouraged. Then, trusting in the very real commitment that most Americans (on BOTH sides) have to keeping church and state separate (and again, there are extremists on both sides who try to push from their direction) I will note that in America under the last two "conservative" presidents, we didn't see people openly wishing for a dictatorship so they could "do things quickly." The right is never pushing for a theocracy (except in the imaginations of the left); the American right is not a monolith. But the monolithic left seems unable to stop wishing for an autocracy. Then again, I have a fever, so mostly I will leave this for Bender and go back to bed!
admin]
Obama might step down if asked by his followers. We’ll never really be sure, though, because they’d never ask him to step down. There’d always be one more really important thing that needs doing.
Then they’ll ask him.
Cocktail party Marxists are the most dangerous folks. They are the quintessential useful idiots, and will be eliminated about 10 minutes after the revolution.
While the healthcare debate was raging a few months ago, I expressed my frustration to a leftist friend. I told him I couldn’t believe that Congress was passing a law that a majority of Americans opposed. In response, he told me the Democrats could do whatever they want because “they’re the ones who won the election.”
I was stunned into silence … And, incidentally, my friend is a big fan of both Allen and Friedman.
Friedman is a perfect example of the line that liberals love mankind, they just hate people. Which part of China is most appealing, I wonder. The slave labor camps? Forced abortions? Brutal suppression of ethnic minorities? The Cultural Revolution, when children murdered and cannibalized their schoolteachers? Mao’s record-breaking murder spree?
Gee, how can you choose from among so many wonderful options! Yes, China is a beacon to lead us all to a better tomorrow. Just include me out, Mr. Friedman.
Woe unto liberals who get frustrated with political gridlock, for they shall be accused of seriously wishing to subvert democracy.
[Aw, no one is putting the words "dictatorship" and "let's be China" into their mouths. But you'll note, it's the left that keeps crying "sedition! sedition!" There they are, with the WH, control of both houses and (apparently) the will to push through any legislation they want, regardless of what the electorate says, and yet they're "frustrated with political gridlock?" They're frustrated that they can't do everything they want to do, right now, without dealing with those annoying ankle biters. They APPEAR to want not simply power, but "absolute" power. If they don't like so appearing, perhaps they should stop acting and talking in such a suggestive manner. -admin]
Yeah – I love it when the Left pulls out that old “threat of Christian theocracy” trope. The Left has been masterful at branding the right and projecting its own impulses on us.
Let’s get this straight… the pinnacle of the Left’s values hierarchy is “equality,” which is unnatural to the human condition and therefore must be imposed (by smart, educated, compassionate Leftists of course). At the top of the Right’s values hierarchy is “individual liberty.” On the extreme of one ideology is totalitarianism; on the extreme of the other is anarchy. This is a pass/fail test. No bonus questions. Which ideology produces authoritarian “theocracies” – even if they’re the atheistic sort?
Spot on. I listen to these buffoons and shake my head. Useful idiots, indeed. Of course, we’re fighting an oil spill down here. What would the Chinese do about that? Absolutely nothing. It is so polluted there, it is impossible to breathe easily in Bejing, for instance. Don’t get me started.
I don’t think Mr. Friedman really wants Chinese methods so we can make things happen.
It was not long ago that a Democratic People were able to build the Interstate System, build subways, and put men on the moon.
We could go back: we could toss the professional activists and the lawyers and the activist-lawyers off the bench. Toss them out of the planning and development process. Change the laws to allow a swift decision on a project and leave the final decision to the voters, not the judges. Once the people vote–start the buldozer–or turn it off. As the voters decree
I don’t think the Mr. Friedman or Mr. Allen would like this–they would not be in control.
“Which part of China is most appealing, I wonder. The slave labor camps? Forced abortions? Brutal suppression of ethnic minorities? The Cultural Revolution, when children murdered and cannibalized their schoolteachers? Mao’s record-breaking murder spree?”
Yeah, but they’re green, and isn’t that more important?
I thought you were sick?
[I am. Coughing up lungs, now! -admin]
Anne,
A’s body may be ailing, but her brain is moving along at its usual light speed.
We already had a dictatorship under Bush/Cheney and look how that turned out. Wholesale shreding of the Constitution, freedom fighters and political prisoners rousted up and tortured and locked away in Cuba without charges for years, all to make Haliburton and Big Oil rich. We’ve been down that road. No thanks. Not even with someone as brilliant as Obama as dictator.
Thank you for writing this.
Reading it reminds me of early essay/short prose collections of Tom Wolfe – not so much the style of the writing, but the ability to just neatly peel back the several (admittedly thin) layers of intellectual posturing, narcissism, cluelessness, and hypocrisy.
Vinny,
Classic projection.
You Liberals always do this. Your criticisms of Conservatives ALWAYS reveal the evil in your own hearts and desires.
Rock-Solid Rule of Thumb: If you want to know what a Liberal will actually do at the very second when they can; it is what they accuse conservatives of doing when they neither could do nor desire to do.
Example: Bush was called a Nazi. Liberals actually are National Socialists – aka Nazis – and they began to implement National Socialism as soon as they could.
That rule holds in almost every case.
Conservatives and Liberals are no more the same than liars and truth tellers are the same – except in the fact of making statements. The difference between them is the difference between the truth and a lie, tyranny and liberty, prosperity and poverty; independence and dependence.
There is no worse person in America than a Liberal. It is not possible for there to be a worse American than a Liberal. Something has to be the worst there is, and that is a liberal.
If you are one of them, you are a sociopath (mild form or harsh form) who always does harm, and never does good.
A call for dictatorship is not limited to the Left. Recall the words of President George W. Bush:
“If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier just so long as I’m the dictator.”
[Ah, yes...knew that would show up about 500 times in my email. The difference being one (Bush) is speaking in a derogatory manner, and the the Allens and Friedman's are quite serious. But why let something you do not understand -and you never understood a thing about Bush - get in the way of making a lame defense of a horrific idea. -admin]
I kind wonder about friedman’s place in history.
Is there anything he has written, where one will look back in 20 years, and think the guy had any clue?
as of late, I understand that civilization is always at a crossroads, but as the tiny drops of default presage the coming downpour of bankruptcy over the next 20-30 years, for almost every advanced govt, this time in history is special for those who bear witness.
(it isn’t the end, but it is a new beginning…)
friedman is sgt shultz.
I have a fever, so mostly I will leave this for Bender and go back to bed!
Huh?
What do Saudi Arabia and Fransisco Franco have to do with conservatism?? (That’s a rhetorical question. The answer is NOTHING.)
They draw the conclusion that social conservatism and religious tradition are really about having traditional authorities take power and control people’s lives.
Well, folks have been saying that about God Himself since the Garden. But this is what one particular religious guy had to say about it all — “The truth will set you free.”
All of Salvation History, from the moment of the proto-evangelium up to Jesus and beyond Him through the Age of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost being yesterday), is about FREEDOM. The foundational event of the Old Testament is about being led out of bondage. Likewise, the foundational event of the New Testament is about being set free.
Modern-day conservatives (who are more accurately referred to as classical liberals), do not seek to control anyone. They merely seek truth. To be sure, there are those who oppose truth and who insist that you can only be free when you are wearing the chains of relativism, but such a claim is a lie and leads only to dictatorship.
Allen is self-absorbed to an extent which gives narcissism a good name. Imagine cheating on your ‘wife’ with your adopted daughter. Then divorcing and marrying her. It would be a crime if anyone had been jaded enough to imagine its ever having happened. Oh, I’m sure they ‘love’ each other. But Allen’s narcissism is such that whatever he wants, in the name of ‘self-actualization’ trumps any amount of damage to anyone else. Of course, it’s interesting that his Ex was ‘Rosemary,’ and that makes the stepdaughter her ‘baby?’
Even my 7th grade students could easily grasp that religious “rules” like the Ten Commandments are not tools of oppression, meant merely to control us and deny us the liberty of doing whatever we want to do, but are, instead, the keys to authentic freedom.
A lot of things become clearer when you realize that North Korea is not a failed socialist nation, but a perfected one.
Great idea, I’ll go first. Abolish the Education Dept (it has presided over the dumbing down of education since its creation), the Energy Dept (no kilowatts coming from there), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, Agriculture Dept farm subsidies, corporate income tax. Then I’ll have a second cup of morning coffee and think of some more stuff to get rid of. My goal is to create a booming economy in the 50 states while creating a real-estate depression in D.C.
My wife’s family escaped Red China. She says the communists do the same thing everywhere once they get power. They did it in Russia, China, Viet Nam and Cambodia. Right after they seize power, the very next thing is kill all of the intellectuals
that helped put them in power.
The elites say life is complicated. Give us control and we will work out what is best for you. And, if it doesn’t quite work out, we’ll keep trying. You will know that you have the help and direction of people who have pure hearts, better minds, and care about the populations of the Earth, which includes the ordinary people like yourself.
And, here is some more description of the people who sacrifice their entire beings in order to lead us to nirvanna.
Leading The People
==========
They have a solution that will work if we would only stop arguing and agree with them.
They may need to omit some information about the new arrangements and what these will cost. They observe that ordinary people do not think well enough to make decisions in their own long-term best interest.
Dissenters are either uninformed or selfish. There is no need to argue about the specific meanings of words. The good of the society justifies telling some lies, if it comes to that.
The solution requires that we all pitch in and not be greedy. The people with the most resources will put their extra income or property into the pot.
They will modify or replace the solution if it doesn’t work. They will design a new solution the same way they designed the first solution, through thought, research, and discussion among themselves. Further solutions may require more resources.
==========
link
Taiwan firms in PRC must correct conduct
“The letter charged that these armies of “peasant – workers” received an average wage that was less than underdeveloped nations of the Third World and that the compensation for their labor was not enough to even allow them to raise a family in the urban areas where they worked.”
Leftists do what they do because they believe their goals of social justice are obtainable via state power.
In our era there are three types of politics: the politics of social justice, social virtue/public order, and individual freedom. Each of these are born of urges present in all of us, but since policies based on obtaining any one of those goals will inevitably conflict with the other two, one of them must predominate the others to form a consistent ideology.
The Democrats are the party of social justice. Although they may appreciate aspects of both individual freedom and public virtue, they will subsume both in pursuit of their primary goal. The GOP is currently dominated by those who value social virtue and public order first and foremost. Those who hold freedom highest don’t control a major party any more. We believe that a society built around government biased toward individual liberty will produce the most freedom, justice, and public order possible.
Both of the major parties between each other are willing to bargain away freedom to further their primary goals. If we are to continue to have it, freedom needs a major party, and fast.
“Every murderous totalitarian government of the 20th century began with some insulated group of faux-intellectuals congratulating each other on how smart they are, and fantasizing about how, if they could just install a dictatorship-for-a-day, they could right all the wrongs in the world.”
If there is even a shred of evidence that this is true I will eat my hat.
Can you imagine if conservatives had said that they wished GWB to be dictator for a short period? What a hissy fit the likes of Allen, Friedman, and Mitchell would be having. All three of them are a bunch of over rated dolts.
Excellent article.
Glad someone called out these Lefty media hacks and their ChiCom dictatorially-erotic fantasies.
And you did it very systematically, also.
“Every murderous totalitarian government of the 20th century began with some insulated group of faux-intellectuals congratulating each other on how smart they are, and fantasizing about how, if they could just install a dictatorship-for-a-day, they could right all the wrongs in the world.”
It is remarkable to me how many murderous totalitarians spent time with intellectuals in Paris before becoming murderous totalitarians. Even some revered not-so-murderous totalitarians are strongly associated with Paris. The similarities in philosophy between Pol Pot and Le Corbusier were striking, even if their methods for creating idea societies were different.
I find their idea of eliminating memory among the people to be chilling. About Le Corbusier: “His ahumanity makes itself evident also in his attitude toward the past. Repeatedly, he talks of the past as a tyranny from which it is necessary to escape, as if no one had discovered or known anything until his arrival. It is not that the past bequeaths us problems that we must try our best to overcome: it is that the entire past, with few exceptions, is a dreadful mistake best destroyed and then forgotten.”
Pol Pot was so intent on implementing this philosophy that he even killed off most of the people in Cambodia who knew how to farm.
@ The Anchoress:
I don’t want to be China for a second, OK, I want my democracy to work with the same authority, focus and stick-to-itiveness. But right now we have a system that can only produce suboptimal solutions.
A charitable interpretation of this would have Friedman basically saying that he wants government to have an efficient and bureaucracy-free response to crisis while maintaining the Democratic process and the liberty it enshrines; a goal that most politically-minded Americans would like to see. Unfortunately, it appears that charity is not one of your virtues.
@Bender:
Even my 7th grade students could easily grasp that religious “rules” like the Ten Commandments are not tools of oppression, meant merely to control us and deny us the liberty of doing whatever we want to do, but are, instead, the keys to authentic freedom.
Yes, “I am the lord thy God, you shall have no other Gods before me” can never be used as a tool of oppression … or were you just talking about the good commandments?
[Charitable, if Friedman were not saying the same thing, year after year. Read his comments to Brokaw. Check out the links w/ Goldberg. For that matter read Friedman's weekly lovesong to China in his own columns. Friedman means what he is saying -admin]
For some reason you geniuses weren’t as concerned when Friedman was alongside you cheering on the policy of telling the Iraqi people to “suck on this”.
Yes, and my mother saying “Don’t put your hand on a hot stove” was a tool of oppression to my four year old mind.
Is Obama going to submit himself to the people for reelection, or not?
He can’t be a very good dictator if he gives the public a chance to reach a verdict on him. You’ll get your chance, if the voters don’t back a Republican that’s your problem for not winning enough of them over.
TO: Elizabeth Scalia, et al.
RE: Where Was It….
….we’ve got whole generations of them, in control of our media and our government, all intent on “remaking America.” — Elizabeth Scalia
….something is written….
A generation of vipers.
I blame the vaunted American public education system. They’re the ones who, failing to teach, got us this “control of our media and our government.”
We have sown the wind. We shall reap the whirlwind.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Don't lose heart. They may want to cut it out....and don't want to search for it.]
What happens in Malawi & Uganda, most recently, with the persecutions they subject sexual minorities to (not to mention similar insults offered by governments in the Muslim world) is more of a threat to human dignity than what some luvvie says.
Personally, on the subject of this quote I have always thought that there needs to be an alternative, an opposition & a stark choice between alternatives rather than all this about working together, bipartisanship, healing & the rest of it, which genuinely is unsettling sort of talk. So for what it’s worth I naturally don’t share Woody Allen’s views, though it’s not as if I lie awake all night worrying what he thinks.
PS- Then you’ve got Rupert Murdoch, that known left-wing agitator who never failed to state his opposition to Thatcher, trying to charge people for reading online content.
>[I am. Coughing up lungs, now! -admin]
I think that violates some sort of Obamacare health directive.
I also think (hope) Vinnie was being sarcastic.
I have been thinking about this a bit and franjly, I am not so sure this is a left thing as opposed to an intellectual thing. I have intellectual pretensions (though my bad spelling holds me back I fear). But I guess I have enough trouble running my own life and keeping my two sons in line to think I can run someone else’s life (for example, my wife).
But intellectuals think they know better. As was pointed out, a number of intellectuals loved Mussolini and Hitler and many Catholic intellectuals fell in love with Franco.
The reason this seems to be a left wing thing is that thanks to the institutional “long march”, our universities tend to be very liberal, so our intellectuals tend to be liberals also.
I find this exchange to be absolutely chilling. All I could think was “what if Ann Coulter had said this about George Bush?” And you are right, the coming agony (which I am personally starting to feel the edges creep in) will not effect the Friedman’s and the Allen’s and the Mitchell’s OR the Obama’s – all of them. ALL. OF. THEM. Why are the only people writing about this BLOGGERS? Why aren’t the few right of center columnists available outraged by these comments? Each day, I become more and more morose about the political situation in which we find ourselves. I do so admire your faith and read you to become inspired.
One of the best essay’s of the year. Thank you Anchoress, you’ve done us all proud.
The problem with liberals is they think they are gods and we, the ignorant masses, need to be led around by nose because they’ve been taught to know what’s best for us. This hypocrisy gets my Scotch-Irish dander up. Great article Anchoress.
Hopefully it’s not the day they decide to kill dissidents or cut off internet access or tell you how many kids you can have or anything like that – but since that’s like everyday it kind of sux.
Up to a point, I might agree with Tom and Andrea: perhaps they could do with a stretch of Maoist “education through labor.” A couple years of tilling sugar beets and sleeping in a bunkhouse might improve their perspective –on the merits of Chinese-style government, at least.