Originally posted by Taoman
Well, I haven't been to China is what I meant. I don't know how practicing Taoists actually act on the environment. What you say is true if we equate Chinese in the main with philosophical Taoism, which I believe not to be the case. My impression is many practice a superstitious form of Taoism and the abrasion between superstition and philossphy is part of Ta some alignment there too I expect. I get the impression you appreciate the great man also.
Coming from a second world country (Hungary), I can definately say that there is a general hunger for materialism with most Hungarians before Russian communism failed.
Now that we can taste it for ourselves, and live and percieve the negatives of capitalism/consumerism, we can make more informed decisions about real values, or what real values should be.
I have some full circle myself in about 28 years,(i had the philosophy worked out way before then but the practice took some time), so I have hope (hate that word in general), for all mankind. If I can come from a relatively backward society (Hungary in the 80's) , and see the short commings of materialism/capitalism , then I think a lot of others can too.
After all, my parents did not teach me, actually they tried (not very hard mind you) to turn me into a christian at a very early age, going to church and whatnot, and it failed terribly. My parents could see it failing and gave up on it (ie turning me into a christian) , as they could see that any furthur coercion would only end up in my rejecting and questioning the whole staus quo even more. They stopped trying after age 9 or so ...