We are often analyzing what makes a big country and how can we gain the respect of others, so we spend money to hold the Olympic Games, open the World Expo, build high-speed railways, and claim the second largest GDP in the world. Can't compare.
To truly win the respect of the other party, it is not by power or violence, but by spirit and strength. On this point, Colonel Nixon taught Saito two good lessons - although, the colonel is only a prisoner of the Japanese, and in Saito's eyes I can put a dog to kill you with a bed bug - Saito said , I don't care about you, because your escape from here means death. You can only live by relying on me, by giving me something to eat because of your hard work. But he was wrong. This is Western civilization's contempt for Eastern civilization. Nixon made him understand that I cooperate with you because I respect you, not because you are an official now.
I heard people say that in the UK, an old aristocrat with only enough income is more respected than a wealthy businessman. At that time, I thought to myself, what kind of stinky shit you have mixed up like this, but it was Ah Q's "I was much richer than you back then!". Now I found out that I was wrong, this spirit, this respect, not because of his identity, but because of what he did for the country and the nation - when the country was invaded, these people were the first to charge. When power jumps out to harm the interests of ordinary people, it is they who are not afraid of sacrifice and jump out to uphold justice. They are the protectors of the safety of the people and the normal order of the society, not the so-called rich people, the so-called powerful people, and the so-called state machines.
How often nowadays do we respect someone not for his money, his power, his status, but for his struggle to defend justice? In this culture, it is the hero of the people who dares to stand up and take the lead in resisting the power, not the person who seeks fame, not the kleptocrat. Indeed, when they took state power, they used it not as a tool to satisfy their own selfish desires, but as a tool for justice.
At this point, I understand why we, including Japan, shouted a lot of reasons to ourselves, but in the end we still can't catch up with the West, because the basic values of our society are wrong, and everyone who accepts this culture is working hard in the direction of harming public and private interests, and harming others and selfishness. Those who run for the basic interests of the masses are regarded as insane, those who fight against tyrants and power are regarded as oversight, and those who invent and innovate to contribute to the real knowledge base of society are regarded as fools. What else can you expect from a society that only thinks about others?
We can never become a superpower unless we reform culturally first.
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