Friday, January 06, 2017

It's rare I have to do this, but.

Checked out a book called Tombstone  The Great Chinese Famine 1958-1962.  I'm not quite a hundred pages in, and I may have to return it unfinished.  This... is one of the most depressing, horrifying things I've ever read.  Millions dead in the name of 'This plan came from Mao, therefore it will be!'  And people lying to keep Mao and the upper-level happy, no matter how much damage it did, and how many bodies it produced.

Page 31:
When thirteen children arrived at the commune begging for food, the commune's party secretary surnamed Jiang, along with others incited kitchen staff to drag them deep into the mountains, where the were left to die of hunger and exposure.

Page 50:
To prevent starving people from fleeing and spreading news of the disaster, county party committees deployed armed guards to patrol borders and access roads.  Sentry posts were set up on roadways, and checkpoints at every village.  Bus stops were manned by police officers, and long-distance buses could be driven only by party members.  Anyone discovered trying to leave had all his belongings confiscated and was beaten.  Xinyang's rail depots were monitored by the railway public security bureau.  The peasants could only stay home and await death.

That's about all of this I can excerpt.  I will add that anyone passing along unpleasant facts such as "People are starving to death by the thousands" and "There IS no grain to bring in" was subjected- when not just arrested and taken away- to 'struggle'.  Which meant being insulted, threatened, and beaten.  Often to the point of crippling and/or death.  Other tortures used as well.  All in the name of class struggle and socialism...

And we still have idiots whining that 'Oh, that wasn't REAL socialism!' and 'OURS is Democratic Socialism, it's completely different!'  And other things that, right now, cause me to consider homicide.


4 comments:

Critter said...

If you liked this one you'll really like "The Black Book of Communism". The same sort of thing, but how it all got started in Russia.

Anonymous said...

I keep pointing out that a years ago Hugo Chavez and Venezula were the darling of the U.S. Media. Now we have reports of canibalism and government press gangs roaming the streets kidnapping citizens to sent to forced labor on farms; farms that won't produce enough food to feed the nation because the money is not good enough to import fertilizer.

And from the Commies in the U.S. Media? Crickets.

Learn about socialisms failures in practice. Every. Single. Time.

Terrapod said...

Anyone care to shine a light on present day North Korea? The parallels are horrifyingly similar. This winter thousands will die of starvation and exposure while Kim Jong whatever iteration lives fat in Pyongyang.

Firehand said...

Critter, I've got a copy; I read it in bits and pieces.

So far the media reports little on the Norks; if they really covered it, someone might ask just how Obama's smart diplomacy has worked out. Besides the 'Communism sucks once again' they don't want to deal with.

Venezuela, I'm reminded of the blaming us for their problems same as we're blamed by the left for Cuba being a shithole. I have the same question in response: "You've said that everyone else trades with them, so we should; well, if everyone else trades with them, why is it our fault they're shitholes?"