The evil of Mao

Mao Zedong, and also commonly called as Chairman Mao. He is born at December 26, 1893, and died in September 9, 1976. He was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and the founder of the People's Republic of China, which he governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death. He lived in a wealthy farmer in Shaoshan, Hunan. Mao adopted a Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist perspective in his early life. On October 1, 1949 Mao proclaimed the foundation of the People's Republic of China. In 1966, he initiated the Great Cultural Revolution, a program to wipe out supposed counter-revolutionary elements in Chinese society that lasted 10 years and was marked by violent class struggle, widespread destruction of cultural artifacts and unprecedented elevation of Mao's personality cult and which is officially regarded as a "severe setback" for the PRC. After all, Mao is regarded as one of the most important individuals in modern world history. Mao is officially held in high regard in the People's Republic of China as of today. Chairman Mao is belonging to idealistic and instrumental evil according to my research. Idealistic evil is the saddest evil in my opinion. Idealistic evil is the one who want to make things getting better; however, things never follow what he wishes. Idealistic evil can also be the one who make a wrong decision, but he or she think this is a right decision to other people, so he hurt others, but he think he is doing the right thing. Like the Roy F. Baumeister written in the “Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty”, “it’s always the good men who do the most harm in the world.” Also Chairman Mao has made the Instrumental evil in his life. Instrumental evil is the way people want to fulfill their desires by hurting someone else. It is very common in our world, and nobody can get rid of it. After Chairman Mao established the New China, he wants to keep his power, so he caused many tragedies. Chairman Mao are belonging to these two evils, and Chairman Mao has some typical example of these two examples, and I will explain them in the following paragraphs. The first thing we realized that can present Chairman Mao is being “evil” is that he becomes too arrogant and does not care about other suggestion because he think he is right for everything. Everyone knows that Chairman Mao was one of the greatest men in Chinese history. He made the New China become independent, and he united all Chinese together. However, in another perspective, he became a god-like person to all Chinese that no one could say any negative things about him, and his every decision is correct because he did not make mistakes ever. Whatever he does, it must be right, and people should follow him and always praise him. No one can have different opinions, but if some tried, people would consider him or her as a betrayer which is the one like capitalism. Those enthusiasts will start attacking the betrayer because they are disloyalty to communism and Chairman Mao. At that time, People wrote a book called Words from Chairman Mao, which recorded Chairman Mao’s “useful” words. Everyone must have it and memorized it. This book also had another name “Red Treasure Book.” Red means communism; treasure book which means how precious this book is. In this book, it is all about Chairman Mao’s opinions and experiences and what he said. Like the bible in the western countries, Red treasure book became very popular and valuable. All people should have this book, and people should remember all contents in this book. Nowadays, it is more likely a textbook to new generation. We are forced to learn those words and do as what the words written in my political class. My uncle, who has experienced this period, and he told me they had to remember all words from this book, otherwise, they got hit by enthusiasts. Those people would believe they were not loyalty to Chairman Mao anymore. When they have an argument with someone, they will use the words from Red Treasure Book to debate. For example, If Chairman Mao has said in the book “Sun is risen from the west.” Then people would or could not have doubts with it. Such ironic now, but it was how the debate worked during that period. For another example, many Chinese scholars, who have knowledge and well known in China, and they know Chairman Mao’s opinions or ideas are not correct, but they could not have the disagreement with Chairman Mao because if they did, those enthusiasts will watch them and seeking their problems for sending them into jail or kill. However, some of them tried at that time, but some of them were killed, and their families got biases from others. Those nonsense behaviors make people become nonsense, and also make other smart people afraid of saying their ideas and opinions which can make the country better. In my concern, Chairman Mao becomes arrogant at that time, and he thinks that he is the one who represents the truth and the people. Chairman Mao’s personality was quiet similar to the heroic or idealistic evil. As Roy F. Baumeister written in the “Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty”, he describes that if someone believes that he or she is doing the right thing, then those who want to suggest him to stop are belong to evil (180). Like the author describes, Chairman Mao thinks that he is doing the right thing, and so other ideas which is not fit what he thought will be consider as a wrong thing, and it is the side of his evil. The second point of Chairman Mao is being evil is that he made many wrong or evil decisions. Chairman Mao is the president of the People's Republic of China, and he is very ambitious, so he is trying to make China become super power in the world as United States and Soviet Union. At that time, Soviet Union and United States are very developed, but China is just a new and undeveloped country which was suffered by many western countries and wars. The economy of China is terrible; most of people are not feed. As the founder and president of China, Chairman Mao wants to solve these issues, and he want China can overcome Soviet Union and United States. His ideas sounds very good, but he does not end it as he supposed at first. As we know, the economy of China was not as stable as United States, so it was very hard for him to make economy better than these countries. Because people want to satisfy him, they start to trick and bootlick him. They changed the real and cruel statistic to the fake ones, so the numbers will look good and beautiful. They made this task become more and more difficult, and it has lost its original purposes. Because of the nice fake statics, Chairman Mao is being extremely confident to himself. He makes them to do what he said, and he is not searching for the reality but nice numbers. Many leaders of those industries will lie to the government that they can make good products, so the government will pump money into their companies because they said they can assist the government to make the economy to become better. However, reality is reality, and nothing worked. Those leaders of industries do not care about the labors. They do not all them to have free time, but if someone asked for rest or lifting salary, they will say you should not ask question like that, and you are help people to build a better communism society, so this sacrifice is necessary. What could they say about that? Noting. Those workers become very weak, and they cannot get enough money to buy enough food to feed their family. At that time, many people died because of starvation. In addition, many people switch their work from agriculture to industry, so the agriculture becomes worse and worse which assist the starvation issues. It does not make the economy better than United States and Soviet Union, but it make it worse than before. Chairman Mao does not care about the labors at that time, and all he wants is win the competition with Soviet Union and United States. It hurts other innocent people, so in my mind, he makes “evil” decisions. This type evil belongs to the material evil and idealistic evil because he wants things better, but he forgets the correction of methods he uses. The third point of Chairman Mao is being evil is that because of his decision, many people die. He wants China get rid of the old impact from the feudal society, so he starts a very famous revolution called “Culture Revolution of China”. I think it is well known in the globe. When people are discussing about Chairman Mao, they will definitely talk about the Culture Revolution of China. By the way, you may wonder what Culture Revolution is. It is a revolution that emphasizes the purity of Communist ideology and to reformat the direction from the capitalist restoration. At first, the Culture Revolution is based on good intentions. This revolution is to break the four old of Chinese which are the old minds, the old culture, the old customs, and the old habits. Chairman Mao wants Chinese to become smart, advanced, and modern. That is why the revolution starts. However, though it is a good start, it ends in a bad way after all. He gathered four people, who are Jiang Qing, Chen Boda, Lin Biao, and Kang Sheng, together to assist him to push through the revolution. The revolution lasts for ten yeats, and many people called it a ten year disaster. He does not allow people to have the knowledge about capitalism because he thinks that if they know capitalism, they will start to against his authority, and also he is afraid that some scholars will start to disagree with him, so he cannot maintain his power. Like Roy F. Baumeister write in “Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty” that “violence is used to gain or maintain power” (120). He does not like any doubts to his decision because he want to keep his power. At that time, people who are teachers, scholars, professors, and educators are all the targets. People who have the knowledge is the lowest class, and people can hit them when they make some nonsense reasons such as he is a capitalism. More ironically, those scholars could not escape to other countries because Chairman Mao does not want them to develop other countries, so China was totally blocked at that period. Students can hit and torture his or her teacher in front of everyone. It is cruel, and Chairman Mao is trying to destroy the knowledgeable class. He has many fans that are called “Red Guards.” They are always loyal to Chairman Mao, and they will be crazy when they catch or torture others. If someone has negative opinion or comment towards Chairman Mao, they will hit and torture even though he or she is their parents. People cannot speak or think freely. If someone says something negative accidentally, they are possibly facing death. Many people are tortured by others cannot stand it, so they commit suicides. Chairman Mao also uses this revolution to kill those people who helped him to establish the New China together because he is afraid that they will threat his authority. However, scholars are not the only targets to the Red Guards, but also the Artists. There is a famous singer called Zhang Guorong, his voice is excellent, and it can make people feel comfortable and relax. However, he was forbid to perform in China because Chairman Mao thinks his voice will make people become weaker especially males. Chairman Mao is belonging to idealistic and instrumental evil according to my research. Idealistic evil is the saddest evil in my opinion. Idealistic evil is the one who want to make things getting better; however, things never follow what he wishes. Idealistic evil can also be the one who make a wrong decision, but he or she think this is a right decision to other people, so he hurt others, but he think he is doing the right thing. Like the Roy F. Baumeister written in the “Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty”, “it’s always the good men who do the most harm in the world.” Also Chairman Mao has made the Instrumental evil in his life. Instrumental evil is the way people want to fulfill their desires by hurting someone else. It is very common in our world, and nobody can get rid of it. After Chairman Mao established the New China, he wants to keep his power, so he caused many tragedies. Chairman Mao are belonging to these two evils, and Chairman Mao has some typical example of these two examples, and I will explain them in the following paragraphs.