Re: [Epic] Epic Escarmouches

From: Thane Morgan <thane_at_...>
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 12:51:39 -0600

Elias Tiliakos wrote:

> At 08:30 AM 9/13/98 +0100, you wrote:
> >>Most everything Chinese, in my opinion, is great.
> >>
> >>Elias
> >
> >The teachings of Chairman Mao are crap!! :P
> >
> >
> >Jimi :)
> >
>
> Well, I haven't read them, so I won't comment. I don't think the so-called
> "little red book" was really that bad in terms doctrine. The bad part was
> the Cultural Revolution. But I think that was largely due to zealotry, and
> not necessarily his teachings.
>
> Elias

Oriental societies seem really prone to "cultural revolutions". The Emporer who
firsted started the Great Wall did the exact same thing: killing scholars and
burning all references to the past. In his defence, he was drinking lots of
nasty crap, like mercury and arsenic, in the hopes of gaining immortallity and
was pretty insane by that point. The Camir Rouge did the exact same thing,
going the additional step of moving almost everyone out of the cities to become
an agrarian society. I think several other countries have experienced that as
well, but my Oriental history is not real strong. I don't know of any european
or african cultures which have done this; there've been lots of revisionist
histories and book burnings commited by differrent governments, but they
weren't attempts to eliminate the entire history of their own culture; they
were usually directed against a recently conquered culture.

Thane
Received on Sun Sep 13 1998 - 18:51:39 UTC