"A revolution is not a dinner party or writing an essay or painting a picture or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous"- Mao said in 1927 to a youth activist
The reason for china to trying to become such a new generation was solely the opinion of Mao and his followers. Mao had seen the way the Russian revolution had gone astray and worried China would follow in its path. He mad four goals: to rectify China's communists, replace his successors with one more faithful, provide youth's with a revolutionary experience and achieve policy changes to make education, health care and cultural systems less elitist. Obviously, the goals were purely a show when his real concern was his place in history. When he launched the revolution schools were shut down and officials were publicly humiliated to test them. Elders and intellectuals were physically and verbally abused. Many died of ignorant causes, without a second thought from Mao. So as the revolution tolled on Mao truly only had himself in mind.
Mao went through great lengths to make sure that everyone was Maoist. He had Lin Bao his defense minister make his whole army maoist. He shut down schools in August 1966 Mao encouraged his red army to attack all traditional values and the bourgeois. He even publicly criticized officials to see how they would react. Anarchy, terror and paralysis disrupted the economy. The 1968 industrial production dipped 12% below 1966. When leaders actually called for a halt in February 1967, Mao and his radical partisans ignored and by summer disorder was wide spread. Mao did not care what others thought; his word was the only word that mattered.
"Like the red sun rising in the east, the unpreddescented great proletarian cultural revolution is illuminating the land with it's brilliant rays long live the red guards armed with Mao Zedong's thought Long live chairman Mao