Remember this campaign in China? If I can remember correctly, this happened some time before the Cultural Revolution when there seemed to be a loosening up of govt control and the people were encouraged to speak freely. Freely they spoke, a bit too freely. Then the door was closed and all who spoke freely were rounded up in a dragnet. It was a clean sweep and all the dissidents, unhappy people and anti govt agitators were behind bars on sent to reeducation camps in the rural parts of China.
Free speech and freedom of expression have a price. It is free to speak, to express and attack people, but when done wrongly, unrestrained and without proof, spurious, defamatory, it can be like entering a mouse trap. A hundred flowers bloomed may end up with a hundred flowers doomed.
Don’t take your freedom too casually and for granted. One must know one’s place in society.
Freedom is not free. It usually has a very high price.
ReplyDeleteNo one has a right to have their feelings protected, or from having their emotions "poked". To do so would be to place limits on free speech and expression when discussing "sensitive" or "contentious" issues.
Last year US courts ruled that money is a form of free speech.
I would say that is perfectly in-line with a meritocracy. i.e. the more resources you have, the more choices you can make, and thus the more freedom you have.
Only radicals change their cuntree radically. It has always been!
ReplyDeleteChina and the reasons behind the Cultural Revolution
ReplyDeleteFor about one hundred and fifty years from 1830s to 1948 China was in shambles. She was at the mercy of the West, Russia and Japan. The later part of Ching Dynasty was decadent and corrupt to the core. China at the earlier part of the Ching Dynasty under Kangsi and Chien Lung was all powerful and dynamic with a strong economy and military. Emperor Kangsi and Chien Lung always managed to drive away the barbaric Russians who made frequent incursions and invasions in the western part and north eastern part of China. Under Kangsi and Chien Lung China's political boundary extended beyond Lake Baikal and north of the Heilungchiang River ( the Russians called it Amur River in honour of the Russian pirate and buccaneer )who successfully invaded these lands in 1860s when China was weak. The Russians subsequently took away all Chinese lands in the maritime province right up to the sea facing Japan and the Pacific Ocean. In all from 1830s to 1885 Russia illegally occupied about 3.6 million square miles of Chinese lands which is equivalent to the present size of China.
Many patriotic Chinese revolted against the corrupted Ching rule especially during the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s but the rebellions were often put down by the Ching Government with the help of the West ( mainly England, France, Russia,Germany, US ) and Japan.
It was not until the years between 1910s and 1920s that the Ching was successfully overthrown by Dr. Sun Yat Sen and other fellow Chinese patriots who established the Chinese Peoples' Republic under the Kuomintang. The Republic was beset with dangers with traitors like Yuan Shi Kai ( a Ching Dynasty general who defected to Dr.Sun ) who by plots and treachery tried to found a new dynasty under him and with dangers from the West and Japan who tried to torpedoed the Republic.
It was not until Chairman Mao, Premier Chou En Lai, General Zhu DE and many other self sacrificed patriots came to China's rescue under the Chinese Communist Party which fought many relentless wars against warlords, traitors like Chiang Kai Shek, Japanese and other western aggressions from Russia, England, US and France that China finally stood up as a self-respectable dignified country and Republic on 1st October,1949 no more to be bullied by others.
However the West, Russia and US and Japan still never give up hope of destroying the Chinese Peoples' Republic under Chairman Mao. There were internal traitors, splitists, separatists , reactionaries and counter revolutionists who were self serving and they saw no wrong in collaborating with outside powers to destabilise and destroy China. These bad elements are worst than virulent diseases or poison. Many managed to creep into government services or high offices. They tried to sabotage the Peoples Republic of China. Chairman Mao had to evolve a method to flush out the traitors and counter revolutionaries. Hence there was a cultural revolution from 1966 to 1976 when Chairman said, "let a flowers bloom and a hundred thoughts contend." Here the real devils, the traitors and counter revolutionaries showed their ugly faces and they were all cast into the net to be disciplined. Just as a doctor who prescribes medicine to kill the cancer cells will unavoidably destroy some good blood cells so the cultural revolution did undoubtedly hurt some innocent people.
But in Singapore it is hardly different. It is just one party trying to dominate others and hold power forever. There are no traitors, separatists, reactionaries or revolutionaries. It is just others with different political thoughts and system of running the island state for the benefit of the people. UNfortunately these people are treated as enemies by the party in power.
Instead of the cultural revolution Singapore party in power has instilled a culture of fear via a culture of suing.
Southernglory1