Stupid, Gullible West.
Apparently Jesus didn’t resurrect, just because there’s 3 names than line up. Fallacy: Appeal to unqualified authority (James Cameron, who, btw, ignores the QUALIFIED authority at the end of the article!) Likewise, the repeated devaluing of *worthy* and *important* evidence (like the biblical account and the common names for that time period) is another fallacy of suppressed evidence. AKA: Propoganda.
But not to be outdone in the states, the continent is ready to claim Communism “works” simply because China’s economy is growing.
Don’t get me started on the logical fallacies involved here! You don’t have a large enough “market share” to make the general claim that it ‘works’. You have to have at LEAST 50% of a significant number! One doesn’t count. Hurley calls this a ‘hasty generalization”, when “a conclusion is drawn from an atypical sample.”
Now, I’m a good skeptic on both fronts, willing to doubt either end of the stick, so how about this reasoning, suggesting I have a fallacy of presumption(like suppressed evidence): “How do we know what is ‘atypical’ or not? Perhaps all previous iterations of ‘communism’ weren’t true to true communist ideals, and FINALLY China is?” Ah, the joys of scepticism. This reasoning may be plausible, but I lack the historical knowledge of the details of the implementation of communism to bring any real conclusion to the matter, but I will say that from what I do know, it sounds like communism is impossible to fully implement, and thereby China isn’t ideally communistic, and hence, the original article’s title instills a fallacy of equivocation, or more likely, the hasty generalization I mentioned earlier, and perhaps, from the stories of the REST of China (quite poor) as compared to the wealthy leaders who AREN’T living on a half cup of rice(this is now an ad hominem argument on my part 
), it sure sounds like this propoganda piece is suppressing evidence as well.
Jim said,
February 27, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Michael Spencer, over at iMonk actually has a couple of articles up that debunk Cameron’s findings, or at least call them into serious question. I think you’d get a kick out of them (they’re at about 2 to 3 articles down the page at the moment).
And China is, in actuality, something closer to a capitalist communism (which is terribly ironic) exactly because communism by itself doesn’t work. The economy is growing only because they’re moving away from communism and more to a modified version of capitalism. My wife noted this trend to me right after she got back from her trip over there a few years back.
fadingdust said,
February 27, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Actually a guy in my logic class posted on it too! http://alindsey4.blogspot.com/2007/02/newsflash-tomb-of-jesus-christ-is-still.html
As to communism, I’d say it ‘doesn’t work’ based upon a weak understanding of humanity (sinful!) which is precisely why capitalism “works” (and why it bugs me! that is to say, feeds the ppl’s sin, though it is still the ppl’s own responsibility, just that marketing pushes ppl to their sinful, self-gratifying tendencies.)
Jim said,
February 27, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Well…. yeah.
Dennis said,
February 28, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I read the “extremely” one-sided article and no, communism does not, will not, never did work. What we see is the consumer driven Western markets eager to make huge profits. The “bowl of rice” concept is most likely where the truth is buried. I worked here in Canada for a large multi-national corporation for some time until I could no longer accept the concept of cheap goods from China. We are seeing a one-sided look at the entire region and are buying into a few million people, and not the cheap labour force. Few discussions are centered around the fact that China cannot even feed it’s people because the rural population is left out of the picture. In our “throw away” western society we are willing to purchase items at low costs, rather than pay a few dollars more for a longer lasting product. My own way of telling the Chinese elite to get out of my life is to not purchase any product “made in China”. We in the western world only need to purchase products, for a few dollars more, and the communist dictatorship would collapse. Would China be willing to let us know how many of their products are made for that “bowl of rice”? Let’s take a good look at Stalin and ask ourselves the question, not very likely to happen. Would we be willing to purchase a great stero from Germany or a cheap knock off from China? Let me take it down to a lower level, a cheap scented candle made in China that burns half-way and becomes useless, or the same product that burns all the way made with the excellent craftmanship by a western country. We will never see the truth as long as our media does not let us look over the the Berlin Wall, communism at it’s very best!
fadingdust said,
February 28, 2007 at 3:09 pm
But what’s interesting is the consumer trends in the states. We’ve got the general populace which is all about the cheap living/imported products & then there’s the younger urban crowd (of which I am apart) who makes too much money(of which I am not apart) who wants that quality & is sick of “pop-art”, who will buy a Bose over a Sony. But again, this for selfish reasons.
Some might see Dennis’ argument as anti-east/pro-west, but that is only based on a moral judgement on the effectiveness of the ecomony for the general populace, not an ad-hominem argument “just because.”
I fully agree with the need for consumer responsibility, in terms of NOT buying from companies which treat their employees like crap, from food producers who won’t tell me how bad for me their food is, and in general to not buy the self-indulging just because “I can.”
But alas, I can’t see that one happening any time soon. (re: my previous comment on humanity’s inherent selfish quality) mixed with my own personal need to just get by. I’m not exactly making the $ to by the quality as much as I would like.
What happens when you work for a big company that that treats you like crap, but pays you well? What happens when you work for a small company that treats you well but pays you little? What about if your big company is making it’s profits (and your salary) off of the backs of the “little guys.”
Capitalism is focused on the bottom dollar. Consumer responsibility, even if we wanted it to rise, are often ‘held down’ in this trapped cycle.
markrmorris2 said,
March 2, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I have to continually remind myself that logic does not necessarily equal truth. Logic is a man made paradigm applied to a God made universe. Its kind of like putting diesel in a gas engine, it’ll start but not for long. Either Christ was who he sais he was or he was not. No amount of proof one way or the other will ever budge the nature of God by one iota.