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I"m sorry, I don't buy the "lone lunatic" theory. Its a very interesting debate as to whether change at the amount and rate China went through over the past 12

I"m sorry, I don't buy the "lone lunatic" theory. Its a very interesting debate as to whether change at the amount and rate China went through over the past 120 or so years could have occurred without such cost to human life. I like to believe societies even this large can change for the better without so much bloodshed. But no society to date has shown it is capable of behaving with such peace and rationality. This is not pulling excuses for Mao or anyone else. Icons "morph". I don't like the new Chinese money. I think the old bank notes were beautiful and representative of their recent history. China has decided to use Mao on their bank notes and as such has committed to protect his image as being a man of positive change and ignoring or excusing the brutality.

lucifer 17y ago
In absence of a theist point of view, no credible moral criticism of Mao is possible. Mao was determinedly and consciously a monster, per his self assigned civilization imperative to achieve the shared goal (of the Chinese intellectual elite) to unshackle China from Chinese history and historic mindset. The bitter irony lost on the swept away former comrades of the helmsman was his violent intent to show the paucity of the convictions of the intellectual class (which he amply demonstrated in the gruesome display of the Great Leap Forward). Today, China is a nation completely denuded of ideological inclinations in its ruling classes. China is again restored to her former (power centric) social structures, having traded (empty) Confucianist morals with (equally empty) koanic musings of the CCP chairman (e.g. Three Represents), and fully equipped to function in the modern world. That is Mao's achievement. I am not a fan of Chairman Meow, but I consider him the most honest of the revolutionary/reformist monsters. At least he didn't b.s. about his self appraisal as the new god for his people. A positive consideration of Mao may find a parallel in the fictional character of the Worm-God Leto in Frank Herbert's Dune.
- jhancock 17y ago
  I certainly hope you don't find my prior post to defend anything Mao did. I simply feel that if it wasn't him it would have been someone else's name we affix to some other incalculable amount of suffering. There were and still are in China many that model their behavior after thousand year old stratagems for accumulating and maintaining power. When the last empire was swept away, there were many ready to replace it with another form of empire. If it wasn't someone from the camp that Mao sprang from, it may have been someone from the Chiang Kai-shek camp. As far as "Mao's achievements" goes, we may see these having rather short half-lives throughout society. I find that most Chinese only pay lip service to the current mantras from headquarters. Whatever happens over the next 60 years is anybody's guess.

lucifer 17y ago

In absence of a theist point of view, no credible moral criticism of Mao is possible. Mao was determinedly and consciously a monster, per his self assigned civilization imperative to achieve the shared goal (of the Chinese intellectual elite) to unshackle China from Chinese history and historic mindset. The bitter irony lost on the swept away former comrades of the helmsman was his violent intent to show the paucity of the convictions of the intellectual class (which he amply demonstrated in the gruesome display of the Great Leap Forward). Today, China is a nation completely denuded of ideological inclinations in its ruling classes. China is again restored to her former (power centric) social structures, having traded (empty) Confucianist morals with (equally empty) koanic musings of the CCP chairman (e.g. Three Represents), and fully equipped to function in the modern world. That is Mao's achievement. I am not a fan of Chairman Meow, but I consider him the most honest of the revolutionary/reformist monsters. At least he didn't b.s. about his self appraisal as the new god for his people. A positive consideration of Mao may find a parallel in the fictional character of the Worm-God Leto in Frank Herbert's Dune.

jhancock 17y ago
I certainly hope you don't find my prior post to defend anything Mao did. I simply feel that if it wasn't him it would have been someone else's name we affix to some other incalculable amount of suffering. There were and still are in China many that model their behavior after thousand year old stratagems for accumulating and maintaining power. When the last empire was swept away, there were many ready to replace it with another form of empire. If it wasn't someone from the camp that Mao sprang from, it may have been someone from the Chiang Kai-shek camp. As far as "Mao's achievements" goes, we may see these having rather short half-lives throughout society. I find that most Chinese only pay lip service to the current mantras from headquarters. Whatever happens over the next 60 years is anybody's guess.