There is such a huge gap between western and eastern thought. It is very difficult for someone like me to fully grasp eastern thought. It is the cultural divide that separates us. You could say Chinese thought is based on virtue. Whereas western thought is based on power. This is a simplified way of saying what we in the west think of as freedom isn’t what people in China think of as freedom. There are many dissidents in China, possibly millions of them. The government cracks down on them if they try to organise anything rebellious. In Australia for example if people wanted to overthrow the government the reaction would be the same. The government would crack down hard. Though in China from what we are lead to believe the government is harsher. I could never confirm this personally. Any government is harsh in the correct situation. Look at the downfall of the Whitlam government. There were tanks on the streets in the 70s.

People in the US who are considered crazy like mass shooters are in fact simply dissidents. They disagree with an aspect of American society and then kill people. China in fact has a more favourable way of dealing with dissidents as they don’t get given the opportunity to launch their own campaigns. It may be seen as an attack on freedom yet being free is also about not having your life threatened when you leave the house. So then what is freedom and how is it protected? Freedom is an overused word in the west, used to criticise other cultures. Luckily in Australia freedom isn’t about weapons. In America freedom is about weapons. Yet what is it really other than economic freedom? If economic freedom existed wouldn’t it be free trade? Though would you want to arm people on this quest? I am obviously confusing freedom with freedom of carrying arms. That it seems is regional. So why in the west do we try to apply our own regional ideas across the world when they only relate to one region? The answer is power.

Why give dissidents guns? Why sell guns? Why not call them dissidents at all? Why tie power to ‘choices’ when there are bad choices as well as good choices? Why apply your own criteria to other cultures when they simply have different problems. If they followed you wouldn’t they also have the same problems? Put it this way China doesn’t have the same problems, they have different problems that only they can solve. Iraq was the same, Afghanistan was the same, Syria was the same. When the use of weapons is freedom then how can you have peace?