Letter

In response to China, US or us? Australia’s Upper Path in the global minerals race

Daoism and diplomacy

Fred has explained well the subtlety of the Daoist philosophy which originated between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. It well illustrates the continuity and sophistication of Chinese civilisation over millennia.

If Chinese culture is the great granddaddy, then the West is the wayward great, great, great, great grandchild that is yet to mature.

The problem for the West is that we were the arrogant descendants of the primitive tribes roaming Europe in the Dark Ages when Chinese civilisation had been flowering for thousands of years and we retained the primitive instincts of fight or flight long after they had been tamed.in China.

Until we learn the subtlety of a mature civilisation, we are doomed to repeat the primitive instinctual fight or flight that gave us a brief time in the sun, but is now our fatal shortcoming when we deal with a culture that is vastly our superior.

— Les Macdonald from Balmain NSW 2041