Why did I do this.
The problem with histories is that they telescope time. Things happen "lickedy split" in histories, in the time it takes to turn the page. They didn't happen that fast.
The problem with marking anniversaries is that you are forced to choose among close candidates that such-and-such "began here, no move your finger a little to right, there!" and on this date, Not a day earlier! Not a day later!. Anniversaries are artificial constructs of history.
The problem with histories choosing anniversaries is that the choosing happens retrospectively. "The high-water mark of the confederacy" happened at Gettysburg and moving our finger just a little right there! at Pickett's Charge. NOBODY KNEW IT THEN! Not Jeff Davis, not Abe Lincoln, not R.E. Lee, not George Meade. WE, 150 years removed, see it. Smugness, thy name is history.
I know better than this. Yet I got ensnared. I'm up to 1966-The year!, says I, the year of the lickedy split!- in Dr. Dikotter's book and I find that I'm asking myself, "Why did the kids turn on their teachers on a dime, lickedy split?" and I go back a couple pages-a couple of months in real time-and then "When was the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference, again?," look it up, "When was Mao's 'Never Forget Class Struggle' speech? I forget, DAMN.," I turn back a few more pages, "Socialist Education Movement?", few more pages, back back back back back, from page 63 I go all the way back to page 19 and I'm back in nineteen hundred fucking sixty two again.
I voluntarily submit to struggle session.
I am so aggravated with myself I'm going to take drastic corrective action and line-out the "50 Years Ago" in the title...Which I see I cannot do on accounta blogger's swine format doesn't permit it, Fine! I'm removing "50 Years Ago" from the title, I'm just leaving the comma denoting that something once followed but no more. (When I recover I might put it back.)
Folks, things happen in contexts, not in isolation on "anniversaries." The kids didn't select the summer of 1966 to turn on their teachers, Mao didn't select the summer of 1966 arbitrarily, "Whoa, summer of '66 looks like it could be boring, let's plan to liven it up a little," the context was right, Chinese society had been prepared to act as it did during the CR by:
-"The East is Red" in '64
-the S.E.M. in '63
- the "Never forget" speech and 7,000 cadres confab, both in '62
-hell, by the way the 1956 "Hundred Flowers Campaign" ended!
You can't turn back that many pages in one book. You have to know it. The reader has to know it. And has to remember it.
"Never Forget Context."
Remembrance.
The problem with histories is that they telescope time. Things happen "lickedy split" in histories, in the time it takes to turn the page. They didn't happen that fast.
The problem with marking anniversaries is that you are forced to choose among close candidates that such-and-such "began here, no move your finger a little to right, there!" and on this date, Not a day earlier! Not a day later!. Anniversaries are artificial constructs of history.
The problem with histories choosing anniversaries is that the choosing happens retrospectively. "The high-water mark of the confederacy" happened at Gettysburg and moving our finger just a little right there! at Pickett's Charge. NOBODY KNEW IT THEN! Not Jeff Davis, not Abe Lincoln, not R.E. Lee, not George Meade. WE, 150 years removed, see it. Smugness, thy name is history.
I know better than this. Yet I got ensnared. I'm up to 1966-The year!, says I, the year of the lickedy split!- in Dr. Dikotter's book and I find that I'm asking myself, "Why did the kids turn on their teachers on a dime, lickedy split?" and I go back a couple pages-a couple of months in real time-and then "When was the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference, again?," look it up, "When was Mao's 'Never Forget Class Struggle' speech? I forget, DAMN.," I turn back a few more pages, "Socialist Education Movement?", few more pages, back back back back back, from page 63 I go all the way back to page 19 and I'm back in nineteen hundred fucking sixty two again.
I voluntarily submit to struggle session.
I am so aggravated with myself I'm going to take drastic corrective action and line-out the "50 Years Ago" in the title...Which I see I cannot do on accounta blogger's swine format doesn't permit it, Fine! I'm removing "50 Years Ago" from the title, I'm just leaving the comma denoting that something once followed but no more. (When I recover I might put it back.)
Folks, things happen in contexts, not in isolation on "anniversaries." The kids didn't select the summer of 1966 to turn on their teachers, Mao didn't select the summer of 1966 arbitrarily, "Whoa, summer of '66 looks like it could be boring, let's plan to liven it up a little," the context was right, Chinese society had been prepared to act as it did during the CR by:
-"The East is Red" in '64
-the S.E.M. in '63
- the "Never forget" speech and 7,000 cadres confab, both in '62
-hell, by the way the 1956 "Hundred Flowers Campaign" ended!
You can't turn back that many pages in one book. You have to know it. The reader has to know it. And has to remember it.
"Never Forget Context."
Remembrance.
