Mao's great famine by Frank Dikotter

 

I sort of had in the back of my mind that China had a famine during Mao's rule. But I never realised its severity. Or that's its causes where predominately due to the ineptitude of central planning of a communist system and the inherent corruption.

An estimated 45 million died during this period where Mao tried to implement communes, and push iron production to the down fall of the country. The book outlines the ineptitude of leaders. The inflation of quotes, the environment degregation as Mao insisted birds killed which stole seeds which then brought about plagues of insects. The hunger of people who ate mud and and when desperate enough went to canibilism. Horrid.

The book reiterated to me that central planning doesn't work.

It also had me thinking about tyrants. Stalin, Hitler and now Mao. I suppose all leaders especially these bad guys got fed a diet of what they want to hear. But it would seem to me that Mao's people feed him an even larger amount of lies than was actually happening. I don't think it was an excuse though.

It also gave me an insight into China today. I'm pretty sure the corruption still happens. It would have to be the case with a closed and censored media. China is still a place to watch with scepticism. This stuff only happened on 50 years ago.

Posted with Blogsy

Stages of faith and extreme politics

I'm currently slowly plowing my way though 'Himmler' by Peter Padfield. Just as a background Himmler was the head of Hitlers SS and the prime archtect of the concentration camps. A firm believer in eugenics. Very nasty.
Himmler got involved with the Nazis very early in life 19 years of age. He worked his way to the top very quickly. He was a 'believer' in the cause.
What has stuck me as I'm reading the book is the overlap between the spiritual development and his career. I write this in reference to a latter post which I did What's happening when what I believe is not what I used to believe', based on 'Fowlers Stages of faith'.

It would seem to me that Himmler's god was Nazism, that he was stuck in stages 2 to 3. He was an absolute fundamentalist to the Nazi cause.

• Stage 2 – "Mythic-Literal" faith (mostly in school children), stage two persons have a strong belief in the justice and reciprocity of the universe, and their deities are almost always anthropomorphic.

• Stage 3 – "Synthetic-Conventional" faith (arising in adolescence) characterized by conformity

Maybe the most dangerous Fowlers Stages of faith is an idol of extreme politics while in stages 2-3...Himmlers god was Nazism of which he was one of the ultimate fundamentalist.