[PEN-L:7617] RE: Who is worse

["Craven, Jim" <jcraven@xxxxxxxxx>]

Response:

I wonder how many on this list could have lasted even 10 miles on The Long
March. I couldn't have. I wonder how many on this list could have watched
his wife beheaded by the Kuominting and narrowly escape death himself and
then go on to attempt to forge some kind of alliance with the Kuominting
because dealing with the main enemy--the Japanese imperialists--was more
fundamental than personal passions and sufferings. I couldn't have done it.
I wonder how many on this list could put together coalitions of longstanding
enemies in order to forge a new China surrounded by hostile imperialist
powers with awsome instruments of destruction intent on returning China to
the old order of repression, warlordism and barbarism. I couldn't have done
it.

I wonder how many on this list could have dealt with over 100,000 child sex
slaves in Shanghai alone at the time of liberation; with a long history
forforeign imposed drug addiction; with massive divisions throughout the new
nation; with a destroyed infrastructure, crises in agriculture and food
production, massive starvation and the largest population of any nation on
earth. I couldn't have done it.

Mao was a murderer? This is a debate like who was worse Jeffrey Dahmer or
Jack the Ripper? This is incredible. For all of like this kind of detached
"reasoning" please rethink what you are really saying and whose interests
you are really serving.

Not one person on this list will ever make the contributions to liberation
from barbarism--even if those contributions are reversed--that Mao Zedong
made to his people.

Jim Craven

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Perelman [mailto:michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 1999 5:40 PM
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [PEN-L:7593] Who is worse


This whole debate is pointless.  Who is worse, Jeffrey Daumer or Jack
the Ripper?  Nonsense.

JIm D. made an important point that seems to have passed unnoticed.  You
cannot evaluate politics without the context.  Mao murdered people
because of mass starvation.  Do we apply the same standard to homeless
people who freeze on the street?

No one here has come out to proclaim themself as a Stalinist.  We went
through the same nonsense a few weeks ago when people opposing the
bombing felt obliged to declare that they were not disciples of
Milosovic.

Can't we drop this nonsense?  Stalin did some hard things because Russia
was under attack.  Stalin did some cruel things because he was
paranoid.  Addressing such matters takes serious work.  Not the
journalism of R. Conquest.  Not a simple e-mail post.

What do we say of the sanatized cruelty of Clinton with regard to Ricky
Ray Rector, the victims of welfare deform, or his serial bombing?  He
never had the courage to face his victims eye to eye.  Instead, he makes
a "hearfelt" speech about the deep morality of his position.

Anyway, let's move on to something else?

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx