Leap of Faith

Religious or not, people often use or invoke the word faith in a variety of affirmations toward what they strongly believe in. It can be a solemn declaration of trust in someone or something.

Common dictionary definition: "The word faith is to refer to belief in something despite lacking any evidence for it."

One Biblical definition goes: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". Hebrews 11:1  (KJV)

Faith. Ordinarily, we've expressed it in varying circumstances as in, "I have faith in you, you can do it", as a declaration of total confidence in someone's ability.  Likely, however, in everyday life, we are not using the word in its proper context. Even in the first example, if we have seen the skill or talent of the individual, then faith does not apply if we have witnessed one's ability to accomplish the task.  On the other hand, in the expression, "This restored my faith in politics", or "I have faith in this or that politician", we may have a more appropriate reason for using it, if we have not previously seen any  evidence among politicians to warrant the restoration.  Generally speaking, anyway.

If faith is already an unconditional affirmation, leap of faith raises it to another level, though not always in a good way.  It is a bold thing but it can also be considered foolish under a certain set of circumstances.

The Great Leap Forward in Chinese history was such an economic disaster that caused an estimated 20 million deaths due primarily to famine from 1958 to 1962 when the communist regime instituted a drastic communal industrialization across the country.  It was a leap of faith by the communist politburo to emulate a Soviet style  industrialization via a communal system; an untested theory of drastically converting farm lands and farmers into manufacturing industries and industrial workers, respectively, overnight.

After an economic recovery a decade later, largely through aid infusion from the Soviets, China went into another program of reform -  The Cultural Revolution. It was another leap of faith in the aging Mao Zedong in 1966. It was during that time that an attempt to completely eradicate traces of capitalism and western culture. The Red Guards, mostly young people, brandished the Red Book (compilation of Mao's sayings) as they went about going after literature and all literary sources connected to capitalism and western thought.  Even classical music and musicians were targets of the purge. Western theater and movies were banned. It was "cancel culture" on steroids.

The Cultural Revolution too failed.  Unfortunately, in the neighboring country of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge in a leap of faith in its leader, Pol Pot, did the exact same thing between 1975 and 1979. Over two million Cambodians were killed in the process - 25 per cent of the total population.

China pivoted from the last socio political experiment to where it is today. It is now a major military power with an economy second only to the U.S.  How did it do it? It became a sociopolitical hybrid by running its government in the traditional socialist system but conducts its economy the capitalist way. Gone are the Mao jackets and the ban on everything "bourgeois". Western movies are in, classical concert halls are back, and in 2016 Disneyland Park opened in Shanghai. Tennis, gymnastics, aquatic sports and soccer that used to be abhorred by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution are getting government support and world class results.

"On the morning of February 21, 1972, US President Richard Nixon landed in the People’s Republic of China".   That visit 51 years ago was hailed as "the week that changed the world".  Looking back, it was the week that changed China. If one will look at the photos of that week, Chinese officials were in their Mao jackets.  Check the photos today and you will see that from President Xi to every male bureaucrat and white collar worker, western coats, shirts and ties are the norm.

It was a combination of first, a huge leap of faith by western capitalists to invest in China and in return took advantage of cheap and unlimited manpower (figuratively speaking) and second, China's new government stepping away from pure communist ideology.  Contrast that with Cuba whose government still insists on communism circa 1950s.  Instead of being the tourist magnet like most of its Caribbean neighbors, it is stuck in a 1950's economy, despite being only 90 miles away from the world's largest economy.

In a subtle way, the west today is undergoing a sort of cultural revolution of its own, if we look closely. We hear certain young politicians constantly invoking "tax the rich", young activists bemoaning against capitalism, politicians caving in to climate activists who are pushing for the banning of gas stoves and ultimately all fossil fuel powered vehicles, shutting down fossil fuel industries as certain groups go about deflating tires of or vandalizing parked SUVs to drive home their message.  Certain books are banned; if not totally, they are revised to edit or remove certain words for content to be aligned along a perceived socio political agenda for today.  As a result, the west seems to be saddled with a panoply of revolutions at the same time: Language, Gender and Neopronoun, and Transgender Revolutions, and so on, including the potential for men to get pregnant a reality.

"The American Medical Association floated a trial balloon for uterus transplants for biological men who identify as transgender, pushing the next phase of "Frankenstein tech" for cross-sex procedures".

----Washington Examiner, August 15, 2023

The AMA is not some crackpot organization but it is getting carried away along this long winding river of revolutions sweeping the west. 

These examples are by no means the only identified phases of these new revolutions.  Much of the world can only hope that these too shall pass like the Chinese Cultural Revolution. 

Meanwhile, it is conceivable that China could become the No.1 Economic and Military power, following the historical trajectories along which empires grew and faded in the last several centuries. 

Almost two years ago I wrote about, "2050:The Ebb of the Tragic Trajectory of a Once Powerful Nation"

The reader, if so inclined, may want to read that: (copy, paste  the link below in your search bar)

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2021/10/2050-ebb-of-tragic-trajectory-of-once.html