Out with the old, in with the new

In both of these examples for the textbook, chinese revolutionaries try to bring a new oder to China through violence. I believe that these 2 excerpts are very similar. In both, the peasants want to gain power and they do that by taking the wealthy out of power. In both these cases, the red guards and the peasants are doing what was previously unthinkable. In the first reading, a peasant hits an official and everyone freezes, because they don't know what to do. The reason that they freeze is that there is never a situation where someone of less power hits someone with more power. This is the same in the second reading, because she believes that since she is of higher power, she can control the angry red guards by showing them the constitution. This is clearly not the case, as they disregard her. In both of these situations, the peasants see a chance to get what they have never had, which is power, and therefore take it by following the revolutions.