Commentaries on the Communist Party
A month or so ago, Hao, a friend from high school, told me to read a series of articles called the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, a criticism of the Chinese Communist Party by the Epoch Times, an independent newspaper specializing in writing uncensored articles in Chinese about events in China.
Hao requests that I ask you to read them in their entirety and bear with the writing style, which he says is a poor translation from the original Chinese.
I'm only on the fourth one so far, since I had trouble working through what I saw as heavily applied rhetoric. But I was so fascinated by the fourth commentary, "On How the Communist Party is an Anti-Universe Force," that it deserved special mention.
I don't know where to start describing my reaction to this. Mostly it made me realize that at least some people view the Maoist revolution as a clash of ideologies that goes much deeper than mere class warfare. There's something positively Nietzschean about Maoism--the destruction of old value systems to be replaced with new ones, the primacy of becoming (through struggle) over being, man's fight for omnipotence. Ironically, the articles appeals to some aspects of Taoism or traditional Chinese virtues were, essentially, turn offs--appeals to faith that I am skeptical about, taking for granted the goodness of things like reverence for elders and (this was most bizarre to me) physical cleanliness. As in, like, Mr. Clean cleanliness.
Maoism was/is also, clearly, a disaster.
But I don't know whether these revelations make me like Maoism more or like Nietzsche less.
Also worthy of note are both sides' appeals to human nature, or lack of it. Mao/Marx are anti-soulist, but believe people can be shaped into a more perfect proletariat through struggle...the Blank Slate rearing it's ugly head? Meanwhile, the writers have taken the Noble Savage argument and ran, waxing eloquent about man's natural goodness--although they do, to their credit, acknowledge an interpretation of Lao Zi that says "good and evil also co-exist within a single person."
I can't say I can sympathize truly with either philosophical position represented in this article. Maybe I've got too much Western individualism and (Egads! Look how often I use this word now...) nativism for these to resonate. But I find their dueling narratives and interaction fascinating. A project of this -ive-ournal that I haven't even mentioned yet is that of developing a new political ideology that suites me, and also constructing a compelling narrative for it. I wonder where it will tie in with these....
Hao is going to kill me.
p.s. I hate to bring this up, but the Maoist/Taoist dichotomy is really identical to Shadow/Vorlon dichotomy in Babylon 5....
Hao requests that I ask you to read them in their entirety and bear with the writing style, which he says is a poor translation from the original Chinese.
I'm only on the fourth one so far, since I had trouble working through what I saw as heavily applied rhetoric. But I was so fascinated by the fourth commentary, "On How the Communist Party is an Anti-Universe Force," that it deserved special mention.
I don't know where to start describing my reaction to this. Mostly it made me realize that at least some people view the Maoist revolution as a clash of ideologies that goes much deeper than mere class warfare. There's something positively Nietzschean about Maoism--the destruction of old value systems to be replaced with new ones, the primacy of becoming (through struggle) over being, man's fight for omnipotence. Ironically, the articles appeals to some aspects of Taoism or traditional Chinese virtues were, essentially, turn offs--appeals to faith that I am skeptical about, taking for granted the goodness of things like reverence for elders and (this was most bizarre to me) physical cleanliness. As in, like, Mr. Clean cleanliness.
Maoism was/is also, clearly, a disaster.
But I don't know whether these revelations make me like Maoism more or like Nietzsche less.
Also worthy of note are both sides' appeals to human nature, or lack of it. Mao/Marx are anti-soulist, but believe people can be shaped into a more perfect proletariat through struggle...the Blank Slate rearing it's ugly head? Meanwhile, the writers have taken the Noble Savage argument and ran, waxing eloquent about man's natural goodness--although they do, to their credit, acknowledge an interpretation of Lao Zi that says "good and evil also co-exist within a single person."
I can't say I can sympathize truly with either philosophical position represented in this article. Maybe I've got too much Western individualism and (Egads! Look how often I use this word now...) nativism for these to resonate. But I find their dueling narratives and interaction fascinating. A project of this -ive-ournal that I haven't even mentioned yet is that of developing a new political ideology that suites me, and also constructing a compelling narrative for it. I wonder where it will tie in with these....
Hao is going to kill me.
p.s. I hate to bring this up, but the Maoist/Taoist dichotomy is really identical to Shadow/Vorlon dichotomy in Babylon 5....