A Cultural Revolution.

Mao’s cultural revolution.

This article was first posted in 2016.. in light of the points raised by the Russian philospher; Aleksandr Dugin when interviewed by Tucker Carlson just recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIULmTprQ6o , we have to interrupt their doom and gloom prognostications about the decline and fall of The West, by drawing their attention to the “elephant in the room” that was not mentioned but overcame just such national and social denigration and has now risen to be the best managed and operational nation in the world…of course, we are talking about China..and it obtained this achievement solely because it dealt most thouroughly with the malignant disease we in The West will neither recognise, nor confront…I am talking about the destructive managerial disease of the entrepreneurial, speculative middle-classes, whose only loyalty is to the stock exchange and whose only obligation is to their own insatiable greed and covertness of all that is good and sustainable.

In this discussion on the whys and wherefores of Mao’s “Cultural Revolution”, I will not be wanting to condone the crazed killings by a rampant mob. At the same time, I am not of such a naïve nature to believe that mammoth shifts in politico/ socio direction in a short period of time in any state will be done with a soft hand inside “kid” gloves. Recent actions in the Middle East by many Western / Asiatic military powers have demonstrated the sometimes callous nature of political expediency. Though I do doubt the numbers of victims recorded specifically against Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” on the logic that there being no accurate account save western propaganda, and the fact that around 7-10 million were killed in the civil war, the number tossed about of 8 mill’ would result in TOTAL war again on a grand scale, with ALL civic production at risk or even shut down completely, resulting in total anarchy and the overthrow of the govt’ anyway. The number used may just as well include natural attrition and other calamities (famine, natural disasters etc.) that arose from a degree of lack of infrastructure chaos that a recovering population from the war years (2nd. and Civil) could well have suffered regardless.

The fact that the Chinese Communist Govt’ stabilized and developed through those times finding food clothing, shelter and employment for over 1 billion citizens and China has now become the largest economy in the world would in itself demonstrate a popular loyalty to a social system beyond what could be enforced in any country by any military in any epoch of history. I doubt that if one was to strip the shirts off the keen Chinese tourists and students who frequent our cafes Uni’s and estates, you will find the unmistakable welts of a Communist Party lash!…You have to admit; for all the supposed chaos..something worked and worked bloody well !

The difference between an action set in train by most Western countries and Mao’s China is a difference of arithmetic…Most western countries had as many as approx 200 million persons, whereas China had and now has more than one billion peoples. Our country has a degree of trouble containing the “political enthusiasm” of just over twenty millions…and most of them politically pig-ignorant!

To govern, contain and manage that many people demands a more firm and even severe administration.. especially after still recovering from both a brutal foreign invasion and a particularly brutal civil war and having to deal with many agents provocateurs and saboteurs from an irate and vengeful enemy just off-shore being financed and protected by THE major western power.

Mao had his hands full keeping a displaced population stable and compliant enough to do the central government’s bidding…as I wrote ; the simple arithmetic of population numbers forced their hand. We have all seen how swift an agitated football crowd becomes an out of control unruly mob in a very short period of time.

There are several ways a govt’ can be destabilized. The most subtle is by moving people of biased accreditation or of biased class influence quietly into high positions of authority and bureaucratic control with as little attention and un-noticable placement as possible. There are only two types of persons that can be used to achieve this and they are both of the professional class ; high educated and high-status.

The high-educated are advantaged by having a broad over-view of civic and political needs via a (presumed) thorough reading of history and societies. But unfortunately, as education makes its indelible mark on a intelligent mind, it also creates a degree of isolation from those of the general populace around it lacking in such opportunity that it must civically manage and draw up policy for…The next stage is that it does by necessity distance the self from that which it must make rules and policy for and so it becomes an elite clique that exercises a power aloof from the powerless. The elite quickly becomes a cabal for it’s own security which soon becomes a tyrant and then, if not interrupted; a dynasty / party of control. We have seen or heard of this step by step procedure with certain types of management.

One can easily view such cliques and structures evolving and growing in the workplace factory-floor or in committees or even in simple public social media blogs..Such cliques of power in a population of over a billion people is more than just annoyance, it is deadly. I am reminded that China lost circa 10 million people in the civil war and it’s wash-up. There could not be a chance for that to happen again.

There is an old adage that ; ‘The hand that rocks the cradle , rules the world’..I will add another truth to that one in that : “The hand that instructs acumen with the abacus and slate rules the state”.

Mao used the power of “mob rule” to instigate his “continuous revolution” it was as successful in a social objective as it was destructive to some of the intellectual elite. As much as a glacier carves spectacular valleys , the icy surface glimmering like a thousand dawns rising ,its massive force is grinding all beneath it to a fine powder.

Yes, it was all about power..Mao’s holding onto power through his preferred elite. As an individual he was vulnerable, but as leader of the sole power base, he was invulnerable ..as long as he held a tight rein on the obvious sources of rising discontent : The un-corralled middle-class intelligentsia.

The Roman writer : Pliny The Younger, when governor of Bythnia implored his emperor : Trajan to permit the incorporation of a fire brigade for such emergencies as required. The emperor dis-allowed it on the grounds that the forming of and regular meeting of such groups only leads to trouble and dissent as he had seen in the past. Indeed, it was common practice in the capital ; Rome, to find a centurion on every street corner to prevent the illegal gathering of five or more persons..having learned that it only takes one armed and trained legionnaire to “contain” a hundred unarmed civilians, the Roman authorities were able to leave little to chance.

The “containing” and directing of one billion people takes more than chance…it would take an iron fist in a chain-mail gauntlet if and when trouble arose. We have seen here the swift movement of regal power when Whitlam was removed from office by an elite intelligentsia unashamed to use crude methodology and raw power to achieve it’s end. How then can we condemn a state such as China from keeping a firm grip on its many provinces with its many challenges?

The West is now governed by those elite cabals of both education and wealth..There can hardly be one “free-state” that has as it’s leader a person elevated by high morals or deserving merit…all is factional…all is economical…all is principle…all is negotiable, on the other hand, we now see a China risen deservedly proud and deservedly enriched by the hard work and on the shoulders of a conscientious working class base. and while many like to gloat that there is now in China a new “middle-class”in charge, I would contest that assertion by claiming that this new ruling class is the working class risen to claim the rewards of their labour.. and certainly, there are now many wealthy people in the China mix, but I think we can agree that with Chairman Xi Jinping and the China Communist Party in firm control of the levers of power, this time there will be no “overstepping the mark” by any degenerate aspirants!