During Mao’s return to government in the cultural revolution, a destructive force was created which could not really be controlled. In urging the young people of China to rise up and rebel at the chains that held them, Mao unleashed a tidal wave of violence and anarchy that, in Mao’s sense of the word, epitomized “Revolution”.
The Red Guards sprung up from Mao’s urging of the youth of China to rise up and rebel against the bureaucracy that they experienced in their everyday lives. The Red Guard took this advice to the extreme, not only rebelling against constraints placed on them in their everyday lives such as teachers and school work, but also against constraints in society. This rebellion against societal restraints turned extremely violent, as groups of Red Guards militarized and roamed the countryside, destroying all forms of “bureaucracy” that they saw. This, is as Mao defines it, the perfect revolution.
As Mao has been quoted “Revolution grows out of the barrel of a gun”. And in the case of the Red Guards militarization, it literally did. Also, the revolution staged by the Red Guards also held up with the view of a Communist Revolution, having the common student rise up and free themselves from the chains of bureaucracy. This Red Guard Rebellion was in fact, Mao’s perfect revolution.
But is it revolution in general? By which I mean, does the idea of revolution imply the sort of anarchic revolt against authority? That's what conservative figures such as Edmund Burke say. Perhaps the Cultural Revolution is really the epitome of revolution.
ReplyDeleteI would say that, though revolution in itself seems to be steeped in chaos, the concept of revolution does not stem directly from chaos. Revolution instead seems to be based on sound ideas, but ultimately due to humans influence which is in its nature flawed, falls into the tendencies of chaos.
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