Nineteen firefighters die in one blaze in Arizona. A heat wave stretches across much of the country, and 658 people die each year from too much heat, according to the Centers for Disease Control. As heartbreaking as these tragedies are, they do not rise to the very top of tragic stories. For that dubious distinction, we turn to a story out of China. The heat tragedies are beyond human control. In China, however, it is necessary to enact into law the simplest, most basic norms of human decency. In this largest of totalitarian societies, even simple decency needs to fall under government control.
China, the country that controls how many children one may bear; China, the economic powerhouse that crushes democracy; China, supposedly the wave of the future — this country finds it necessary to pass laws mandating children to visit their parents. China, the country based on atheism, finds it necessary to discover the fifth commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother.”
Truly this is the totalitarian endgame. Rejecting theology and morality based on theology, China creates a society in which parents are so disconnected from children that China’s laws now must tell children to stay in touch with their elderly parents or risk being sued. Oh, and what is elderly? Who is being abandoned? Parents as young as 57. We’re not talking about cognitively disabled people in their nineties, although, to be sure, children will actively remain in touch with these parents, too.
Some of the Chinese “elderly” say the law is better than nothing. But the new law speaks louder than any of its defenders possibly could. The new law says: Our society is a failure. Economic growth cannot buy human decency. “Made in China” is strictly a materialistic fact, not a human triumph. In other words, totalitarian societies can, unlike the old Soviet Union, succeed in the marketplace, but cannot sustain themselves beyond that. If it takes a police force and a court of law to enforce “honor thy father and thy mother,” anyone can guess how meaningful those top-down, Big Brother, parent-children contacts will be.
Beyond the economic exploitation that the cheap labor in China reflects, the new law is something to remember the next time you see “Made in China.” But just in case you have any doubts about the ultimate efficacy of the new law, or about the inhuman reality behind it, keep in mind that that law is virtually superfluous the minute it hits the books. For Chinese parents have already been suing their children for emotional support.
If anyone can find just the right word for this type of legislation and judicial activism — pathetic? tragic? predictable? legalistic? sad? unstable? self-destructive? emblematic? — please let us know.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
