Monday, June 04, 2012

Bon mot for the week

"Trying to bury the past will only smother your future."


Froog



It's the time for remembrance again, for reflecting on the great tragedy of China's recent history. I say something like this every year. One day the powers-that-be in the Party will take on board this lesson. One day. We have to keep believing that.

2 comments:

Gilman Grundy said...

Actually, the great tragedies of China's recent past occured mostly out of sight - people imprisoned or executed for non-crimes, people done to death as a result of corruption, innocent young lives wasted because someone decided to use their power to steal their future. 1989/6/4 is an exception to this because it happened in front of the world's media.

Froog said...

I tend to think that all of the subsequent smaller tragedies depend upon Tiananmen, are in some way caused by it.

When a regime conceives of inflicting violence on its people on such a massive scale, when it carries out that conception, and then gets away with it, it entrenches those attitudes, that ruthlessness and selfishness, in the leadership, it encourages them to continue behaving in that way.

It was not the denial of calls for reform but the use of the army against the people that has prolonged and intensified the endemic culture of corruption, deception, and brutality that is rife in China's politics.

It surely can't endure forever; but it has persisted much longer than it should have - much longer than it would have if the '89 crackdown had not been perceived as a 'success'.