Deer in the Headlights, Sheep for the Slaughter -- Taiwanese Citizens Blind to the Reality of the KMT

J. Michael Cole writes in the Taipei Times on how it is possible that the majority of the Taiwanese population in a free press society may be effectively as blinded as those under the thumb and propaganda of the dictatorship in China.

Dr. Jerome Keating writes a piece entitled, "When will Taiwan awaken ... the KMT leech has always Been at your Throat" in three parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 2, and a Post Script which surveys recent news illustrating "the condescending and demeaning attitude that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has always had towards Taiwan and its people." In the end he appeals to the Taiwanese people, "You were duped by Ma's election promises in 2008, but you still have the power to vote the vermin out once and for all. 2009 has many elections, prepare!"

Brainwashed by Dictatorships

Here's an article about how even advanced degree students coming out of China and into the free world are still slaves of the system that brainwashed them.  So many cannot think rationally or analytically about their own country's atrocities.  This article also helps us understand why so many people in Taiwan would continue to support the KMT party despite all their past abuse of power.  

When the United States helped Eastern Europe after the Iron Curtain came down, they spent a lot of time helping them transform their thinking.  But because of their cozy relationship in the past with Chiang Kai-shek, and the propaganda that even penetrated American thinking, the U.S. did not treat the Taiwanese the same way, as people under a former authoritarian regime. They did not diligently lead in programs to help change the authoritarian culture into a democratic one.  Taiwan's democracy activists were left on their own with little resources or moral support from abroad.  And so many, if not the majority of Taiwanese did not make the transition to free thinking people taking responsibility for their own lives.