Maoist Cultural Revolution

As a Maoist, I'm interested in what the nationalists on this site think of both the theory of the cultural revolution and what it did for China.

The Cultural Revolution had positive and negative consequences. One the one hand, it improved life for many Chinese peasants by eliminating the feudal privileges which had prevented them from participating in a number of professions and acquiring an education (see, for example, Dongping Han's account in The Unknown Cultural Revolution: Life and Change in a Chinese Village). On the other hand, its excesses resulted in a number of people being unjustly brutalized.

I'm generally opposed to technocratic projects of social engineering, and believe the Chinese Communist Party could have avoided many of the crimes against humanity which were committed during the Cultural Revolution had its leadership structure been accountable to the population. Genuine cultural transformation doesn't occur by state fiat, but by a combination of material forces and social movements from below progressively changing consciousness.

The theory is actually quite a good one, removing old culture to create a new socialist culture. But in practice, it was one of the biggest fu*k ups ever to happen in Chinese history. It effectively turned a whole generation into a gang of violent, ignorant and destructive thugs. Education pretty much went out the window for most which sacrificed a huge amount of professionals for a developing country. The economy plummeted as both a result of a lack of professionals and productivity as almost everyone was caught up in the hysteria. People were constantly accused of being "capitalist roaders" for one slight slip of the tongue and people were being unlawfully killed left right and center. If a cultural revolution is to be done again, it should be done in much more controlled ways.

I am averse to social engineering and believe it to be opposed to the theory that history progresses primarily as a result of fundamental changes in its material basis for existence: transformation of the preponderant social relations of production, or property relations. It is not only unethical, but it conflicts with Marxist theory. With that caveat out of the way, I must admit that I find bourgeois criticisms of Communist political repression to be quite hypocritical considering the basic function of the capitalist "free" media and political establishment more or less accomplishes the very same objective. Lest anyone harbor the illusion that dominant capitalist states never ruled with an iron fist, one need reflect no further than the Red Scares, McCarthyism, and FBI surveillance and imprisonment of thousands of "red" dissidents, not to mention the historical role of fascism as a battering ram of the bourgeoisie.

As for Maoist China in general, I think that many of its achievements were noteworthy, although misguided policies severely stunted the potential for progress, and it certainly lagged behind the USSR, although to be fair, China was arguably more backward than Russia upon the Communist takeover. I firmly maintain, as with the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, that Deng Xiaoping's counterrevolution was an unqualified regression.

I know that many of you hate this guy, but MaoistRebelNews2 made a great video defending the Cultural Revolution. The views in this video are completely the same as mine.

(Since my post count is too low, I'll just post a link.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v52f86H_yZI

Rev Scare may not enjoy the part where he says that the term "social engineering" is right wing.