1) I cannot believe you just threw Taiwan under the bus. It's the same argument Putin used to invade Ukraine. Exactly the same. If Taiwan IS the rebellious son with his own phone line and too many American friends then why do 23 million people have to live by their overbearing helicopter Mom's rules? Why can't they have their own life, make their own choices? They've been doing so for years now and being very successful at it. Taiwan is a vibrant, successful liberal economy with its own wonderful culture and you want to make it sit down, shut up and eat borscht from now on? Really? Remember China is the place famous for bringing back slavery (the Uyghurs) and mowing down protests with machine guns (Tiananmen), not exactly a ringing endorsement.
2) You've forgotten the alternative. Before Breton Woods we had World War. We had Nationalism run amok. We had Mercantilism! After Breton Woods more people were lifted from crushing poverty and starvation than at any other time in human history, by orders of magnitude. You'd have most of us go back to being Daisy on the first episode of Downton Abbey? Stoking fires for the lordlings (billionaires) hours before they even get up for breakfast while the kitchen staff and everyone else just abuses us?
3) If you want REAL change you haven't gone far enough, not by a mile. Eliminate the corporation, rejigger the state itself. By your own logic Canada doesn't make sense. It's a long, short country with language issues. It should be like 3-5 countries if it's going to deal effectively with the geography it has and some of those countries would be best if they included some US states too. Combine the coast of BC with the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California to just below San Fransisco and you've got a dynamic, viable and culturally similar region. But if you include the inner regions of BC, Washington and Oregon you have conflict and problems. They should be part of Alberta, Saskatchewan, some of Manitoba and the states of Idaho, Colorado, Montana and the Dakotas. I mean, if what you're going for is coherence. Ontario would be better off with Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, possibly parts of Pennsylvania and New York too. A sort of rust belt monster truck of a country. Quebec should be its own thing and parts of Ontario and New Brunswick. The north could be nearly everything 200 miles above the current border with the US and include Alaska. The exception would be Newfoundland and the rest of the Maritimes, which, by name alone, has stubbornly always been it's own thing but might be better off with Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts (although it might do better combined with New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania). Anyway, my point is, the national borders as they are bring inherent conflict due to population, language cultures and geography.
Which brings us back to Taiwan. Is war there inevitable? Probably. People are floating 2027 but who knows? Does it make sense? Well, how did you just react to my logical redistribution of Canada and the US? If it does happen it could mean another World War in another era of jingoistic ultra-nationalism with protectionist economic policies (which didn't work well the first two times so....). So isn't the real solution to find a way to build something again with our neighbours? Isn't the real solution to co-operate again? Yeah, we probably do have to let off steam, but can't we use that to power the next revolution in clean social energy? Giving up on Taiwan and turning our backs on them is just throwing more of our friends to the wolves, and those wolves will eat them and come for us next.
Imagine Beijing throwing its weight into the Quebec independence debate, saying,
“We support the sovereign aspirations of the Québécois people and believe English Canada is an occupying force.”
There’d be outrage across Canada.
Ottawa would call it foreign interference.
The U.S. would call it destabilizing.
And yet—when Western powers weigh in on Taiwan, it’s often framed as support for democracy and self-determination rather than the geopolitical poke in the eye it really is.
I do like your exploration of the idea of 'natural' countries where meaningful geopolitical attributes define regions more than mostly arbitrary borders.
And that surely calls back to the unique fact that Taiwan, where the vanquished government of China escaped to is an island (group of islands).
Well, China doesn't operate in the open like that with straight up comments. It's not their culture or style. That's a Western tradition and to be fair, we often say one thing and do another. There are benefits and drawbacks to both approaches. China does, however, interfere in sovereign issues, like creating policing stations worldwide that monitor Chinese people, citizens or not, and their speech. In some cases it has taken direct action, in other cases it's peddled influence one way or another. And both English speaking and French speaking Canada HAVE taken various pot shots at each other. It's a family squabble. Lots of other countries noticed even if they were too polite to say. Saying it doesn't bother me because from the Quebecois perspective, we ARE an occupying force. I don't agree with that perspective but it's not like it's a state secret or anything. Our task as Canadians and perhaps diplomats would be to align the perspectives more closely or at least so they can function well together regardless. Other than that we have to be aware of sharing power in some equitable way. It's a very very hard task but no one guaranteed life would be easy. In fact, if we manage it at all, my experience says it will be all the more fulfilling because of its difficulty.
Also, I grew up with a family who lived above us that escaped from the mainland as part of the Kuomintang. They absolutely hated the Communist party (and for all I know they still do). They lost people, they did not agree with the political or economic direction and they were defeated fighting them. So they left to do their own thing and some of them went to Taiwan or came to Toronto in the 60's. But why can't I acknowledge that they (and the other political factions that created Taiwan) live on a separate island, have been doing their own thing for a while now, successfully, and they don't want to do things Communist Party style? It's true. The real reason, just like Putin's Russia, is that the CCP can't afford to have any dissent or any cracks in its armour or it'll collapse. Authoritarianism is hard but brittle. It's trying to manufacture its way out of internal dissent at the expense of the entire world. It's not far from a Hydraulic Empire and Taiwan is independent of that empire and China can't stand it. It also wants Indonesia back, all of the Koreas, it effectively has Myanmar and I'm sure it would be happy to push into Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam too if it thinks it can get away with it. It already took over Tibet, very much its own place for thousands of years, and deposed the Dalai Lama. Look, when you see a mother abusing a niece or nephew do you say anything or just get out of the way and pretend it didn't happen? Likewise we've seen China just take over places it wanted, throwing around its weight just like the Western colonizers did. Are they somehow exempt from the same kinds of criticism because they were once colonized? America isn't. Canada isn't (both with Indigenous) so why not China?
If it's that we can't win a war with China, I agree. But sometimes all it takes is standing up to the bully, not actually throwing the stone at Goliath. I got beat up in high school for being queer. I wouldn't stay down but there was no way I could beat him, he was at least twice my size and had big friends. I was alone. I kept standing up anyway. Eventually he stopped beating on me and he never tried it again. We'd both made our points. Unfortunately the same scenario today would probably have resulted in my death at gun or knifepoint, the principle is the same though. Stand up, both for yourself and for others. People notice that shit. It earned him no points and it earned me enough self-respect to at least make it through an otherwise suicidal few years at high school. We respect Ukraine for similar reasons, they don't want to submit meekly to Russia, despite the fact that they probably don't ultimately have the manpower to win. They want their own government and their own direction. Who am I to argue? I don't live there. They do. Why shouldn't they be free to choose? Especially if they're willing to fight for it. In fact, that guy, the one who stands up for himself, even hopelessly. I have more respect for him than the guy who beats him up. But then I think of someone like Matthew Sheppard, it could easily go the other way if no one says or does anything. And what does that accomplish for an island of 23 million people?
Also, Spock famously lives by logic, but it's missing half the equation and his entire storyline is his struggle to combine heart (emotions) and logic. It's compelling because it's the only real way to suck the marrow from life. Curves and charts are great, but they aren't all.
Wow. A bunch of things:
1) I cannot believe you just threw Taiwan under the bus. It's the same argument Putin used to invade Ukraine. Exactly the same. If Taiwan IS the rebellious son with his own phone line and too many American friends then why do 23 million people have to live by their overbearing helicopter Mom's rules? Why can't they have their own life, make their own choices? They've been doing so for years now and being very successful at it. Taiwan is a vibrant, successful liberal economy with its own wonderful culture and you want to make it sit down, shut up and eat borscht from now on? Really? Remember China is the place famous for bringing back slavery (the Uyghurs) and mowing down protests with machine guns (Tiananmen), not exactly a ringing endorsement.
2) You've forgotten the alternative. Before Breton Woods we had World War. We had Nationalism run amok. We had Mercantilism! After Breton Woods more people were lifted from crushing poverty and starvation than at any other time in human history, by orders of magnitude. You'd have most of us go back to being Daisy on the first episode of Downton Abbey? Stoking fires for the lordlings (billionaires) hours before they even get up for breakfast while the kitchen staff and everyone else just abuses us?
3) If you want REAL change you haven't gone far enough, not by a mile. Eliminate the corporation, rejigger the state itself. By your own logic Canada doesn't make sense. It's a long, short country with language issues. It should be like 3-5 countries if it's going to deal effectively with the geography it has and some of those countries would be best if they included some US states too. Combine the coast of BC with the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California to just below San Fransisco and you've got a dynamic, viable and culturally similar region. But if you include the inner regions of BC, Washington and Oregon you have conflict and problems. They should be part of Alberta, Saskatchewan, some of Manitoba and the states of Idaho, Colorado, Montana and the Dakotas. I mean, if what you're going for is coherence. Ontario would be better off with Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, possibly parts of Pennsylvania and New York too. A sort of rust belt monster truck of a country. Quebec should be its own thing and parts of Ontario and New Brunswick. The north could be nearly everything 200 miles above the current border with the US and include Alaska. The exception would be Newfoundland and the rest of the Maritimes, which, by name alone, has stubbornly always been it's own thing but might be better off with Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts (although it might do better combined with New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania). Anyway, my point is, the national borders as they are bring inherent conflict due to population, language cultures and geography.
Which brings us back to Taiwan. Is war there inevitable? Probably. People are floating 2027 but who knows? Does it make sense? Well, how did you just react to my logical redistribution of Canada and the US? If it does happen it could mean another World War in another era of jingoistic ultra-nationalism with protectionist economic policies (which didn't work well the first two times so....). So isn't the real solution to find a way to build something again with our neighbours? Isn't the real solution to co-operate again? Yeah, we probably do have to let off steam, but can't we use that to power the next revolution in clean social energy? Giving up on Taiwan and turning our backs on them is just throwing more of our friends to the wolves, and those wolves will eat them and come for us next.
Imagine Beijing throwing its weight into the Quebec independence debate, saying,
“We support the sovereign aspirations of the Québécois people and believe English Canada is an occupying force.”
There’d be outrage across Canada.
Ottawa would call it foreign interference.
The U.S. would call it destabilizing.
And yet—when Western powers weigh in on Taiwan, it’s often framed as support for democracy and self-determination rather than the geopolitical poke in the eye it really is.
I do like your exploration of the idea of 'natural' countries where meaningful geopolitical attributes define regions more than mostly arbitrary borders.
And that surely calls back to the unique fact that Taiwan, where the vanquished government of China escaped to is an island (group of islands).
Well, China doesn't operate in the open like that with straight up comments. It's not their culture or style. That's a Western tradition and to be fair, we often say one thing and do another. There are benefits and drawbacks to both approaches. China does, however, interfere in sovereign issues, like creating policing stations worldwide that monitor Chinese people, citizens or not, and their speech. In some cases it has taken direct action, in other cases it's peddled influence one way or another. And both English speaking and French speaking Canada HAVE taken various pot shots at each other. It's a family squabble. Lots of other countries noticed even if they were too polite to say. Saying it doesn't bother me because from the Quebecois perspective, we ARE an occupying force. I don't agree with that perspective but it's not like it's a state secret or anything. Our task as Canadians and perhaps diplomats would be to align the perspectives more closely or at least so they can function well together regardless. Other than that we have to be aware of sharing power in some equitable way. It's a very very hard task but no one guaranteed life would be easy. In fact, if we manage it at all, my experience says it will be all the more fulfilling because of its difficulty.
Also, I grew up with a family who lived above us that escaped from the mainland as part of the Kuomintang. They absolutely hated the Communist party (and for all I know they still do). They lost people, they did not agree with the political or economic direction and they were defeated fighting them. So they left to do their own thing and some of them went to Taiwan or came to Toronto in the 60's. But why can't I acknowledge that they (and the other political factions that created Taiwan) live on a separate island, have been doing their own thing for a while now, successfully, and they don't want to do things Communist Party style? It's true. The real reason, just like Putin's Russia, is that the CCP can't afford to have any dissent or any cracks in its armour or it'll collapse. Authoritarianism is hard but brittle. It's trying to manufacture its way out of internal dissent at the expense of the entire world. It's not far from a Hydraulic Empire and Taiwan is independent of that empire and China can't stand it. It also wants Indonesia back, all of the Koreas, it effectively has Myanmar and I'm sure it would be happy to push into Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam too if it thinks it can get away with it. It already took over Tibet, very much its own place for thousands of years, and deposed the Dalai Lama. Look, when you see a mother abusing a niece or nephew do you say anything or just get out of the way and pretend it didn't happen? Likewise we've seen China just take over places it wanted, throwing around its weight just like the Western colonizers did. Are they somehow exempt from the same kinds of criticism because they were once colonized? America isn't. Canada isn't (both with Indigenous) so why not China?
If it's that we can't win a war with China, I agree. But sometimes all it takes is standing up to the bully, not actually throwing the stone at Goliath. I got beat up in high school for being queer. I wouldn't stay down but there was no way I could beat him, he was at least twice my size and had big friends. I was alone. I kept standing up anyway. Eventually he stopped beating on me and he never tried it again. We'd both made our points. Unfortunately the same scenario today would probably have resulted in my death at gun or knifepoint, the principle is the same though. Stand up, both for yourself and for others. People notice that shit. It earned him no points and it earned me enough self-respect to at least make it through an otherwise suicidal few years at high school. We respect Ukraine for similar reasons, they don't want to submit meekly to Russia, despite the fact that they probably don't ultimately have the manpower to win. They want their own government and their own direction. Who am I to argue? I don't live there. They do. Why shouldn't they be free to choose? Especially if they're willing to fight for it. In fact, that guy, the one who stands up for himself, even hopelessly. I have more respect for him than the guy who beats him up. But then I think of someone like Matthew Sheppard, it could easily go the other way if no one says or does anything. And what does that accomplish for an island of 23 million people?
Also, Spock famously lives by logic, but it's missing half the equation and his entire storyline is his struggle to combine heart (emotions) and logic. It's compelling because it's the only real way to suck the marrow from life. Curves and charts are great, but they aren't all.