Scenes from the United States cultural revolution

cultural revolution; just like swept through China in 1966. Today, China views that time as perhaps one of the most dangerous and lethal times for Chinese society and will no longer permit it to exist.

Au contraire, mon brave!

16 years after the Communists took power nothing had changed in the lives of the peasants. Dismayed by urbanites and Party officials living privileged lives, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution to emancipate 400,000,000 voiceless peasants whose social status had not changed in 3,000 years and remained unchanged. He succeeded. Throughout the CR’s ten years, Mao drove inequality to the lowest level ever recorded while growing the economy six percent annually–twice America’s rate–and mechanizing agriculture.
 
By the end, rural literacy was taken for granted and rural people (no longer ‘peasants’) were as intolerant of oppression and corruption, as vocal about their priorities, as enthusiastic about voting, and as eager to voice complaints as their urban cousins. For the first time in history they were full citizens who could point to the infrastructure they built, the agricultural advances they had made, and the problems they had solved. Though hundreds of millions of rural people benefited from the Cultural Revolution, many elites felt that, by destroying the traditional hierarchy, Mao had destroyed the culture itself–a charge that resonated with foreign elites. They were wrong.

Though hundreds of millions of rural people benefited from the Cultural Revolution, many elites felt that, by destroying the traditional hierarchy, Mao had destroyed the culture itself–a charge that resonated with foreign elites. 

It is true that officials and intellectuals, especially those responsible for running the country, had struggled to maintain their sanity in the midst of an administrative nightmare while many more were subjected to public humiliation or spent years in prison. A handful, crushed by criticisms they found incomprehensible, committed suicide. Some fled abroad and published semi-fictional books about their sufferings and few forgave Mao. 

A small price to pay for the emancipation of 400,000,000 people.