When a party isn't a party

When there's only water? No, not that kind of party. The Communist Party of China. We call it a party, perhaps for historical reasons, but perhaps it would be better to think of it more like part of the Chinese civil service. It's members are unelected; they are chosen in part for ideology; they are probably lots of family connections (Guanxi). It's also not wedded to any economic orthodoxy, as evidenced by the embracing of free market principles, only maintaining power.  So a bit like the British civil service of the 1950s? Lots of old boy club connections, coming from the "right background", "dependable chap" that kind of thing.  The parallel isn't by any means perfect, but perhaps should stop thinking of the Communist Party of China as a left leaning political movement. It's a now venerable Chinese institution.       

50 years ago...

About 50 years ago my parents replaced the 405 line black a while television with a wonderful ITT 625 line color TV. Some months earlier we'd been to visit one of my father's (wealthier) colleagues and I'd watched Star Trek on their color set; I remember being stunned by the blue color of the phaser beams.  But what pushed my father into getting  the new telly was Wimbledon; specifically my mother who was a huge Wimbledon fan was keen to see tennis in color.  

The set had four button, one for each channel (BBC1, BBC2, and ITV and one spare that we may have tuned to ITV South; we generally watched the London ITV broadcast) that were tuned to the channel by twisting them until you got to the right broadcast carrier wave frequency. The color was pretty finickity and the TV repair man had to come out from time to time to adjust the horizontal hold.   

I was the beneficiary of her devotion to the tournament as she'd knit while watching and I got a new pullover (sweater) every year. I can still see them to this day - the first dark and light blue, grey and white flecks, the second the same patterns but in green.   

I was reminded of all this as I set here today watching the first round of the tournament on my phone! No more TV repair people to come to adjust your set; the color is perfect right out of the box. All on a device that I can take with me where ever I go. 

We often bemoan the disconnect between visions of the future and the reality (flying cars, or even self driving cars etc...) but for me a color TV in my pocket is a wonderful example of the future having arrived bigly.