29 Jan 2024 7:33 am
(Part I of III)
Cannonpointer: "I'm curious how you see the Cultural Revolution. I have my view of it, which does not cast Mao as quite the devil that Westerners are taught to see him as. That said, I am interested in your apologia for Mao."
My thoughts concerning the Cultural Revolution (CR) are mixed. On the one hand, it was incumbent on the Revolution to rid Chinese society of the bourgeois influences that hampered the Revolution. On the other hand, excesses, such as dictating hairstyles and manners of dress, "served" to trivialize the Revolution. So much so that roughly fifty years later, many communists believe that such overkill "served" to destroy Mao's hope of using the CR to pave the way for communism.
But that has long confused me because no one knew better than Mao Zedong that only full industrialization can lead to socialism and, eventually, communism, not a cultural revolution. So, it's illogical to think that Mao made such an apparent anti-dialectical error. The fact that many people now believe that the CR carried the opposite effect - that it paved the way for China's acceptance of capitalism in the 1980s may indicate Mao's genius. Since the establishment of socialism is best achieved through full industrialization, the Cultural Revolution, through its backhanded ways, may have been Mao's long-term plan of action toward establishing communism. Then again, this subject does confuse me.
Ultimately, the Chinese people's attitude concerning the CR is salient. Most Chinese think it never should have taken place and that its many atrocities reduced it to mere folly with no long-term positive results. I have to respect that.
Cannonpointer: "Please distinguish for me the difference between racist invective and anti-Jewish invective. Isn't an anti-Jewish invective racist? Yet you felt the need to distinguish it as a thing apart. Will you please explain your motive for that?"
In writing, "Well, at least it isn't a racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-Jewish invective," I merged racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and anti-Jewishness as invective or insulting pathologies. I should have written, "Well, at least it isn't a racist invective, a xenophobic invective, a homophobic invective, or an anti-Jewish invective," I apologize for my carelessness.
With that said, the nature of anti-Jewish invectives isn't racist, for Jewish people are given to a particular religion, not a "race" or, more precisely, a particular pigmentation. Many people refuse to understand that biological fact, but the reality is that genetic markers cannot determine Jewish "descent" any more than they can decide Unitarian descent.
The fact that Germany couldn't defeat EARTH is not a 'spectacular failure' of ANY ism. That's silly."
I'm sorry, Cannonpointer, but I don't understand what "couldn't defeat EARTH" means. Will you please unpack that? Thank you, sir.
(END OF PART I)