What others have said
This letter in response to your editorials on Thursday and Friday (“Comic book is no laughing matter,” April 28, page 8 and “Lame excuse for a lame comic book,” April 29, page 8).
First: “The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny” (James Madison, The Federalist No. 47).
Second: “It is characteristic of a tyrant to dislike everyone who has dignity or independence; he wants to be alone in his glory, but anyone who claims a little dignity, or asserts his independence, encroaches upon his prerogative, and is hated by as an enemy to his power” (Aristotle, Politics).
Third: “The tyrant is proud, and there lies his doom. He is proud because he thinks of strength as his own; thus he is in the clown role, as a mistaker of shadow for substance; it is his destiny to be tricked” (Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces).
Fourth: “If there is a single theme that dominates all my writings, all my obsessions, it is that of memory — because I fear forgetfulness as much as hatred and death” (Eli Weisel, Nazi Holocaust survivor, in his preface to From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences).
Fifth: “Do we need conditioned adepts or free-thinking students? Scholastic fact--factories keep many a good pupil too busy to think and educate him in progressive immaturity. Students are caught up in compulsive school regimentation which imprints on them dependency and awe of authority” (Joost Meerloo, Pavlovianism Strategy as a Weapon of Menticide).
Sixth: “If you want a vision of the future, just imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever” (George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four).
The six quotes listed above speak for themselves. The following quotes about Orwell’s “memory hole” is precisely the exact metaphor to describe what has been done by the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) publication of a comic book history of the Republic of China military — a comic that, coincidently, “deletes” 20 years that were crucial in the development of democracy in Taiwan. The KMT is conducting its affairs every day more and more as an autocratic, totalitarian, tyrannical regime.
It is acting in the very same manner as the Chinese Communist Party that removes undesirables from photos by airbrushing them.
According to a Wikipedia article on the subject of memory holes: “A memory hole is any mechanism for the alteration or disappearance of inconvenient or embarrassing documents, photographs, transcripts, or other records, such as from a Web site or other archive, particularly as part of an attempt to give the impression that something never happened” — a concept first popularized by Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Finally, “In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the memory hole is a small chute leading to a large incinerator used for censorship.”
Michael Scanlon
East Hartford, Connecticut
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) recent visit to Beijing and her upcoming visit to Washington will serve as a high-level test of her diplomatic mettle. In Beijing, Cheng was received with symbolic gestures, a warm reception, and high-level access. In Washington, she will receive far less pomp and far sharper questions about the KMT’s vision for the future of Taiwan. Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence. Cheng’s April 7-12 visit to mainland China coincided with an intense period of conflict in Iran. Despite the strategic significance of Cheng’s trip,
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the vast Asian chemicals industry into a tailspin. Deprived of the likes of Qatari natural gas and Saudi Arabian oil, the region’s fertilizer and plastics plants are slowing production or even shutting down. Everywhere except China, that is. In petrochemicals, China is unique. As well as a traditional industry that uses oil and gas as feedstock, it has parallel output that relies on its abundant domestic coal. Unsurprisingly, India and other regional powers want to copy and paste the Chinese method. This would not be easy — or climate friendly. The
US President Donald Trump recently repeated his claim that “Taiwan stole America’s chip industry,” reigniting public debate on the issue. As a former Taiwanese minister of economic affairs and an entrepreneur deeply involved in semiconductor supply chain development, I feel a responsibility to clarify this misunderstanding. From the perspective of global industrial evolution and the economic principle of comparative advantage, such a statement appears overly simplistic and risks obscuring the essence of the issue. The rise of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry was not built on “replacing America,” but rather emerged as a result of countries pursuing different development paths within the
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto says he knows how to fix the problems facing Indonesia. Yet his economic mismanagement and authoritarian tendencies are steering the nation toward a familiar mix of currency instability and political chaos. The world’s fourth-most populous nation risks reversing the hard-won democratic and business reforms that came after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. At that time, the rupiah collapsed and the political upheaval that followed forced former president Haji Mohamed Suharto from power. Prabowo’s administration is ignoring similar warning signs. That disconnect was apparent in a national address on Wednesday, when Prabowo projected the swagger that has
RSS