It's important to place the Cultural Revolution in the context of Mao's demonstrated way of enforcing his rule, authority, and ideology which kept shifting between supposed toleration of diversity and harsh repression within his ideological framework (Stalin's "Brief History of Communism"). That should take a reader right back to his defense of bloodshed in bringing change in rural China in the 1920s, his mythologizing of the desperate and deadly flight from Nationalist forces as the "Long March", his repression through a system of mutual denunciations and terror in Yan'an of critics of the Communist elite's (and especially his own) privileges and others, totally innocent, who were killed "pour encourager les autres", the deliberate use of human shields and human wave attacks in the Civil War after 1945, the repeated purges with casualties running into millions in the 1950s including when he reversed the idea of letting "a thousand flowers bloom" - once the criticism became about him, the Great Leap into disaster and lies, the break with Russia and Mao's apparently genuine commitment to perpetual terror, purges, and bloodshed for reasons of purity of Communism without ossification. Instead of simply seeking parallels, whether in dictatorships in general or in Stalin's purges and the Commune, it's more realistic to consider history as contingent and Mao's personality as a crucial combination of insecurity with genuine blood lust and ideological purity. That meant continuous revolution and leveling of every new attempt at stability or hierarchy involving an elite. That is why the cult of Mao has always attracted anarchists of every stripe.
The Cultural Revolution was a literacy campaign. Plain old. Ms. Yang, daughter of a senior official, was deeply offended and demanded to be excused “they wanted to turn me into a peasant” and given a full ride scholarship to an exclusive British college. The PRC obliged and the silly bitch has been lying and whining for money ever since.
Btw: most Chinese dissidents were children of china’s elite, like Ai Weiwei. Entitled little shits in other words.
It's important to place the Cultural Revolution in the context of Mao's demonstrated way of enforcing his rule, authority, and ideology which kept shifting between supposed toleration of diversity and harsh repression within his ideological framework (Stalin's "Brief History of Communism"). That should take a reader right back to his defense of bloodshed in bringing change in rural China in the 1920s, his mythologizing of the desperate and deadly flight from Nationalist forces as the "Long March", his repression through a system of mutual denunciations and terror in Yan'an of critics of the Communist elite's (and especially his own) privileges and others, totally innocent, who were killed "pour encourager les autres", the deliberate use of human shields and human wave attacks in the Civil War after 1945, the repeated purges with casualties running into millions in the 1950s including when he reversed the idea of letting "a thousand flowers bloom" - once the criticism became about him, the Great Leap into disaster and lies, the break with Russia and Mao's apparently genuine commitment to perpetual terror, purges, and bloodshed for reasons of purity of Communism without ossification. Instead of simply seeking parallels, whether in dictatorships in general or in Stalin's purges and the Commune, it's more realistic to consider history as contingent and Mao's personality as a crucial combination of insecurity with genuine blood lust and ideological purity. That meant continuous revolution and leveling of every new attempt at stability or hierarchy involving an elite. That is why the cult of Mao has always attracted anarchists of every stripe.
The Cultural Revolution was a literacy campaign. Plain old. Ms. Yang, daughter of a senior official, was deeply offended and demanded to be excused “they wanted to turn me into a peasant” and given a full ride scholarship to an exclusive British college. The PRC obliged and the silly bitch has been lying and whining for money ever since.
Btw: most Chinese dissidents were children of china’s elite, like Ai Weiwei. Entitled little shits in other words.
In my opinion, it is the best book on the cultural revolution. Also, I like how he explains in the end how the bureaucracy survived the episode.
100,000 wasn't the overall toll, was it?
100,000 wasn't the overall toll, was it?