Monday, April 7, 2014

Then and Now

As mentioned in some of the previous posts, one of the most interesting bits of Thirty Years in a Red House  was how Di was able to show us why people would choose to follow communism. This of course brought back the idea of Chinese Thought Reform from Lifton, and the process of the youth turning against the older generation to follow what they thought was the best system.

I wonder (and hopefully we can ask him) how Di views Chinese youth and the level to which they 'buy in' to the government now. Obviously there are huge differences between the Communism that Di grew up with and the Communism (with heavy capitalist influences) that exists there now; however, the government still is repressive and controls a lot of information (internet access, etc.) How do these changes affect the way that people adapt and believe in the system? Does he feel that with the ability to access greater information (certainly information is easier to access now than in his time there, even with current restrictions) will eventually bring about the end of communism? Or will it continue to exist in a more open, pseudo-democractic/capitalist fashion? I suppose this is less a response than it is further questioning, but since China is the only communist regime we've read about that is still currently in power, it seems like they're pertinent.

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