i know. stalin is honoured too, for the industrialisation. and hitler would be honoured if he didn't blow it in the ww2. it's amazing how much shit and blood people can take by way of rationalization... i don't know how many people mao scared, tortured and killed, but that really doesn't matter; you can bet people will chalk any number to that 30%...
It is also the mass campaigns that have left their traces of fear and terror in the consciousness of a society and by means of memories and traumas they will last much longer. The people have been truly broken within these campaigns, even in the smallest villages they were exposed to the power of members of the communist party. There was just no escape. I don't like to compare evil, but e.g. there were a lot of people in the south of Germany that weren't much involved in NS-politics and WW2 because the regions were too rural.
I don't know if they could avoid it, but I was born in Schwabia, which is in the very south of Germany. That part of my family did not experience much of the war and the time before. They always had enough to eat and in her city called Ravensburg which, with around 50.000 people nowadays, is probably the biggest in an area within a radius of 100 km, there were almost no bombings at all. Almost until 1943 even big cities like Stuttgart were understood to be safe, so people sent their children. Still, at the end of the war 70% of the buildings in Stuttgart that provided space for living were destroyed and 75% of industrial buildings. Besides that up to now most people of that region live far of the bigger cities in smaller cities (10 -20.000) or villages and they have not been involved very much.
I guess I was just trying to compare the "total" consequences on the populations and the communist party is known to have been present even in the smallest villages in the North-Eastern regions, like Xinjiang, that are far away from the cultural and economic centres.
and the chinese were exposed for much longer, and mao hasn't even been really discredited. one interesting thing about cultural revolution is that people who experienced its direct impact are not even old today. children you see in that movie are a little over forty now.
i see then. it's just that when you mentioned ww2 involvement i thought about conscription. in meyer levin's book "in search" he mentions that american soldiers occupying germany were pissed off to find most of the population in those rural areas better-off than themselves ('these people weren't hurting for nothing!'). oh, here it is:
and some more here: http://vriad-lee.livejournal.com/799821.html
Yes, this description is probably true. It fits well with what I know about that time. Of course others suffered horribly but those far off the centres were probably rather wealthy.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-02 08:28 pm (UTC)it's amazing how much shit and blood people can take by way of rationalization...
i don't know how many people mao scared, tortured and killed, but that really doesn't matter; you can bet people will chalk any number to that 30%...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-02 09:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-02 10:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-02 10:43 pm (UTC)Almost until 1943 even big cities like Stuttgart were understood to be safe, so people sent their children. Still, at the end of the war 70% of the buildings in Stuttgart that provided space for living were destroyed and 75% of industrial buildings.
Besides that up to now most people of that region live far of the bigger cities in smaller cities (10 -20.000) or villages and they have not been involved very much.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-02 10:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-03 08:59 am (UTC)one interesting thing about cultural revolution is that people who experienced its direct impact are not even old today. children you see in that movie are a little over forty now.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-03 08:48 am (UTC)in meyer levin's book "in search" he mentions that american soldiers occupying germany were pissed off to find most of the population in those rural areas better-off than themselves ('these people weren't hurting for nothing!'). oh, here it is:
and some more here: http://vriad-lee.livejournal.com/799821.html
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-03 07:16 pm (UTC)