Found this in my Word documents, not on blogger. From December 26, 2012. Seems nearly a completed draft but I have no memory of it whatsoever.
I am struck by how much “excitement” there was among the people during the American Civil War. Re-reading James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom I notice that word more than I had remembered. There was the feeling that people “had lived a lifetime” in those four years. That feeling lasted long after the war. “In our youth our hearts were touched with fire,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said in his most famous speech in 1895.
I am struck that I am thinking of the American Civil War and of Captain Holmes as I sit here re-watching Morning Sun. Look at those million people in Tiananmen Square on August 18, 1966. Look at the “excitement” on their faces. You can hear it in their voices even if you don’t understand Chinese. Song Binbin was beaming and jumping up and down as if unable to hold her water much longer, as I once wrote.
I think it was the same. I think the feeling among the American people during the Civil War and the Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution was the same. What other similarities are there between the people of the American Civil War and the people of the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution? It seems to me the Chinese people in Morning Sun feel they had “lived a lifetime” during the CR years also. Civil War Americans didn’t want the Civil War though. They spent a generation making “compromises” trying to avoid it. Chinese wanted the Cultural Revolution.[I cannot believe I wrote that at any time. In 2018 I don't believe Chinese wanted the CR, I don't ever remember thinking Chinese wanted the CR but that's what I wrote in 2012.] They didn’t see it coming the way the Americans did but once they say [sic, saw] they wanted it. Chinese wanted to feel “invested” in Mao’s China the way their fathers had been; they wanted to make revolution like their fathers had. [If I had used "Red Guards" instead of "Chinese," that would have been a totally true sentence.]
There was intra-family war in both the American Civil War and in the Cultural Revolution. In America it was sometimes brother against brother in battle; in the CR it was sometimes sons and daughters against parents.
The veterans of each talk about their experiences similarly. The veterans of the Cultural Revolution in Morning Sun tell “war stories” in the familiar manner in which we’ve all heard or read “war stories.” War stories. Civil war stories or war stories? The people of the American Civil War and the Chinese Cultural Revolution relate their experiences in the “war stories” mold, similar to how I’ve American World War II vets talk on TV.
Is popular excitement limited to civil wars? Clearly not. The Russian aristocracy was excited for war with Napoleon. The British and German peoples were excited for World War I. The American people were excited for World War II. The American people were not excited about the Vietnam War though.
Was the Cultural Revolution a war? No. Was it a civil war? [Ipso facto, if it was not a war it wasn't a civil war. Stupid question by me.]The dictionary says member’s opposing groups of citizens of the same country “a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country?”
Some similaritiesThere are similarities to Many have called it such. Despite similarities the Cultural Revolution was not a civil war. [all sic, this was a draft]
. It’s not called the “Chinese Civil War,” is it? Duh. “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,” that’s a mouthful. Proletarian. “Never forget class struggle,” Mao Zedong said. The CR was about class struggle. Then why isn’t it shortened to the PR? Because that would confuse it with Puerto Rico? Don’t be silly. Cultural Revolution. We’ve had “culture wars” in America. We’ve never had a Cultural Revolution. I’ve never bought the contention of Morning Sun and others that the Cultural Revolution was about culture: the arts, school curricula, etc. Bian Zhongyun, a school vice principal, wasn’t murdered because of what she taught or how she taught it; she was murdered because of the “Proletarian” part of the name, she was considered insufficiently proletarian. Others were killed or “struggled” because of class struggle not class teaching.
So in a “civic” cultural sense the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution can, partly, be understood to be, partly, about culture. Chinese civic culture was insufficiently proletarian in Mao Zedong’s view. And that started near the top with President Liu Shaoqi. Liu discovered for the Center the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward and ended it; he was for that reason insufficiently proletarian (to Mao). The Chinese people in the cities, where the CR started, didn’t know about the GLF catastrophe though. Mao still got them “excited” and got them to revolt--against all but him. The CR was about power, Mao wanted it all, wanted back the power Liu had as president. Mao Zedong could not purge Liu Shaoqi in
This civic sense doesn’t make the CR a civil war. It was more a purge. Mao wanted “civic cleansing an unorthodox purge because it was from the bottom up, although started by the top. To concentrate power Mao fragmented power. He gave power to the powerless, the students, and encouraged them to attack Liu and others insufficiently proletarian. They did, Liu was purged, and Mao again had concentrated power.
Very strange.
-purge
In my view and the view of some others the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution wasn’t really about proletarians or about culture, it was about power and Mao Zedong. Mao wanted his power back, all the power in China. He did not want to share it with Liu Shaoqui, who had taken some of it from Mao or with anyone else. Liu was the target of “Mao’s Last Revolution” in the words of the book title. Liu was insufficiently proletarian in Mao’s view.[No, that was just Mao's excuse. It was about Liu's power, not about Liu being insufficiently proletarian.]
[I think the rest of this are snippets of thoughts I had to include, drafts of a draft.]
Is then this popular excitement a war phenomenon, not limited to civil war?
The American people were not excited about the Vietnam War, the only war I’ve lived through so maybe popular excitement isn’t always a war phenomenon. Why weren’t the American people excited about Vietnam?
The “veterans”…brother against brother…aims…china’s not met: gang of four…
in the familiar manner in which I’ve seen World War II vets on American TV talk about their experiences. Intra-family war: in the American Civil War it was sometimes brother against brother; in the Cultural Revolution it was sometimes sons and daughters against parents. Not in World War II, though.
It seems to me so.
Was the Cultural Revolution a war? No. Was it a civil war? Many historians have applied that term. Then why not the Chinese Civil War?
Or a civil war phenomenon? Was the Cultural Revolution a war or a civil war? Many historians say the CR was a civil war.
Having not lived during the American Civil War and not being Chinese, I think that. From reading that book and watching that film it is the same human emotion at play, it is undeniable. There were 775,000 war-related deaths in the Civil War, 1.988% of the American population.
I am struck by how much “excitement” there was among the people during the American Civil War. Re-reading James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom I notice that word more than I had remembered. There was the feeling that people “had lived a lifetime” in those four years. That feeling lasted long after the war. “In our youth our hearts were touched with fire,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. said in his most famous speech in 1895.
I am struck that I am thinking of the American Civil War and of Captain Holmes as I sit here re-watching Morning Sun. Look at those million people in Tiananmen Square on August 18, 1966. Look at the “excitement” on their faces. You can hear it in their voices even if you don’t understand Chinese. Song Binbin was beaming and jumping up and down as if unable to hold her water much longer, as I once wrote.
I think it was the same. I think the feeling among the American people during the Civil War and the Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution was the same. What other similarities are there between the people of the American Civil War and the people of the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution? It seems to me the Chinese people in Morning Sun feel they had “lived a lifetime” during the CR years also. Civil War Americans didn’t want the Civil War though. They spent a generation making “compromises” trying to avoid it. Chinese wanted the Cultural Revolution.[I cannot believe I wrote that at any time. In 2018 I don't believe Chinese wanted the CR, I don't ever remember thinking Chinese wanted the CR but that's what I wrote in 2012.] They didn’t see it coming the way the Americans did but once they say [sic, saw] they wanted it. Chinese wanted to feel “invested” in Mao’s China the way their fathers had been; they wanted to make revolution like their fathers had. [If I had used "Red Guards" instead of "Chinese," that would have been a totally true sentence.]
There was intra-family war in both the American Civil War and in the Cultural Revolution. In America it was sometimes brother against brother in battle; in the CR it was sometimes sons and daughters against parents.
The veterans of each talk about their experiences similarly. The veterans of the Cultural Revolution in Morning Sun tell “war stories” in the familiar manner in which we’ve all heard or read “war stories.” War stories. Civil war stories or war stories? The people of the American Civil War and the Chinese Cultural Revolution relate their experiences in the “war stories” mold, similar to how I’ve American World War II vets talk on TV.
Is popular excitement limited to civil wars? Clearly not. The Russian aristocracy was excited for war with Napoleon. The British and German peoples were excited for World War I. The American people were excited for World War II. The American people were not excited about the Vietnam War though.
Was the Cultural Revolution a war? No. Was it a civil war? [Ipso facto, if it was not a war it wasn't a civil war. Stupid question by me.]The dictionary says member’s opposing groups of citizens of the same country “a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country?”
Some similaritiesThere are similarities to Many have called it such. Despite similarities the Cultural Revolution was not a civil war. [all sic, this was a draft]
. It’s not called the “Chinese Civil War,” is it? Duh. “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,” that’s a mouthful. Proletarian. “Never forget class struggle,” Mao Zedong said. The CR was about class struggle. Then why isn’t it shortened to the PR? Because that would confuse it with Puerto Rico? Don’t be silly. Cultural Revolution. We’ve had “culture wars” in America. We’ve never had a Cultural Revolution. I’ve never bought the contention of Morning Sun and others that the Cultural Revolution was about culture: the arts, school curricula, etc. Bian Zhongyun, a school vice principal, wasn’t murdered because of what she taught or how she taught it; she was murdered because of the “Proletarian” part of the name, she was considered insufficiently proletarian. Others were killed or “struggled” because of class struggle not class teaching.
So in a “civic” cultural sense the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution can, partly, be understood to be, partly, about culture. Chinese civic culture was insufficiently proletarian in Mao Zedong’s view. And that started near the top with President Liu Shaoqi. Liu discovered for the Center the catastrophe of the Great Leap Forward and ended it; he was for that reason insufficiently proletarian (to Mao). The Chinese people in the cities, where the CR started, didn’t know about the GLF catastrophe though. Mao still got them “excited” and got them to revolt--against all but him. The CR was about power, Mao wanted it all, wanted back the power Liu had as president. Mao Zedong could not purge Liu Shaoqi in
This civic sense doesn’t make the CR a civil war. It was more a purge. Mao wanted “civic cleansing an unorthodox purge because it was from the bottom up, although started by the top. To concentrate power Mao fragmented power. He gave power to the powerless, the students, and encouraged them to attack Liu and others insufficiently proletarian. They did, Liu was purged, and Mao again had concentrated power.
Very strange.
-purge
In my view and the view of some others the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution wasn’t really about proletarians or about culture, it was about power and Mao Zedong. Mao wanted his power back, all the power in China. He did not want to share it with Liu Shaoqui, who had taken some of it from Mao or with anyone else. Liu was the target of “Mao’s Last Revolution” in the words of the book title. Liu was insufficiently proletarian in Mao’s view.[No, that was just Mao's excuse. It was about Liu's power, not about Liu being insufficiently proletarian.]
[I think the rest of this are snippets of thoughts I had to include, drafts of a draft.]
Is then this popular excitement a war phenomenon, not limited to civil war?
The American people were not excited about the Vietnam War, the only war I’ve lived through so maybe popular excitement isn’t always a war phenomenon. Why weren’t the American people excited about Vietnam?
The “veterans”…brother against brother…aims…china’s not met: gang of four…
in the familiar manner in which I’ve seen World War II vets on American TV talk about their experiences. Intra-family war: in the American Civil War it was sometimes brother against brother; in the Cultural Revolution it was sometimes sons and daughters against parents. Not in World War II, though.
It seems to me so.
Was the Cultural Revolution a war? No. Was it a civil war? Many historians have applied that term. Then why not the Chinese Civil War?
Or a civil war phenomenon? Was the Cultural Revolution a war or a civil war? Many historians say the CR was a civil war.
Having not lived during the American Civil War and not being Chinese, I think that. From reading that book and watching that film it is the same human emotion at play, it is undeniable. There were 775,000 war-related deaths in the Civil War, 1.988% of the American population.
