25
25
Meanwhile, the head of the class-purity-oriented group that had
systematically tortured Gao Yuan and his friends for over a year became
a member of a trucking company. The leader of Gao Yuan's more liberal
Red Guard Brigade disappeared for many years. He resurfaced only
when China began the modern economic reform that allows a measure
of entrepreneurial freedom. Today the former Red Guard leader once
again uses the ability to organize others that helped him marshal his
fierce young army of students. He founds successful capitalist enter-
prises.
Only one person really got what he wanted from the Chinese
Cultural Revolution: Mao Zedong. When it was all over, he had driven
his opponents from their roosts and regained control of China.15
But the Chinese Cultural Revolution had unleashed the most
primitive and appalling human instincts, providing a clue to the
biological machinery that leads us into war and violence.
The formerly shy and well-behaved teenagers caught up in the
Chinese Cultural Revolution pulled together in tight clusters. The signal
that drew them together was altruism of ideology. Once their groups
had been formed, ideology served a second purpose. It became a
weapon, an excuse for lashing out at rival groups, a justification for
murder, torture and humiliation.
Within their tight gangs, the Chinese teens loved each other. Their
loyalty to their comrades and to their master--Chairman Mao--was
ferocious. But when they turned their attention to outsiders--the folks
they labeled as counter-revolutionaries--their feelings were different.
Toward those beyond their tiny circle they radiated only hatred. And
they treated those they despised with remorseless brutality.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a microcosm of the forces
that manipulate human history. It showed how the insubstantial things
we call ideas can trigger the loftiest idealism and the basest cruelty. And
it demonstrated how under the urge to heroism and commitment to the
<< < GO > >>
25
25
Meanwhile, the head of the class-purity-oriented group that had
systematically tortured Gao Yuan and his friends for over a year became
a member of a trucking company. The leader of Gao Yuan's more liberal
Red Guard Brigade disappeared for many years. He resurfaced only
when China began the modern economic reform that allows a measure
of entrepreneurial freedom. Today the former Red Guard leader once
again uses the ability to organize others that helped him marshal his
fierce young army of students. He founds successful capitalist enter-
prises.
Only one person really got what he wanted from the Chinese
Cultural Revolution: Mao Zedong. When it was all over, he had driven
his opponents from their roosts and regained control of China.15
But the Chinese Cultural Revolution had unleashed the most
primitive and appalling human instincts, providing a clue to the
biological machinery that leads us into war and violence.
The formerly shy and well-behaved teenagers caught up in the
Chinese Cultural Revolution pulled together in tight clusters. The signal
that drew them together was altruism of ideology. Once their groups
had been formed, ideology served a second purpose. It became a
weapon, an excuse for lashing out at rival groups, a justification for
murder, torture and humiliation.
Within their tight gangs, the Chinese teens loved each other. Their
loyalty to their comrades and to their master--Chairman Mao--was
ferocious. But when they turned their attention to outsiders--the folks
they labeled as counter-revolutionaries--their feelings were different.
Toward those beyond their tiny circle they radiated only hatred. And
they treated those they despised with remorseless brutality.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a microcosm of the forces
that manipulate human history. It showed how the insubstantial things
we call ideas can trigger the loftiest idealism and the basest cruelty. And
it demonstrated how under the urge to heroism and commitment to the
<< < GO > >>