Why Great Nations Are Good at Hypocrisy

For a nation to be prosperous, it must have a political culture that facilitates the leadership's understanding of three essential aspects of rulership and governance: the first is to understand reality, the second is to understand the people’s will, and finally, it is the hypocrisy that keeps all three in balance.

If society is too literal in its thinking, it will lead to internal decay and the weakening of the state, which has happened multiple times throughout humanity’s bloody history.

One of these incidences of the literal implementations of the philosophy of legalism to governance in China caused the collapse of China’s first unified dynasty, which united China in 221 BC and collapsed in 206 BC.

The reason for the collapse was that the Qin dynasty implemented too Draconian laws that were impossible for the people to follow. The inability to accept the contradictions and hypocrisy within human nature caused that dynasty’s collapse.

It’s the legacy of Qin, the first dynasty of a united China, which contributed to hypocrisy within the Chinese bureaucratic system from 221 BC to the 1911 A.D. revolution, which destroyed China’s last ruling dynasty, the Qing dynasty.

However, I would argue that the Chinese central administrative system survived the collapse of China’s last dynasty and is still very much alive during China’s current communist period from 1949 to the present day.