Theodore Zeldin Quotes
You have to accept that traditions exist, that people don't change their minds very quickly, that people are scared.
Zeldin, Theodore. An Intimate History of Humanity. HarperCollins, 1994.
Democracy and a republican form of government ran counter to the Chinese customs and failed, with Yuan Shikai taking all power—the “immemorial custom” of the autocratic Mancho and earlier Chinese dynasties. This failure of republican government in China so colored the future Chinese political leadership that both the Communists and Chang’s Kuomintang Nationalist anti-communists were both dictatorial and autocratic with great power lying in military hands. It was only in the later years of the 20th century that the Nationalists began to have a real democracy and although the Communists became avid capitalists and loosened up in terms of economic freedom, they did not feel the Chinese masses were ready to accept anything but the authoritarian political system that was the Chinese “immemorial custom”. They would not risk another collapse of modern government and all the factions fighting for control as in the Republic failure.
In the case of Christmas celebrations, in addition to the huge commercial consequences, there is tradition and religion involved which brings out non-monetary vested interests as well. This is true in England as well as America.
Theodore Zeldin CBE is an Oxford scholar and thinker whose books have searched for answers to three questions. Where can a person look to find more inspiring ways of spending each day and each year? What ambitions remain unexplored, beyond happiness, prosperity, faith, love, technology or therapy? What role could there be for individuals with independent minds, or who feel isolated or different, or misfits? Each of Zeldin's books illuminates from a different angle what people can do today that they could not in previous centuries.
