America v. China – The Contest of Size and Speed and Soul

Up early this morning and browsing YouTube while enjoying my first cup of coffee, I stumbled across John Pilger’s 2016 documentary, ‘The Coming War on China.’ Before I knew it, I had watched the first two-thirds.

As if written and directed by Howard Zinn, the film so far is heavy on familiar themes. America is a corrupt, hypocritical, and arbitrary imperialist Western power. China for its part has been the victim of predation for centuries. And Chinese communism is not so bad after all. The main reason we think otherwise is, as you might have guessed, racism. 

But according to Pilger, the present course of conflict between the US and the CCP is actually about America being beaten at our own game. We are the tyrannical aggressor, and China is really for free market prosperity – albeit a “free market” managed and controlled by the communist party.

As was the case with Zinn’s history, the truth is abused by which facts are emphasized or downplayed by turn to support the underlying premise which is taken for granted.

Christendom v. Communism

Once again, we must return to the decision of which is preferred. Should America operate according to a fixed, transcendent standard of right and wrong? 

If the answer is in the affirmative, then it is a wonder that American Christians are so often derided in our day by the deconstructionist crowd for insisting on accountability at home and abroad based on firm, set convictions. Such is the biggest impediment to progress, we are told.

If the answer is in the negative, however, then what is the basis for complaining about American conduct as somehow untoward or contemptible?

This is a hard, unpleasant challenge for critics of the United States the world over to answer. Yet it must be answered. And when it is answered, what we will find is that the issue for the Left is not the issue. The issue is the revolution.

Will to Power

Men like Pilger and Zinn in the UK and the US want what they want – Communism. And they don’t want what they don’t want – Christendom.

And this being the post-modern, post-truth climate we still unfortunately find ourselves in, created in large part thanks to the efforts of a godless intellectual heritage which can be traced back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau – the truth is infinitely malleable.

Subscribe to the philosophy of Michel Foucault, and say that all truth claims are merely the will to power in disguise, and then grant yourself permission thereby to discard all responsibility for making sense or being honest in favor of getting more power for yourself. If everyone is doing it, then you cannot be faulted.

Such is the only explanation for the rank dishonesty, inconsistency, and illogicality which characterizes works like Pilger’s documentary. But we can do better, and we must – particularly when the world hangs in the balance.

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