If Marx were around today, his observations vis-a-vis China would be interesting. He would in my opinion have more than enough reason to believe that was history repeating itself.
Today the Olympic torch comes to Suzhou and they are all waving their little flags, beeping their horns, and generally celebrating being a member of a bigger whole. Nothing wrong with all of that. However, the mood today smacks not of a healthy patriotism but of a nationalism that exaggerates the country's virtues and remains blind to its failings, a nationalism that can be contemptuous of other countries. The Historian experiences a sort of 'deja vu' and has no difficult task in seeing the 'quo vadis' of it all and it would appear that the general law that governs history has to be human stupidity.
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