Quote for the Day

"The only freedom deserving the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest." -- John Stuart Mill

Empire State Building "Celebrates" China's Revolution

Last night on September 30th the Empire State Building in New York City decked itself out in red and yellow lights as celebration to the 60th anniversary of China's revolution. How fitting that a building constructed during the Great Depression to highlight the perseverance of the American people now celebrates this anniversary. Here is a brief list of some of the things that this revolution has accomplished:

• In the years following the communist takeover of China-- known as the Yan’an Rectification Movement-- thousands of intellectuals and others who might derail the indoctrination of the populace with Marxist and Leninist principles were killed.
• This campaign was followed by the Zhen Fan and Shu Fan which targeted former Chinese Nationalist officials and employees of Western corporations, business owners, landowners, and intellectuals. An estimated three to five million people were killed, and another 1.5 million were sent to labor camps.
• Various campaigns and movements kept targeting intellectuals and other enemies of the state. But try as hard as they might, the secret police and communist officials couldn’t kill as many Chinese as efficiently as the widespread famine triggered by the Great Leap Forward --Chairman Mao’s attempts to impose collectivism on China’s peasant farmers -- which resulted in between 20 and 43 million people starving to death (Mao himself always seemed very well-fed).
• Mao’s subsequent economic and social engineering programs were also dismal failures and fearing that capitalist sentiment was stealthily creeping into the hearts and minds of the people, he launched the Cultural Revolution and went after his enemies and those pesky intellectuals with a vengeance. With the educated being specifically targeted, schools and universities were shuttered and students from urban areas were forcibly relocated to the remote countryside. Illiteracy rates soared, ancient Chinese artifacts and monuments were destroyed as a symbolic break with “the old ways of thinking” and traditional customs and religious ceremonies were systematically stamped out. As many as 36 million people were persecuted; of these up to 1.5 million were killed and an equal number maimed. [link]