The Resolution of Revolutions

In the text book we read about two particular instances where the people of china were starting a revolution against those who are in power.  One thing that struck me while I was reading was how much the past affected the revolution.  For instance in one, the people were afraid to rebel because they thought the government (which at the time were just figure heads), was still backed my military force like it was in the past.  In the other revolution it was interesting how the chinese Red Guards felt that in order to move forward and start a revolution, something new, you must first destroy everything old.  This makes no logical sense if the history you are destroying is porcelain cups.  cups hold virtually no historical value at all so why would they think its important to destroy there history which they spent so much time making in the first place.  Another thing that I began to notice was how unique Martin Luther King actually was, coming up with a non violent way of protesting, and starting his own revolution.  Revolutions thrive of feelings, anger being the strongest a human has, so to have a revolution without anger and in turn without violence is a crazy idea.  The reason this came to mind was because both of the stories of revolutions displayed anger.

Hmmmm.........

Both of these cases seem to have the same end goal: achieve a new form of governement by overthrowing the old. But although this is the case for both of them, the means are very different. The first case begins with a non-violent judicial way to change the way land is distributed, but through coaxing from the soon-to-be government, it soon turns violent. The second case begins as a violent act, much like the ending of the first act. The students, rifled up by the government's propaganda, seek to not only get rid of the past government, but also the culture. They view the destruction of the past culture as the only way to move forward, making the end justify the means.

Hidden Agenda

During the rise of Communism in China, the ideas and rhetoric that sounded beneficial to the country held a hidden agenda that created a corrupt society.  Communism's ideals of trying to create complete equality do not appear to be bad.  However, in practice, the rules and regulations lead to a mob like mentality that caused chaos and a reversal of power, rather than equality.  For example, the first excerpt clearly shows the reversal of power.  Instead of treating everyone equally, there is a complete switch, in which the peasants and government are abusing the former people who held power.  Although the communists say they are just trying to enforce equality and redistribute land, they are in fact creating an extreme imbalance of power in which one group holds complete control over the other.  The excerpt on page 769 also demonstrated the destruction of lives that happened through the rise of the Red Guards.  The Red Guards had a mob mentality - acting impulsively and taking the law into their own hands.  The excerpt reminded me of The Red Scarf Girl, a novel that I read in 8th grade.  In this book, a girl grows up through the time of the cultural revolution in China.  As the Red Guards gain more and more power, a sense of fear is instilled in the society. 

Communism in China is really not anything like the ideals of communism.  It created a way to change the mindset of  the proletarian population, flipping the positions of power.  It also created much chaos, anger, and destruction of social norms, making China dependent on other forms of government.  This gave the Red Guards along with Chairman Mao a chance to assume complete control, taking advantage of the chaotic situation.

In my opinion, although both stories are different situations, they both have the same intentions and outcomes. The first story was of peasants rising up against crime and throwing out the new order. They began with somewhat of a trial, asking for the evidence of the crimes committed by the person in question. However, as the meeting went on, it turned to violence. This is the same as in the second story, except that the red guards started with violence. They were both fighting against the oppression of the previous rule, and they both did so with violence (eventually).
The end goal is the same, which is that the previous rule will be abolished, and the ones responsible will be punished. The second one seemed harsher, because they stormed into a wife of an oppressors house, with no questions asked, and started to tear down her house. The first story was much more civil at first, even though it eventually turned to violence (it ends with the men charging at the ruler, ready to fight).

Communist Manipulation

The two excerpts in our textbook represent the consecutive stages of Communist policy implementation upon the peasant class of China. In a savvy move, Mao took advantage of the peasants' imminent hardships as the lowest class on the Chinese social pyramid. He introduced the Red Guard as an auxiliary force used to oust authority figures who were caught in a catch-22 that inevitably squeezed them out of the new communist equation. Mao realized that power laid in his ability to unify the majority of China by aligning them politically in his scheme of massive collectivization, whether or not he achieve this through deception or force. It is clear that the chairman was aware of his initial plan of social manipulation, yet it seems he became misguided in his second, more destructive phase of "The Great Leap Forward." As Mao grasped his new found power, gained from his control over the lower social classes, he could officially establish his movement as a nationally backed force in greater China. It seemed he ultimately used this as an excuse to target components of capitalism and traditionalist values that were destroying the integrity of China's new identity. After mishandling his "experiment" in communist collectivization, Mao was left with a disgruntled majority and and officials  with a bad taste in their mouth from the Red Guard's brutality. Mao's plan certainly worked to some effect in garnering support from those he wished to exploit, but the obsolete Communist machine combined with abuses of power caused the downfall of the era of Mao.

Cold War

Neither of my parents had much to say about the Cold War.  My mom was living in Canada at the time and my dad didn't really remember being effected all that much by it.  Although I couldn't find much oral history for this time period, my mom did have an interesting story about how my grandparents escaped from China during the rise of communism.  My grandparents were very, very lucky.  They escaped just before it was too late.  At that time the idea of communism was subtly starting to gain influence in the society.  People were really buying into the propaganda and supporting the idea.  My grandfather, however, was getting scared.  He owned a gold fountain pen tip making factory.  He also had a street named after him, and was worried that he may be one of the first targets if communism took off.  The times were getting scarier by the second.  My grandmother is Chinese, but she was friends with a Japanese family.  When they fled, they left behind a few brick of gold that they said she could have.  My grandmother could not take it though, because she realized there was Japanese print on the gold, and she could be arrested or killed if she were caught with it.  My grandparents agreed that it was time to leave.  My grandfather decided to use his gold pen tips as currency, as they escaped out of the country and then flew to Canada.  They were lucky to have made it, but a few of my grandfathers friends were not so lucky.  They tried to escape a few days later, but were stopped at the border and arrested.  

The comparison of two primary sources

To me it seems that in both these primary sources we see the fall of the old ways, and the reconstruction of new communistic ways. In Land Reform In Action, the people are encouraged to stand up to all enemies, as well as their supporters and turn them into the authorities. What makes these actions shocking is that normally their was a social hierarchy, but as we see at the end of this primary source. There is an massive change in the sense that hierarchy is ripped apart when a peasant stands up to an official. After this peasant stood up to an official, the rest of the peasants followed illuminating the power, of the people and how easily they will become followers. The other primary source we read, which was Make Revolution, had a similar idea of overriding the norm. Here the Red Guards who were also people of all classes, especially lower class, entered a man's house without a search warrant, which was against the constitution. Their motto was "if we do not destroy, we cannot establish," which is essentially the same idea that I found in Land Reform and Action. The idea of destroying the old, and creating a new norm that is completely against the old ways. 

Land Reform v.s. Red Guards

Both the Land Reform in Action and the Red Guards have the same end goal in mind, which is to get rid of "old-school" China. However, with both acts trying to accomplish the same goal, they surprisingly have complete opposite effects on their targeted people. The Land Reform in Action piece is about a revolution in a chinese village by the common working peasants against the village head. In this instance, one man led the fights against another by getting the villagers to expose the crimes of Te-yu. At first, the villagers didn't want to speak, because usually if they spoke out against their "boss", even if it was for justice, they were the ones to be punished. But Tien-ming attempted to get rid of the fear in these people and inspire them to fight their ruling power. This is an instance of the new government forming in China, but just one effect it had on the people. Unlike in Land Reform, the Red Guards went about their end goal by instilling fear in others. The Red Guards went into people's homes, destroying their home and all possessions that were a part of "old China." This caused the people to be fearful of the new government. In any case, the end goal for both was to have the old Chinese government abolished so that a new, Communist government could take it's place. While one attempts to overcome fear and another puts more fear into the villagers, they both want to accomplish the same thing. 

Releasing The Will of The People

As differently as these two stories were told, I found that they fit nicely together. At first, the peasants, or the general population, are shown as timid and afraid to speak out. However, with a little push from the new leaders, it didn't take long for them to accuse the old leaders of their wrongs and demand punishments. I believe the same goes for the Red Guard. The peasants or general population, or in this case high school seniors, finally relinquished their anger after being encouraged by their new government. Although the second story is told in a more violent manner, it only seemed confusing to me at first because the second story was the aftermath of the encouragement from the new government. In both cases, the lower class or newly empowered people finally rose up after some nudging by their new leaders.

Communist China: What's the real deal?

After reading both boxes on pages 766 and 769 I am some what confused just because the articles are so different. They have similar goals, but do it in different ways. In the first article, the poor peasants at first fear the old regime and refuse to speak out. But after being reminded of the past oppression, these men and women articulated their argument and re-approached the officials. They did so in a some what formal manner in contrary to the second article. The second article discusses the extremist side of Chinese communism. These hooligans took Chairman Mao's word far too literal when he explains to destroy, in order to establish. It's hard to fathom, young men around my age destroying houses like these men did. The scary part is that they felt that it was completely justified. These two articles show the reader two different sides of Chinese communists: the rational side v. the extreme side.

Different Tactics

       I think that when the Communist Party in China implemented the land reform program and the Red Guards, they desired both different results and had different intentions for each tactic. When they began to enforce the land reform program, they used it as a way to appeal to the greater Chinese population, of peasants and farmers. It was their way of saying "we are on your side" and "we want the best for you." It was their intention to appeal to the public and downsize the power of the current people of status. The result of this tactic was unity under their cause and trust in their ideas. When they implemented the Red Guard program, their intention was more to cause fear in people and show how powerful they could truly be. Their violence and enforcement of power upon the people shows that they didn't care whether or not the people wanted to follow them and comply, just that they were forced into doing so. The result of this tactic was fear, and fear supplied them with power. Fear was what made the people not content with their former government. After the new party appealed to them by seeming to diminish this factor of fear, they also stooped to ruling in the same manner. 

       While both tactics strive for the overall same goal, gaining the support and power of the people, they are quite contradictory to one another. The land reform program promises revenge and equality, downsizing the power of those who were previously vicious. The Red Guard then simply redistributes that power to an equally vicious party. That is why overall each specific tactic gained different results in terms of followers. Both did result in erasing the previous government and way of life, and leading to a socialist rule. But it seems as though the land reform program was used to soften them up, and then the Red Guards regained power through fear.

Rhodes Memorial

I found several journalistic pieces from the late 19th century to earlier 20th century on the NY Times archive website.  One article praises Rhodes effort in trying to unify South Africa regardless of race.  It's quite biased in favor of Rhodes, as evidenced by the comparison between Rhodes and the Count of Monte Cristo.  In another piece, Cecil Rhodes' trial is documented.  Rhodes argues that the President Kruger of the Transvaal asked for it by not keeping promises to his citizens.  He went on to argue that the British were there to protect civili rights.  

Africa and Middle East Pop-Culture

I have read and watched a fair amount of entertainment about Africa and the Middle East:

Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Kite Runner, Things Fall Apart, House of Saddam (HBO Mini Series) and Generation Kill (HBO Mini Series).  

China's Commie Revolution

Obviously, the Communist party in China was using both the Red Guards and the land reform to cement a stable power structure for themselves.  With the land reform, they gained the mass support that they needed to avoid too much complaining.  And to guard against letting the peasants get too powerful, they created the Red Guard to keep order through fear.

In a very zoomed-out view of things, both these moves by the Communists were made to accomplish the same goal: eliminate everything associated with the previous, Nationalist government.  These measures may have also had positive other results, but that was the main goal.  The land reform basically destroyed the widely-hated aristocracy in rural China, which had been a key element in the Nationalist government as the primary local tax collectors and rulers.  The Red Guard was assigned the task of removing all traces of the old China from people's lives, whether documents or art or people who just wouldn't shut up about it.  And in both measures, the government used the same tactics.  Inspire a mass following, especially among young adults, that is willing to partake in violence for your cause.

Polar Opposites

To build a little more off of what Caitlin said, I am havaing a hard time trying to compare these two things at all, due to the fact that the methods to bring about a result are so different from one to the other.  In "Land Reform In Action", I found it particularly powerful that fear against old ideology was what essentially kept people from speaking out originally, and that seemed to bring about a much more sincere and powerful result than to just instill fear in everyone for not cooperating.  This is what I found different in reading "Make Revolution!"  I saw that they were attempting to use tactics that remind me almost like the Nazis, in the sense of instilling such a mortal fear in the people. In that sense, I find it almost impossible to compare the two, but I guess it's arguable that they are both trying to bring about the same result, to instill and ideal in a group of people through certain tactics. 

Communism vs. Revolution

Patrick is right to agree with Caitlin, and he brings upon another important point: while these two situations are very different, one could argue that they both have similar goals to influence people to join a group. Fear is an important role in both of these situations, for they are the leading influence in the people. Generally fear is a good way to spark emotion, as we have seen in propaganda posters. Fear also implies that there is a higher power that you must follow, which is very important for the communists and the Red Guards to gain followers.

Collectivization for Communism

In both cases -- Land Reform in Action and Make Revolution! -- the goods of the people are being collectivized in the attempt to equalize the population under the Communist Party. Rather than giving your life, like in the Nazi Party, the populace of 1950-1970 China gave away their personal possessions in return for a Proletariat political system, which in the end was ultimately under absolute rule. In both accounts, there is a mob mentality, fueled by the "old regimes" of China. Their ambitions seem to arise from unrest concerning the militaristic and political tyranny, and revenge seems to be their mode of political justice. T'ien-ming explains how this is the time for an uprising against the traitors or "wicked landlords." This same emotion is shown in the Red Guards, and Mao was smart in using the unrest as a catalyst for his own way of reform. In both readings, the majority wants reform, and their ambitions are clear -- take down the past regimes and instate new ideals.

Red Guards & Chinese Communist's

In the broad sense these two articles seem very much alike, because of the underline meaning of a revolution with violence involved. However, if you look closely these articles also have differences, one had used trickery which resulted in violence while the Red Guards turned to violence first. The Red Guards had less of a thought out plan in case anyone was to escape or fight back, there only message was to relay violence on those who didn't believe in their leader Chairman Mao. While the others had a organized plan consisting of meetings with poor peasants.

Red Guards vs. Communist Party

The Communist Party and Red Guards not only had different tactics to reform China, but also different intentions as well. Though the communist party did kill "wicked landlords", their intent was not for violence with the traditional population, but instead to convert such people to believing in communism. They did so by finding and exploiting the flaws in the former Chinese traditions and culuture. Killing the landlords was also intended to frighten the people into converting, making them believe that Communism was the more powerful party. However, the Red Guards' intentions were to cause ruckus and chaos. They caused destruction in people's houses and were loud and rampant through China. Their cause was not to convert people, but to punish those that identified with the previous ruling class, even just the civilians. Also, they wanted to draw attention to themselves which raises awareness for their cause through destruction and fear. Thus, both parties used fear as a mechanism to invoke change, but with different intentions and tactics. 

2 different endings

The two events are not that similar. In one, someone is being punished for their crimes, and in the other, someone is trying to destroy a culture. I guess they are similar in the sense that the guy from the second passage seems like the person who got put on trial in the first passage. However, the endings are not similar at all.

The Communist Revolution

In the boxes on pages 766 and 769, the communist party of china influenced the younger generations to forward their cause. The easily swayed youths led the way with fiery declarations and bold actions. But with the villagers it was about revenge for past crimes while the Red Guards were trying to erase the past. So, while both were undermining the old order, one of them was an attempt to burying the past and the other an attempt to undo it.

Out with the Old

After reading both passages, I found out that they were very similar because both passages had a main theme of revolution, reformation, and going against the old order. The passages managed to display this specific theme in different ways. The one page 766,  had peasants against the "political forces." In the article on page 769, it was youths  (proletariat class) going against old Chinese culture. Both of the social classes in the passages went against the old order completely. 

 

One thing I found was different was how hesitant the peasants were to go against the old order while the proletarians (Red Guards) went at it and started destroying things of old Chinese culture immediately. The peasants fear to speak out against Kuo Te-yu in the first passage was probably because all their lives they have been living in poverty and when they finally had an opportunity to go against the government, they didn't know what to do and weren't confident. On the other hand,  perhaps because the proletariat class was on a slightly higher level than the farmers (peasants)  they didn't feel restrained and were able to go against the old order without hesitation. 

A different view of the Cold War

When my dad was in college he went to Belgium as an exchange student. The college was in the town of Ghent, and the dormitory that my dad stayed in was made up predominantly of third-world graduate students. They shared a communal kitchen, where all the people of different nationalities would cook their food alongside each other. It was a place of intellectual and political discussion. One of the opinions that really stuck with my dad came from a discussion of the Cold War super-powers, the US and USSR. My dad said that the US had the moral high ground in the conflict. However, one of the students responded "When you live in a poor third-world country which is nothing but a pawn in the war for global domination, America's actions on the ground don't look that different from Russia's. They both use everyone and everything they can in their quest to control the world."

Two Passages

The boxes on page 766 and 769 talk about the same thing. They both tell us stories about how the new communist party ruled. First they got a group of people that they wanted to influence and then they pushed their ideas through until they were converted. The farmers and the Red Guards were both taught different ideals by the government. They were taught that everything that happened before is false and that everyone should start from scratch. The government picked the group of people that they could influence better. Teenage boys and the lower class are easily influenced because they always feel left out. When you let them feel powerful, they immediately want to keep that feeling and therefore want to follow you.

Different Goals of Chinese Communist Party

I think the approach of the Chinese Communist Party differed based on who they were talking too. In the first box on pg 766, peasants were being informed of the crimes that the previous government policy inflicted upon them by taking as much of the harvest as they desired. In the second box on pg 769, I find the goal to be different. In this case, an army of rebellious teenagers has broken into an officials house and essentially told him that the people no longer answered to the constitution that the official had previously dictated and impressed upon them.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the third largest country in Africa and has roughly 68 million people.  
The DRC was established as a Belgian colony in 1908 and gained independence in 1960.  Its colonial history is marked by violence, as the Belgian colonialists brutalized the Congolese population to produce rubber.  
Not suprisingly, the Congo is still marred by war.  In 1998, a brutal civil war began, killing hundreds of thousands of people.  Now, an estimated 45,000 people are dying per month due to effects from the war.  The country still has a population growth of 3.2%, however.  Life expectancy is a mere 54 years in the DRC, due to the devastating effects of AIDS, Malaria, and famine on this poor country. Over 4% of the population lives with AIDS.  For such a troubled country, the literacy rate is suprisingly good.  67.2% of the population is literate, with 80% males compared to 54% for females.  Moreover, the school life expectancy is 10 years for males compared to 8 for women.  Many of the problems in this nation began with their mistreatment by the Belgians.  Since its independence, the DRC has been unable to shake trouble.  Women are consistently abused, as seen by the lower literacy and schooling rates.  The Democratic Republic of the Congo, being the 3rd largest country in Africa, is constantly in the middle of other nation's problems.  Refugees are consistently overflowing into the DRC, and this creates even more problems.

Cold War Memories

I interviewed my dad about his experience in the Cold War. He told me that in his school they had regular bomb shelter drills and he can still remember the shrieking of the bell. Since the entire country was worried that the U.S. was going to be bombed, even as little second or third graders, the teacher would rush them into the bomb shelter or to take cover under their desks. Also, he said that although the Olympics may seem to get a lot of attention nowadays, during those times they were much more competitive and aggressive. He said that the competition between who got more medals between the United States and the USSR became very personal and energy and tensions ran high.

Growing up during the Cold War

My mom was an elementary school student growing up during the Cold War, although she had a hard time remembering the impact it had on her life. "We were always very afraid that Russia was going to drop and atomic bomb on California and kill us all so in school, they would have us do drills once a month or so where we'd have to duck under our desks-as if that would help if they dropped an atom bomb on us. Because of that, I think as young kids, we were a little bit afraid that sometime Russia would drop a bomb on us. We also always thought of Russia as the enemy and we would often watch cartoons and T.V. shows where Russians were always the bad people. If you wanted to have a bad person like in Bullwinkle, you'd give them a Russian name like "Natasha" and have them speak with a Russian accent and she would be the bad person and I know all that came out of our fear of Russia."