In my original book self published in 2004, “The Fundamental Theory of Knowledge”, I discussed the concept of relativity as it applies to knowledge. There are essentially two types of relativity, one is comparing an entity to a similar entity, the other is comparing an entity to itself.
In mainstream Western culture, the idea has always been to compare an entity to a similar entity, hence in the 1980’s we heard outcries about how Japan was going to take over the world, statistics would compare how many engineers Japan is churning out compared to say Western Europe or the USA, alarmists who could not understand that to exist as a viable entity, Japan had to turn out these engineers to build up its infrastructure, its industry was never a threat but were needed manpower talked as if Japan was still fighting World War two. Any how as the it turns out Japan has not taken over the world, but merely added a much needed balance.
Today one hears the same rhetoric concerning China, soon everybody will be overwhelmed with China churning out half a million engineers per annum. Well firstly the market dictates that China needs those engineers, it has to build an infrastructure roads, railways, public transport, airports, something that already exists in Western Europe and North America, these huge numbers of engineers are needed for a reason. Many other engineers are needed to build the industrial infrastructure.
Engineers in China are being paid top wages, engineers are not seen as badly needed in the West, there are thousands of engineers in for example Canada who drive taxis, they sure wish they where in China.
This phase of China’s growth will come to an end one day, there will be a great infrastructure, all that will be needed is enough engineers to maintain the infrastructure, the market will eventually see no need for so many engineers, the corporations started by engineers will eventually fall in the hands of lawyers and accountants and the economy will be said to be mature because those that create will no longer be in charge.
There is absolutely nothing to be alarmed by China’s rising technical abilities, as worries about Japan have proven to have had no basis. As the world grows everybody’s technical abilities would rise. Ideally All of Asia, Africa, Latin America should be having their technical abilities rise. If when ever somebody improves there is alarm, then would that not lead to stopping other peoples improvements where possible because they would be seen as a threat, with that kind of mentality it would be expected. The reality is one day all societies will improve, that after all is what capitalism is about, for those who say they care about humanity can not at the same time see a threat from that same humanity, because they fear losing what they believe is their control of the world, one will waste hundreds of billions trying to control the world to their desires and still fail, every one will eventually progress.
Instead of worrying about China, societies need compare to themselves, for example, how many patents where applied for last year, how many where applied for this year. No matter how China rises, the past and future industrial achievements of Western Europe and the USA are guaranteed, because they have sustainable knowledge policies, they will continue to make meaningful contributions in discovery, how many people really discover anything, or have new thoughts. Out of the millions of engineers how many have really invented something new. Most are not fountains of new thought, they follow time set traditions. It is not numbers that the West needs to be worried about numbers are of matter of supply and demand, not passion.
China creating its own inventions to share with the world also means it will become a strong supporter of the patent system, they certainly will also want a fee for their inventions. This is a good thing. On top of this, China needs Western Europe and USA to sell its goods, far from wishing their destruction, those who favor trade can wish nobodies destruction, the more wealthy the world the more societies to trade with.
There can never be a threat on humanity when humanity takes steps forward. Without fear only then can one truly help the world, otherwise it is merely a bizarre form of hypocrisy, how can one wish development, gain of knowledge progress for somebody one fears.
Bhekuzulu Khumalo
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