Quotations from Chairman Mao, by Mao Tse-tung
Preconceptions: I'm hoping Mao's most famous quote, "Gas, grass, or ass: no one rides for free" is in here.
Reaction: Now this is a book of revolution. How do I know?
There are exclamation points in it.
Mao, unlike Hitler and Marx, actually attempts to add a little enthusiasm to the people's revolution, though he does so in a weird sing-song Chairman Seuss fashion:
When you have not probed into a problem, into the present facts and its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak? Quite a few comrades always keep their eyes shut and talk nonsense, and for a Communist that is disgraceful. How can a Communist keep his eyes shut and talk nonsense?
It won't do!
It won't do!
You must investigate!
You must not talk nonsense!
Uh...you mean like that?
The virtue of this book is that it is short and it is broken into smaller pieces, usually quotations from pamphlets or speeches. That makes it convenient for a family to, say, flip open to a random section and find some wisdom from the Chairman.
Just a few observations about this book:
- Much of the book exhorts the people to make their own investigations, to go out among the peasants and talk to them about their problems to solve them. Otherwise, as indicated above, you will merely be talking nonsense.
- It is very telling that much of the book is dedicated to "the correct handling of contradictions among the people," as though the Communists knew their theories didn't hold up. "Contradictoriness within a thing is the fundamental cause of its development, while its interrelations and interactions with other things are secondary causes," says Mao. To him (and apparently to his party), the slow balancing and reconciliation of contradictions is a necessary process. Using pseudo-scientific metaphors such as positive and negative electrical forces, he illustrates the universality of struggle and the "law of the unity of opposites." In other words, he's saying, "We can't be wrong because both answers are right." Good trick, there.
- A lot of the book encourages the people to "get organized," telling them to hold meetings and establish fact-finding committees and sort humanity by apparent class. I'm not sure why a tangled bureaucracy is required to maintain Communism--probably to give the people something to do--but Mao has taken this to another level.
- Again, like the other crackpot books, I'm interested in how Mao blithely dismisses people into broad categories based upon their apparent financial position, as though this position were permanently fixed and all-describing. Indeed, some of his descriptions are dripping with contempt, both for the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Any philosophy that fails to understand human individuality is doomed to failure, even in a culture so skilled in suppressing it.
Verdict: I'm no more evil than before. Come to think of it, this seems like one of those benign little books they sell at the front counter at Barnes and Noble (which the publishers call precious books): just a few little sayings to reinforce what you're already feeling.
In one chilling passage, Mao says it is impossible to "go too far" when the masses rise up against the landowners because, after all, the landowners deserve it...for being landowners. That strange logic could be dangerous to anyone not reading the book and "investigating" for themselves.
You must investigate! You must not talk nonsense!
Return
Return to the Books of Evil.
