Quote:
Originally Posted by chilcutt
The US media has a wider and freer role than the press in other countries. But American society, being large, rich and stable, is strong enough to endure the potential damage of having a media that does not always live up to its ideals of being judicious, fair and independant.
The US has 'built-in stability' There can be fringe lunatic behavior, but mainstrean Americans are sensible and rational, and extremeist sentiment will not threaten the very fabric of society.
In many developeing society's however, the glue holding society together is not as strong and these societies can easily rupture along tribal, ethnic, and relgious lines.
In the case of China,(and many other countries), racial and religious fault lines can be easily exploited.
Given these differances, my point is that what works for the US-its media and American-style democracy- may not easily be transposed elsewhere.
The US system will impose costs which large , rich country like the US can afford: the cost is too high for many other places.
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I disagree with that and I think it is selling the Chinese short. They have been around for how many thousands of years? I do not think a free press and the freedom of expression would cause the down fall of their society. I think it would jeopardize the current power structure and those who control it but China would survive.
Personally I think repression just delays the inevitable. What would only be a minor change in course will be turned into an explosion the longer the change is repressed. China is trying to isolate the people from the rest of the world and in this day and age of instant communication that just will not work. I think they need to jump in now as opposed to delaying the inevitable.
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