Struggle Session: A struggle session was a form of public humiliation and torture that was used by the Communist Party of China in the Mao era, particularly during the Cultural Revolution, to shape public opinion and humiliate, persecute, or execute political rivals and those deemed class enemies.[1]
In general, the victim of a struggle session was forced to admit various crimes before a crowd of people who would verbally and physically abuse the victim until he or she confessed. Struggle sessions were often held at the workplace of the accused, but they were sometimes conducted in sports stadiums where large crowds would gather if the target was well-known
Struggle sessions developed from similar ideas of criticism and self-criticism in the Soviet Union from the 1920s. The term refers to class struggle; the session is held, ostensibly, to benefit the target, by eliminating all traces of counterrevolutionary, reactionary thinking. Chinese communists resisted this at first, because struggle sessions conflicted with the Chinese concept of saving face, but struggle sessions became commonplace at Communist Party meetings during the 1930s due to public popularity.
Thank God for Michal Rectenwald! Though he avoids using vulgarity and extremist rhetoric to dismiss this "movement," he nevertheless does so with dignity, clarity, a even a healthy trace of good humor.
ReplyDeleteWhen I smell BULLSHIT, I don't hesistate to say so, and BELIEVE ME this post-modern (just another name for Cultural Marxism) is an attempt to turn the world upside down and inside out –– which is EXACTLY what this so-called "Social Justice" movement IS.It is made nothing but BULLSHIT –– but BS of a particularly noxious, destructive variety.
George Lukacs to whom Mr. Rectenwa;d refers rather drily was a member of the Frankfurt School –– an immensely powerful wellspring of vicious, anti Christan EVIL that has managed to take root in our universities where it has spread confusion, perverted logic, fomented self-hatred and disloyalty to family, God country and all formerly accepted standards of VIRTUE, DECENCY and RIGHT CONDUCT. In short Ci;tire Marxism –– now renamed post-Modernism to further confuse and throw curious indviduald off the scent of Truth –– has effectively DERACINATED two or three generations of intelligent young people who might have become good, useful citizens instead of the rude, intolerant, disruptive, arrogant, self-righteous, violence-prone stupidly conceoted malcontents they tragically hve become through decades of determined MISEDUCATION.
.No matter what you CALL it, it is nspeakably VILE and must be DENOUNCED, REVILED, REJECTED, TROUNCED and RIDDEN OUT of OUR SCHOOLS and PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS on a flaming (metaphorical) rail after being tarred, feathered, and doused in gasoline.
I, personally believe that Marxism –– and ALL its eequally hideous derivatives of which post-modernism is merely the latest deliberately misleading, obscurantist incarnation –– MARXISM is truly a work of the DEVIL –– SATANIC, completely horrifying in its implications and impact, and it MUST be rooted out of modern Man's consciousness, and REPLACED with the ancent concepts of GOODNESS, DECENCY and RIGHT CONDUCT as codified in the the Decalogue, and the words of Jesus Christ and St. Paul in the Holy Bible.
Kipling understood ALL of this almost to perfection early in the ast century, and told us everything any sane person would ever need to know about Marxism –– though he never mentions it by name in the following poem:
ReplyDeleteAs I pass through my incarnations
___ in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations
___ to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers
___ I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings,
___ I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us.
___ They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us,
___ as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift,
___ Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas
___ while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed.
___ They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne
___ like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress,
___ and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield,
___ or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on
___ they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton;
___ they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses;
___ they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market
___ Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming,
___ They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons,
___ that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us
___ and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
___ "Stick to the Devil you know."
On the first Feminian Sandstones
___ we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour
___ and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children
___ and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
___ "The Wages of Sin is Death."
In the Carboniferous Epoch
___ we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter
___ to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money,
___ there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said:
___ "If you don't work you die."
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled,
___ and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled
___ and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters,
___ and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings
___ limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future,
__ it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain
___ since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit
___ and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger
___ goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished,
___ and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing
___ and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us,
___ as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings
___ with terror and slaughter return!
The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919)
~ Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
I thought Rectenwald's delivery was a bit off, but packed with useful explanatory content.
ReplyDeleteI see, he's talking with something in his mouth... cough drop or something?
ReplyDeleteHis DELIVERY may not have been particularly attractive –– I didn't care much for the quality of his VOICE and DICTION, myself, but his QUALITY of CONTENT was SPOT ON.
ReplyDeleteWhen Ultimate Principles that either make life a Joyful and Salubrious Experience OR one of Endless Trial and Torment are at stake superficialities should cease to be of much-if-any concern.
Much has been made, for instance of Jesus Christ's being a JEW. In lighter miments I have joked good naturedlly that Jesus may have looked more like WOODY ALLEN than the idealized images produced by Western iconography.
WHAT IF THT WERE TRUE?
Would it in any way DIMINISH the profundity and essential truth of His Thoughts and Precepts?
It should not, IF our thoughts have been focused Upward toward Ultimate Good, which is –– or should b –– th purpose of religious Doctrine and Ritual.
Forgive me please if I dare to be serious. While I see humor in nearly everything, I do no believe that Life, itself, should ever be considered a Laughng Matter. Our Existence is Not a Joke. It is, instead, a Proving Ground.
The Platonists believe that we exist to "purify our souls". I think Buddhists believe something similar.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I'm not a perfect Platonist in that I believe that not everything exists out of reason or meaning (as G_d explained in the Book of Job). Some things, even lives, can simply be totally "absurd" (especially if whatever reason or meaning intended is not followed).