Red Guards, you're slipping. On the streets, "slipping" refers to someone who is insouciant to one's enemies in this case, the truth.
You've been comfortable for so long, some of you have retired to seeming serenity, you're old. You're Rust Guards now.
But as you can see for yourselves people are beginning to talk. That's not good for you. The real Great Wall did not keep out the emperor's enemies. The Great Wall of Silence of Carma Hinton, Weili Ye, et al will not protect you from your enemy, the truth.
You thought you were brave in 1966 but it was the false courage of numbers, the courage of the mob.
It was also the false courage of official sanction. Mommy and daddy approved, as did The Great Helmsman. That's not real courage, it's false courage. And people who demonstrate false courage are real cowards.
How courageous are you in 2007? Alone. Without your fellow gang members. Without your silly uniforms. Now you wear the uniforms of businessmen and women and of academics. Not intimidating.
You don't act very brave either. You change your names and hide your faces.
In your youth you ran all over Beijing, murdering, looting, and rampaging. You're running now too, but now you're running from, and your stride is no longer youthful, it is slow, crooked and stumbling. And you're looking over your shoulder.
I am Benjamin Harris.
You've been comfortable for so long, some of you have retired to seeming serenity, you're old. You're Rust Guards now.
But as you can see for yourselves people are beginning to talk. That's not good for you. The real Great Wall did not keep out the emperor's enemies. The Great Wall of Silence of Carma Hinton, Weili Ye, et al will not protect you from your enemy, the truth.
You thought you were brave in 1966 but it was the false courage of numbers, the courage of the mob.
It was also the false courage of official sanction. Mommy and daddy approved, as did The Great Helmsman. That's not real courage, it's false courage. And people who demonstrate false courage are real cowards.
How courageous are you in 2007? Alone. Without your fellow gang members. Without your silly uniforms. Now you wear the uniforms of businessmen and women and of academics. Not intimidating.
You don't act very brave either. You change your names and hide your faces.
In your youth you ran all over Beijing, murdering, looting, and rampaging. You're running now too, but now you're running from, and your stride is no longer youthful, it is slow, crooked and stumbling. And you're looking over your shoulder.
I am Benjamin Harris.
