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December 06, 2006
That Lovable Old Coot, Mao Zedong
Yesterday's New York Times gave noted Chinese parliamentarian Mao Zedong a warm tonguebath of affection, in the Science Section, of all places. The lead story, "China Pursues Major Role in Partic le Physics," made Mao sound like a lovable old coot full of folk wisdom:
Mao Zedong dreamed of splitting an electron.This was no idle diversion. According to natural dialectics, which formed the philosophical underpinnings of Marxism, the entire universe, from top to bottom, was seething with tension and change. As a result, Mao thought, nature should be infinitely divisible.
“Take a footlong stick and remove half every day. In 10,000 years it will not run out,” Mao, who rarely missed the chance to chat up physicists, often said. “This is truth. If you don’t believe it, you may test it. If there is an end, there is no science.”
Never a place to miss a pop-culture reference, The Times illustrated the story with Warholesque graphic of the Glorious Leader, here:
But Mao's wonderful influence on science got disrupted by something called the Cultural Revolution, as the Times neatly summarized:
But Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which was unleashed in 1966, closed universities and journals and set back Chinese physics for a generation.
So that's what the Cultural Revolution was about, some padlocked schools. Now I get it.
Or maybe I don't. I think the Times skipped a few salient details in its back rub for a totalitarian's image.
This Wiki entry gives a good overview of the era, complete with destruction of historical artifacts, social chaos, repression of minorities, and a death toll of 500,000 between 1966 and 1969. To give the barest flavor of the times, for the Times:
Crimes against the government were brutally and publicly punished. People were forced to walk through the streets naked, were flogged publicly, or forced, some report, to sit in the jetliner position for hours. Many deaths occurred in police custody, although they were often covered up as "suicides". People had to carry two or more copies of Mao's Little Red Book to avoid being accused of not supporting Mao. Numerous individuals were accused, often on the flimsiest of grounds, of being foreign spies; to have, or have had, any contact with the world outside of China, could be extremely dangerous. Accusations were often based upon 'symbolic' language or gestures, such as the omission of certain strokes from a written character, or the placing of a picture of Mao in a subordinate position in a room.
The Times of course had all this background, but gave Mao the benefit of a doubt. A man who tells clever stories about sticks deserves that and a cool picture, doesn't he?
Van | 12/06/06 at 07:12 AM | Categories: WWIV
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Comments
We must never forget the millions murdered by Mao's minions !!
Paul | December 6, 2006 10:39 AM
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