Some of you recall Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, the 1971 gonzo journalism piece by Hunter Thompson. This was a bizarre reflection on the culture of the 1960s – disconnected, frightening, crazed, stupid for the sake of being stupid.
Late at night I’ve encountered YouTube videos depicting German and Japanese prisoners of war in the US, circa 1942-45. The videos are based on letters sent back to Germany and Japan and reports filed during interviews at the camps and after. The videos are from several different sites, but all formulaic – prisoners arrive at some camp in rural Texas or someplace, half-starved, frightened, suspicious, minds convinced by home propaganda that America was starving, decaying, finished. Then the prisoners get their first meal, usually chicken or beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread and real coffee. More food per meal per prisoner than their military officers might get in several days back in the war. Three thousand calories per day, just like – always referenced – as required by the Geneva Convention. America, it turns out, had such abundance that prisoners got hot water in showers and real soap and real coffee and individual beds with sheets and blankets. Coming from Japan or Germany in 1942, who could have thought? The Americans were manufacturing planes and tanks and ships at rates unheard of in Japan or Germany, and while doing that were feeding themselves and prisoners rather well, thank you.
In short America had productivity and such enormous resources that it could afford to treat prisoners with dignity. American service men at the camps and citizens with whom the prisoners came into contact were easy going, unworried about saying the wrong thing or tossing out half a sandwich if they were finished eating. This was an easy going born of confidence in themselves and the country and the future, even in wartime. Camp commanders and individual soldiers had confidence they could not run afoul of some regulation by treating prisoners with dignity. Humane values impressed prisoners as much as the manufacturing productivity and availability of food. Humaneness, even benevolence and care for the other, is what characterized the guards in the camps and what prisoners remembered most vividly.
The videos made me think about the US and China now. By now you’ve all heard of the miraculous China GDP and infrastructure stories, high speed trains and rail stations and airports and expressways and bridges, and scientific breakthroughs in medicine and tech and leading the world in almost every category tracked by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Conclusions are that China leads the world in 37 out of 44 critical technologies, with Western democracies falling behind in the race for scientific and research breakthroughs. From the ASPI 2023 critical technology tracker in 2023 – China’s global lead extends to 37 out of 44 technologies that ASPI is now tracking, covering a range of crucial technology fields spanning defence, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials and key quantum technology areas.
In many scientific and technological ways China is now comparatively ahead of where the US was in 1945 with respect to Japan and Germany.
Concomitant with the physical growth is Chinese confidence in themselves and the country and the future. Just like the YouTube videos echoing 1945 America. Xi Jinping told the world in 2020 “The East is rising and the West is declining.” Most Chinese believe it and so does much of the world, with good reason.
This is not the post to focus on Chinese shortcomings at benevolence. I want to focus on America, alone.
Now plenty of American sources view with alarm the decline of American manufacturing and engineering and technology. At the same time there are plenty of American sources viewing with alarm the decline of American civility, social capital and unity. Too many Americans are afraid, not only of economic deprivation but now afraid of the government coming at them in the middle of the night. One could say, too many American institutions are broken – no longer fit for the environment of 2025.
An analysis of the recent despicable Mar-a-Lago fest, held for sycophants and mouth-breathing high-rollers while more than 40 million Americans – citizens, mind you – are scrambling for money for food next week, reminds us of how civilizations fail. When wealth and power merge, the first thing to vanish is not morality but shame.
Halloween, on the eve of stripping food from more than 40 million Americans.
Source: https://ctexp.substack.com/p/the-shame-of-mar-a-lago
In addition to watching WWII POW videos I’ve been reading posts at China Thought Express – posts written, incidentally, by Chinese looking at American society. A recent post reviews a short poem about the repugnant Mar-a-Lago event. The poem borrows heavily from Chinese references to the Book of Songs and the Confucian Analects and traditional Chinese poetry format. It reminds us of how civilizations fail, using examples from the Yin (Shang dynasty) and Han, when opulence and shamelessness overcame benevolence and care for the other.
The poem – The Shame of Mar-a-Lago – is short and available. I quote a few lines here –
Mar-a-Lago is foul
the Ji clan doubles its fault
brings no good to the common people
brings no peace to home and state
gluttons’ mouths, greedy tongues
courtesans piping and singing
The people toil indeed
a gentleman’s shame
…
the tyrant never has enough
the lessons of Yin are close at hand
Yin refers to the Shang dynasty, the first dynasty of which we have records, which collapsed when the last king Di Xin lost the “Mandate of Heaven” due to his corruption, cruelty, and shamelessness. The “Ji clan” (季氏) comes from the “Ji Shi” chapter of the Analects. It is a byword for ministers who shamelessly usurp ritual and disturb order.
A review of The Shame of Mar-a-Lago poem points out how much is at stake – The collapse of shame means the threshold of civilization has been crossed.
First, shame is the foundation of order. When those in power delight in luxury and conformists pride themselves on applause, society enters a “shameless” phase. Shamelessness is a deeper corruption—it no longer pretends.
And I come back to the World War II videos – the prisoners saw American abundance, confidence and technological superiority, but what changed minds and hearts was treatment of the “lesser” – POWs – with dignity and grace. The American officers and enlisted men in the camps ate the same food as the prisoners, in the same quantities. Shamelessness was nowhere to be found. Dignity for prisoners was paramount.
And I come back to the Mar-a-Lago poem in an era of American fear and technological decline and shamelessness. We are pretty close to the Lord Acton warning. The World War II videos represent a far different era – but so are the lessons from the Shang and Han. The Mandate of Heaven is retained when dignity for all is respected. It is lost in shamelessness of wealth and power. One can only hope the Louis XV comment “Apres moi, le deluge” – applies only to the American current leadership, and not what we used to think of as America the Beautiful, the best American national anthem. God shed his grace on thee, indeed.
