Eric Scheske occasionally contributes to the Crux blogs. Last week, he received this polite response to his concerns about China's situation:
Oh, sir, most of China bashers have actually never been in China and spent time to experience Chinese life, just like American bashers in Islamic countries have never been in America. Seeing China society through Western media has never been a reliable experience (I know, because I'm an international student in U.S right now, I used to have a very negative and distorted view of America, coming to American actually changed my perspective dramatically). Western journalists will have a tendency to pick stories that fit their readers (Westerners), rather than reporting comprehensive news about Chinese society (to be sure, journalists in other countries actually do the same). I won't criticize you or anything, but just a reminder of how people will interpret news through their cultural lens.
He could be right. Eric Scheske has never been to China. But he never met Hitler or visited Nazi Germany, either, and his opinions of both are decidedly negative. He's never climbed the Himalayas, but he's convinced it'd be tough. Lincoln Steffens and Walter Duranty visited the USSR and were incredibly impressed. Folks visit Cuba today and come back and tell us it's a swell place.
Point is, first-hand experiences are overrated. Irrelevant? No, far from it. Such experiences impart valuable insight, but unless a person is going to spend a long time (five years? twenty years?) in a culture, he shouldn't let his travel experiences override everything else, including things others report and he may not see, historical perspective, and fundamental norms regarding morality, society, and the family. And for those without the travel experiences, these things (second-hand facts, history, norms) can provide an excellent framework for opinion. Indeed, a far better one than the perspective of the traveller with sparse knowledge of these things.
(We will eventually post this response to Crux, but as some of you know, we're blogging on location and Eric Scheske doesn't have his Crux password handy, so he can't get into the site.)
