>>13687893The way I think of China is it's like selling your soul to the devil. You'll get everything you ever wanted, but you lose your self and your humanity in the process.
I also like to think about and compare China's Great Leap Forward with Japan's Meiji Restoration.
Both started out as very poor (relatively) and primitive countries, and both accomplished the amazing feat of propelling themselves into becoming one of the top world powers in just one generation.
The biggest difference between the two is how they did it. Without getting into it too much, it's clear that China was willing to lose a lot more of themselves than Japan, and this fact becomes apparent when we look at both nations and their differences today.
Japan has a solid reputation for its cultural output, ethics/standards, societal trust, and pride in their distinguished national identity (just to name a few).
On the other side, these are all characteristics that China is infamous for lacking. They have no cultural output, their standards are "whatever we can get away with", no trust in their fellow citizen ("finders keepers" is the status quo), and all their pride in themselves is purely in how much money they have.
It serves a pretty good metaphor for what happens on the individual scale when one abandons their own principles in the pursuit of fortune.
You forget your history, you lose your dignity, and you erase your individuality, ultimately leading to losing your own self.
Pretty good moral of the story if you ask me lol