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It looks like it's still pretty bad. Aqicn.org (pretty accurate from what I remember) shows the current PM2.5 level in Beijing at 242. (For comparison, the clos

It looks like it's still pretty bad. Aqicn.org (pretty accurate from what I remember) shows the current PM2.5 level in Beijing at 242. (For comparison, the closest station to my house near Washington, DC shows a level of 27.) I don't doubt that it's better, but it still has quite a way to go. Authoritarian governments can be great until they go wrong. It's commonly said that a benevolent dictatorship is the best form of government. The problem is ensuring benevolence, which is really hard in the long term. Democracy's advantages lie not in the ability to get stuff done (which they suck at), but in their ability to transfer power peacefully and limit the damage caused by power-hungry maniacs.

dlwdlw 9y ago
Interestingly enough ancient Chinese texts like the Tao Te Ching emphasize that the best ruler is one who doesn't seem to exist. Similarly with free markets and letting people do there thing in peace an invisible quality emerges. The Emergence of quality from frictionless interaction is a very interesting thing. Ants seem to have agency. Our brains seem to create consciousness. Markets seem to have an invisible hand. Hubris creating actions that seek to understand what can't be understood that destroy these sources of quality is a common trope that happens in history.
- adamsea 9y ago
  It does say that but that’s not quite it. I actually just read a translation with some really cool annotations and explanatory text. That said, I’m no expert, etc. But .... ... basically what this author was saying was that in the context of Taoism “do nothing” kinda means to do what is natural - as you say, ants just do ants. To do “something” would be to go against the nature of what being an ant is. This is also true for badgers, bears, flowers, people, etc - everything has its “way.” So, the “way” of being a person could, say, involve taking compassionate action to help a fellow human beings, if the way/nature of humanity is to help others, say. I dunno about the Tao of free markets. If anything you could argue for a harmonious balance of unregulated and regulated. Not sure what “free” means for the consumer if they face a monopoly or a syndicate or shit wages or dangerously defective products or tons of pollution.
nneonneo 9y ago
FWIW Detroit, MI peaked at 154 earlier today [http://aqicn.org/city/usa/michigan/detroit-w-lafayette/ http://aqicn.org/city/usa/michigan/detroit-w-lafayette/] (the peak for Beijing was 286), so not everywhere is quite as clean as Washington, DC :)
- mikeash 9y ago
  It looks like that was an anomaly, though, whereas 200+ is routine for Beijing.

dlwdlw 9y ago

Interestingly enough ancient Chinese texts like the Tao Te Ching emphasize that the best ruler is one who doesn't seem to exist. Similarly with free markets and letting people do there thing in peace an invisible quality emerges. The Emergence of quality from frictionless interaction is a very interesting thing. Ants seem to have agency. Our brains seem to create consciousness. Markets seem to have an invisible hand. Hubris creating actions that seek to understand what can't be understood that destroy these sources of quality is a common trope that happens in history.

adamsea 9y ago
It does say that but that’s not quite it. I actually just read a translation with some really cool annotations and explanatory text. That said, I’m no expert, etc. But .... ... basically what this author was saying was that in the context of Taoism “do nothing” kinda means to do what is natural - as you say, ants just do ants. To do “something” would be to go against the nature of what being an ant is. This is also true for badgers, bears, flowers, people, etc - everything has its “way.” So, the “way” of being a person could, say, involve taking compassionate action to help a fellow human beings, if the way/nature of humanity is to help others, say. I dunno about the Tao of free markets. If anything you could argue for a harmonious balance of unregulated and regulated. Not sure what “free” means for the consumer if they face a monopoly or a syndicate or shit wages or dangerously defective products or tons of pollution.

nneonneo 9y ago

FWIW Detroit, MI peaked at 154 earlier today [http://aqicn.org/city/usa/michigan/detroit-w-lafayette/ http://aqicn.org/city/usa/michigan/detroit-w-lafayette/] (the peak for Beijing was 286), so not everywhere is quite as clean as Washington, DC :)

mikeash 9y ago
It looks like that was an anomaly, though, whereas 200+ is routine for Beijing.