[T]otally agree that CR created a “can do” mentality. Chiefly, CR was a literal “reset” on the Chinese socio-economic paradigm, and any good “reset” requires almost a complete shut down of the system, to get everyone back to the starting line, to get rid of all the negative baggages [sic] (and some of the good), so that people can rediscover and decide what are good and bad.
Hard “resets” (from revolutions) I think are necessary.
. . . .
If you are [r]ich and you deserve to be because you are smart and you work hard, then you can start all over again and get to the same place. (But I don’t think the [r]ich today are willing to do that).
A CR every now and then, answers that type of questions [sic]. (If some of the CR’s excessive abuses can be avoided, I would recommend it every 50 years or 2 generations)."
Since China's last Cultural Revolution started roughly 45 years ago, I guess Raventhorn thinks it's just about due one today.
Really, people criticise me for giving publicity to what goes on at Hidden Harmonies, but I believe the true insanity of many US-based Chinese nationalists deserves to be exposed. The idea that some people have that there is some equality in an argument between people who criticise corruption and advocate democracy, and those who blithely talk about burning whole cities, is a totally false one.
3 comments:
I think what Raventhorn essentially said was that a cultural revolution every fifty years would be nice, if it wasn't quite a cultural revolution.
It seems however (I take that from your quote - I'm not going to read at HH itself because it would only annoy me) that R. would like to disown "the rich" (whoever in China may qualify for that number) every two generations, so that everyone can set out anew, and chances remain kind of even.
Which would be bullshit, of course. What it takes to make a fairer society would be reliable legislation, rule of law, and the political will to provide children from poor and rich parents alike with perspectives to become - not rich, but - reasonably well-off through their own work.
The only way I can interpret this quote is that R. doesn't believe in the CCP's ability to create such conditions. Hence his soft spot for a "cultural revolution" (if it wouldn't hurt so much), and that he is, basically, at a loss.
Really, people criticise me for giving publicity to what goes on at Hidden Harmonies
I sure do! I think we both agree that much of HH is about angry nationalism among US-based Chinese, and maybe ABCs, too - but this CR-talk is just lukewarm air.
(That said, I'd be somewhat worried if it came straight from the politbureau.)
@JR - What worries me is the progressive radicalisation of some among the foreign-based nationalists that has been ongoing since at least 2008. People like Anders Breivik and Mohammad Sidique Khan did not come from nowhere. I guess the main difference is that Chinese nationalists look to the Chinese government as the engine which will produce the change they want to see, rather than feeling that they have to take things into their own hands.
All that said, the irony that the CR talk comes from Hidden Harmonies still isn't lost on me.
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