The youth of China, are they China's hope? (Patreon)

This is a tough one, let me cut to the chase, during my time in China I was severely disappointed by a certain demographic, the older middle aged group, we call  them the "lost generation" they are the old red guard, the thugs of the cultural revolution who under Mao destroyed China, they are by and in large uneducated, selfish, ruthless and lacking in what most of us would call common sense and compassion... This is not to say that there aren't exceptions and I find that even the most horrid of the bunch can still be friendly and show kindness under the right circumstances, let's just say that the weather has to be very fair. I often would feel embarrassed on behalf of the people my age and younger who had to suffer the ignorant behaviours of their parents or grandparents, they would make a concerted effort to distance themselves from these bad behaviors, often when we would see an uncle hock a loogie on the floor as we walked they would assure me that it's only "uneducated older people" who would do this. I of course knew that this was not the case, my vast travels throughout China had shown me that these sorts of behaviours were not limited to the older demographic but had been handed down to their children and grandchildren, it was the younger people in the city and from middle class backgrounds that were trying to distance themselves from the uncivil habits such as spitting, littering, grab haggery and such. They earned much respect from me and were a constant source of hope to me that China was on a path towards a more civil, friendly, open and international society. 

I met many a good friend during my 14 years in China but there was one underlying issue that I tried my absolute best to ignore and that was for lack of a better term the "rabid nationalism" that could turn even my most enlightened Chinese friend into a mindless, hate-filled drone at the snap of a finger. Whenever the CCP made a mistake or was seen as being less than great, they would turn to their tried and true methods of stoking nationalism, blaming Japan or the USA or some foreign power for some random unrelated slight against the Chinese people and bam, everyone is frothing at the mouth and full of hate. I couldn't stand this and even the youngest and brightest of China's youth are under this evil spell, it's bred into each and every citizen from a young age in kindergarten they are taught to hate the Japanese and foreign powers (I used to teach kindergarten and I would hear the Chinese teachers telling the 4 year olds to never trust Japanese people because they are liars and cheats), kindergarten plays were all about beating the Japanese or some sort of glorification of the CCP and communist armies... it was sickening to say the least.

This irrational nationalism overwrites common sense and decency to a point where extremely awful behaviour will be excused as long as it's a Chinese person who did it, my recent video about how China is destroying the ocean ecologies and coastlines around the world was met by hoards of Chinese nationalists defending these bad actions and attacking either my character or blaming the west, some nonsense about the USA killing buffalos or black friday or whatever, lame excuses to justify the awful, wilful and extremely dramatic damage that China is doing to the world right now....

This is the big issue, all countries have made mistakes in the past, either intentionally or unintentionally but we all learn and we condemn these past actions and ensure that we educate our youth to make sure that they are never repeated, we know that unchecked industrialisation is detrimental to the environment, we know that over hunting a species can lead to its extinction and so we put laws and guards in place to ensure that these horrible consequences are avoided. China however will never admit fault and will crash forward chaotically destroying everything in its path, they will only stop when there is nothing left to take.

There are many good and decent Chinese citizens who know and see this bad behaviour in front of them but if they speak out they are called unpatriotic and attacked with such intensity and hatred that it takes the strongest of wills and the most courageous only to stick to their guns.

My hope for the future of China has been dashed by this irrational nationalism!

I wish one day to be able to have a conversation with my Chinese friends about the challenges China faces without them saying "what about USA or what about XYZ" the day that China takes responsibility for even one of the bad things they are responsible for is a day that a bright future for the world begins.

- Stay Awesome!

SerpentZA