In James' most recent book, Cultural Amnesia, he describes more than 100 different people who defined the 20th-century. One chapter is about Mao Zedong:
Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred
schools of thought contend.
-MAO ZEDONG, APRIL 1956
For the trick to work, millions of people had to believe the words meant what they said, even though the Party had never rewarded a contentious voice with anything except torture and death.
Anyway, the suckers fell for it. The flowers bloomed, the schools of thought contended, and Mao's executioners went to work. The slogan had the same function as the Constitution of the Soviet Union, which Aleksandr Zinoviev tellingly defined as a document published in order to find out who agreed with it, so that they could be dealt with.Cultural Amnesia, p 457
People who still insist that socialism would have been great but it was never given enough of a chance, are using the same argument as my grandmother. I can still remember her telling me that Hitler had great ideas but they were never given a chance.
Albert? Us in the comfortable liberal democrasies can criticise these places, but would like to try and run China? Or Russia? Most Russians would welcome back Joe Stalin these days. What did we say about Tito in Yugoslavia, and then what happened? Socialism does work and has worked in a great many places. The National Health Service in Britain is socialist. Many communities on the frontier of the USA were set up on socialist principles and they worked for a generation. With the ungrateful brats who come after, that's all you can expect. Anyway, the USSR wasn't socialist and neither was China. Wait till capitalism delivers a wind speed at a constant 100 m.p.h. The problems are greed, hate and ignorance. Socialism could deal with the first two anyway. Monasteries in the middle ages were basically socialist. The Samye Ling is basically an agrarian socialist model. Nothing works completely due to the world being full of flatheids walking around with their heads stuck up their backsides. The too dumb to meditate are everywhere!!! Hope this helps! Hotboy p.s. though cowards flinch and traitors sneer, we'll keep the red flag flying here!
ReplyDeleteI say!
ReplyDeleteHaving lived hereabouts as far back as in the of His Excellency the Life President Dr H. Kamuzu Banda ("H.E." for short was allowed, but nothing else) I can vouch for the fact that there are aspects of dictatorship which can be advantageous, but there are many disadvantages as well.
Expats could get "P.I'd" (designated a Prohibited Imigrant - given 48 hours to leave the country) for doing something as simple as asking how old the President was, long hair was for a long time barred, and women were not allowed to wear trousers in public.
More seriously, numerous people were put in prison for what most people would think were trifling reasons.
On the other hand, the country was stable for many years, and did not suffer the excesses found in some other African countries.
By the way - did I make the cut? Pitch inspection is surely worthy of being regarded as defining a century. After all, I was 'responsible' for pitches on which England beat the Aussies. What could be more significant than that, I ask you?
MM III
Blissboy - thanks for inflating the comment volume here and explaining where I was going wrong. I suppose that was the granny's point too, that true National Socialism could have dealt with all the problems if it had just been given a fair chance. But what say we emulate Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif? Make a triumphant return to the UnHeard Ofs, and if we're allowed to stay, we declare a true socialist republic and get rid of greed and hate. Dispose of the counter-revolutionaries and flatheids right away. I'm a cissy, can you do the honours with the boxing gloves?
ReplyDeleteHang on, won't we need the flatheids as cannon fodder? My granny would have known what to do, and how to get an NHS house call for the bedridden old dear and her cancerous hubby. The poor GP is old and sick himself. Physician heal thyself? Dearie me!
Menzies! Is that Hastings Banda? I remember his radio interview well. Bush could learn from him.
Albert? Maybe a return to the Unheard Ofs would be a good idea. I could live in a socialist utopia, but to get there I'd need to execute everyone who refused to meditate for at least three hours a day. Once we'd done in all the stupid basturns we wouldn't need a dictatorship. The Unheard Ofs would be an alternative, but you'd have to die first since you don't meditate and then there would only be me and the penguins. What a good idea! What bliss! A socialist republic with only one person in it. Then I could share things with myself! Hurrah! A solution to living at last! Hotboy
ReplyDeleteUsing Stalinism as a model for socialism? Oh dearie, dearie me! Or Mao, for that matter- the cultural revolution was a little rough for those of us who wore glasses. Still, I'd rather have been born Chinese after the revolution than in the days of feudalism, which lasted into the 20th C. And just because the Nazis used the term socialism in their monicker doesn't mean that was a true description. The main enemies of freedom and self-fulfillment are centralised power, so that top-down authoritarian regimes have always been doomed to disappoint.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, due to your thought crimes here, you're first up against the wall come the revolution, matey. Venceramos!
Interesting....very interesting!
ReplyDeleteHotters! An experiment. We split the island as before, and run a leftist authoritarian regime in competition with a rightist one. I've forgotten if the cave's in the west or east side. Should one side be teetotal for balance?
ReplyDeleteion! I wasn't defending either of the isms. Nor was I suggesting NS was a kind of socialism, only that apologists use similar defences. It's true, I would indeed be among the first executions in a socialist revolution, betrayed by my obvious superior breeding, the very thing that would have been a plus under a feudal regime. Everything balances up. But the revolution will have to hurry up if it's to purge the boomers. PS Contact lenses might buy you some time.
LA - join the think tank.