The tide of history

The problem is when i declutter the fridge or kitchen cabinet,it can be done quite fast but today when i wanted to reorganize the books in my cupboards,it was an onerous,mammoth task. It was like an encounter with a long lost friend whom i havent seen for a long time.I flipped through some pages where ive highlighted ideas or jotted down key words and new perceptions arose and before i knew it I pulled out these 2 books from my shelf,sat down on the sofa and got so engrossed that i had no time to cook lunch.just ate sardine rillete with toast wholemeal bread,a tub of greek yoghurt,a century egg and some grapes n mango. My brain devoured food for thought.,,.Both books are written from different angles.One gave a broad view on historical changes affecting East Asia ,the social and political context of wars,conflicts,socio cultural influences,common and regional differences,the rise and fall of empires and challenges ahead.the other book looks at the thought leaders and reformers,their philosophy and actions that impacted Chinas rise to wealth and power up to the present.it starts with reformers who challenged the dynastic and imperial power that weakened the state from the time of Kang You Wei, to Liang

Qi Chao to Deng Xiao Peng,Zhu Rong ji to president Xi JinPing. At the rate im going its gonna take a year to reorganize my book shelves. " What did the Japanese have in mind when they invaded China in 1937?They had become captives of their own illusions:of Japan as all powerful and all competent,of China as hopelessly backward,weak and disunified." R.Murphy Japanese terror tactics failed to persuade the Chinese to give up and Chinas great distances and mountains helped to stall Japanese efforts to advance.Napoleon and Hitler had made the same mistakes in Russia,prisoners of their own illusions,but nations,like individuals,seldom learn from the mistakes of others,and are often too slow to draw the correct conclusions from their own errors.There are lessons here for any superior power attempting to enforce its will on a weaker one.They were repeated in the Communist Kuomintang civil war from 1947 to 49 and then in first the French and then the American effort to destroy the anti colonialist and anti communist resistance in Vietnam.Superior weaponry,even superior numbers,do not ensure victory,especially not when they are directed against nationalist,patriotic resistance.,which in fact they serve to strengthen Terror tactics only make it worse as in repeated instances from Napoleon to Hitler to the Japanese to the Americans in Vietnam. R.Murphy. So repeated attempts to badmouth and make another nation the scapegoat for its own failings will only galvanize a stronger will to resist.Maybe a more reconciliatory approach of a win win strategy will benefit all instead of a winner takes all approach.Ultimately pride comes before a fall.