THE CHINESE ARE HERE! THE CHINESE ARE HERE! WHERE IS PAUL REVERE?
Vol. I | Issue. 42 | November 8, 2021
At least when Paul Revere galloped to his dramatic warning on the 18th of April in "75" he would announce to his countrymen that "The British are Coming!". Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem "Paul Revere's Ride" began as follows:
“Listen, my children, and you shall hear…”
The Longfellow classic dramatically, if inaccurately describing the actual events, was taught to every child in every school in America. It began intentionally as an instructive to the children of 19th century America and did not begin with “Hear ye, all cabinet members, and Senators, take note of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” Longfellow’s poem was designed both as a historical honorarium to Revere’s clarion call, as well as to make young Americans cognizant and aware that vigilance is a responsibility of citizenship. It wasn’t John Adams or John Hancock who mounted that horse stopping at the North Church, but Paul Revere, a hard-working moderately successful silversmith.
Revere and Colonial America did have one thing going for them that night in 1775 that we do not in 2021… That one thing is time.
It is true, that the British, like the Chinese, were in fact already there and not just coming for the first time. Although, the British presence in the colonies constituted a few garrisons of redcoats barely able to keep the peace with the resistive colonists. “The British are Coming!” meant that they were coming in force with a massive armada, scores of thousands of troops, and the muscle to subdue the powder keg about to explode across the pond.
Just like the British 1n 1775, the Chinese are also here now.
They are a ubiquitous presence in our business, civic acultural, and political life. China already controls, or at least influences through our massive financial dependence on them, virtually every sphere of American life.
America barely cares, however, because they have made things cheap, easy, and comfortable for most of us. I say most because things aren’t so terrific for those whose jobs have been lost through entire industries that have been destroyed. But for the most part, cheap goods of all kinds for the past twenty-five years have kept Americans lazily on their couches, content with the Chinese Trojan Horse of enjoying gym shoes, electronics, and other consumer opiates, while keeping our citizenry from any meaningful sense of alarm or even concern.
This is clear even with the recent statement from career fool and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, that the launch of China’s hypersonic missile was an "almost Sputnick moment”.
Almost? Always the fool, Milley either shouldn’t have spoken at all or else should have spoken the truth.
This single development makes clear that China already has the capability of rendering every American city defenseless. Even Milley’s vastly understated message regarding the strategic checkmate that this development poses to the United States was barely covered by The American Pravda.
Nicolas Chaillan, the Pentagon’s first chief of software, resigned at the beginning of September due to his frustration with the incompetence, sluggishness, and low priority with which the Pentagon and our entire Security establishment have handled the development of artificial intelligence and other software necessary to defend our country against the Chinese. Chaillan has said that he believes that we have already lost that war and that the US is at existential risk in its inability to defend itself.
Whether Chaillan is correct or not regarding the question of whether we can catch up may be open to speculation. However, no reasonable mind who cares about America can differ as to what our priority must be. We need leadership that can immediately convey to the American public that we are in an existential moment and we need to understand that the Chinese are coming in a way that we will never recover from.
Just like the British, they have already landed with their cheaply manufactured goods, Confucius institutes on college campuses, control over the NBA, huge political influence, The American Pravda, and in myriad other ways…
Somehow that presence doesn't seem to bother enough people.
One thing will though… Being served a hypersonic radioactive missile fallout with your morning latte.
Wake up sleepy America! The Chinese are coming!
Thank you, Mr. Chaillan, you may be our new Paul Revere.
-Emes