China's Contemporary Cultural Revolution, Voicing the Tensions of a Democratised Culture

The rest of the world may have to seriously consider how the rise in Chinese power will affect our lives. Western hegemony is waning, and its stewardship of world culture is a mixed bag: freedom and equality are stained with slavery and exploitation; democracy and free votes are mixed with apathy and corruption. This is not to say that any other nation or state would do better, or that other epochs have been all light and purity, but the West may struggle to convince the peoples of the world of its values and, by extension, the rationale for keeping its place as the globe’s defining culture. Western culture needs to live up to its own ideals. Part of that will mean convincing the world that these ideals are worthwhile now the era of force is over. The values of individual freedom, free speech and free access to information are key in the development of an educated people with agency; moreover they are inventive drivers within a flourishing civil society. But how certain are we that they are the natural results of technological progress?