J. O. P. Bland Quotes
The army, uncontrolled and uncontrollable, has already repudiated Young China; the horde of hungry politicians remains absorbed in futile arguments and sordid intrigues; the Government is without prestige, policy or power; three parties in the State, alike and pelf; the Cabinet is distracted by the advice of amateur politicians at the capital and the threats and protests of the provinces.
Young China had toppled the Manchu Dynasty, but once in power, they found it much harder to govern—a common happening after revolution.
J. O. P. Bland, 1863-1945, (John Otway Percy Bland), English Journalist, Historian, and Foreign Intelligence Operative, Description of the new Government under Sun Yat Sen and the Young China Party, 1912
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China, after overthrowing the Manchu Dynasty was struggling among many factions for control of the government.
Sowell’s definition of “degeneracy” seems to be departing from his ideal version of proper views and action.
A revolution in 1911 had toppled the Manchu Dynasty. The republican government which won the revolution then lost the peace and their President, Yuan Shikai, became a dictator and crowned himself Emperor. After his death in 1916, China was in chaos; crime, starvation, no law, with no real government was able to be established. Bland observed that Students had become very active filling a huge vacuum, but they became an obstacle to anything that was practically attainable and was less than perfect according to Western democratic notions. There were forces powerful enough to prevent a government from forming, but non strong enough to form one that could survive. The vast majority of the professional politicians were very corrupt. See {613111}.
The French Revolution with the rise of Napoleon was a classic example. The American Revolution was an exception.
In the Vietnam War, America and her allies were defending the South Vietnamese from the Communist and Nationalist incursions of the North Vietnamese. However, the South Vietnamese government was itself a very fragile democracy which provided rights little better than the Ho Chi Min lead government of the North. Further, the South Vietnamese rulers and governments while claiming to be democracies, were little more than in name only and were very corrupt. As with many unstable and weak governments, South Vietnam had experienced a succession of coups, with some of his advisors favoring the coups and a few actualy supporting them. Johnson was continually frustrated by this and this expression was his own inimitable style.
The congressman was reacting to a group staging a protest on the bridges connecting Washington DC with Virginia, thereby stopping traffic.
1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Duke of Northumberland. When King James VI of poorer Scotland assumed the English throne (as James I) most of the Scots, and especially the Highlanders, were anti-English and concerned about the integrity and independence of Scotland. Together with dissident Englishmen, Dudley foresaw the schism that was to engulf England and Scotland in bloody civil war.
Two years later they won an electoral majority.
John Otway Percy Bland, who wrote as J. O. P. Bland, was a British writer and journalist, best known as the author of a number of books on Chinese politics and history. He lived in China for most of the period 1883–1910.
