August 15, 1999

Conflict Between East and West Powers Civilization

Now that Balkan and Mideast hotheads are making nice, sorta, United States authorities are taking a sharper look at China’s belligerent attitude, growing nuclear capabilities and trade practices.

The world’s last, and largest, communist nation has heightened the concern in the world’s first, and largest, capitalist nation.

China has taken to flying war planes through the strait that separates Taiwan from the mainland. This reminds everyone of Red China’s missile firings there three years ago.

At that time, China backed off when President Clinton sent in an aircraft carrier to emphasize U.S. intention to abide by its defense treaty with Taiwan. American resolve is not so clear today. We have adopted a policy of “peaceful engagement” – that is, trade.

More provocative was seizure of a Taiwanese cargo ship by Chinese police. The ship was carrying gasoline and food to troops on Matsu, another Taiwan island near the Chinese coast. The 10 crew members were accused of smuggling, but eventually allowed to proceed.

During this diversion, China test-fired an intercontinental missile -- made possible by theft of U.S. technology. State Department spokesman James P. Rubin shrugged. He refused to say whether the administration would defend Taiwan in a showdown.

There is reason for misgivings about China. Conflict between the East and West has been the fuel powering the engine of civilization, according to historian C. Northcote Parkinson.

Parkinson is the irreverent author of “Parkinson’s Law” governing large institutions whether government, corporation or private: “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” The modern variation is: “Build it, and they will come.”

In Parkinson’s serious work 40 years ago, he theorizes that competition between Oriental and Occidental cultures is essential to progress.

“There have been alternating phases of ascendancy,” he asserts. “Periods of high civilization are found to last from one to two thousand years. Scholars can break these periods down into phases of origin, growth, achievement and decay.

Parkinson traces the rise and fall of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Chinese and Europeans. As each took their brief bows on the world stage, the seeds of their own destruction already were sown. Why?

”We have learned to associate decay with over-taxation, but is that a symptom or result?” Parkinson asks. “Over-taxation is the cause of a growing burden of useless bureaucracy. But, that also has a biological aspect.”

“The one, evident fact is that national decadence is at least accompanied by the inviduals’ loss of energy. As energy dies away, the arts become sterile, policies become timid and the outposts are abandoned. This decay creates a vacuum into which a more virile civilization is drawn.”

Parkinson contends the suction created by a progressive decay draws in a flow of ideas, fashions, inventions and words. “It attracts missionaries, travelers, merchants, teachers, agents both commercial and secret, trade missions, cultural delegations, military advisers and diplomats.

“The actual invasion comes later – as a rule being followed up by tax collectors, administrators, surveyors, philologists, architects, engineers, art critics and crooks.

“Where the peaceful pressure is sufficiently unopposed, no actual invasion may be needed. The pressure may continue even after an invasion has failed. The offensive is, perhaps, only incidentally of a military kind,” Parkinson declares.

Japan comes to mind as a resurgent Oriental culture affecting the United States. Our business managers make pilgrimages there to learn and adopt their techniques. Our consumers increasingly favor Oriental goods – Toyotas to Jacuzzis. Oriental agents roam at will throughout the U.S. stealing military and manufacturing secrets.

The loss of energy which Parkinson postulates press heavily on the American psyche. Not many people want to dig ditches, pick oranges, wash dishes or carry bags at the airport.

Many prefer welfare rather than going to school, re-training for a different job or moving to a new locality. National policy is molded by public opinion polls and 30-second TV bites.

We should note that the process of conflict and decay continually accelerates. Each succeeding civilization—East and West -- flowers and dies in a shorter time than its predecessor. What once was measured in millenniums is now marked in centuries. Technology determines the rate, and the United States is foremost.

The cycle of conflict turns on resolve. Is America still ascending, or does it stand at the top of a slippery slope?

PARTING SHOTS

Hillary announces that a great-grand-stepfather was a Jew. We can expect she next will discover a great-great-grandmother’s half sister was a black slave who played right field for the Yankees.

* * *

George W. Bush is buying a Texas box-canyon for a home. Hopefully he can be persuaded to hold press conferences there.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers