Truth And Common Sense

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100225/METRO01/2250391/Detroit-Mayor-Bing-emphasizes-need-to-shrink-city
My friend and I have been discussing this for a while now.  The theory put for by yet another academic on how to solve a very real life problem called urban blight. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_decay)  Many cities have suffered from the strain of “white flight” and even “black middle and upper class flight” as people who can [...]

As the book I’m reading winds down a number of principles and conclusions can be drawn from the period between 1966-1976.   Almost as important is the similarity between some of the ideas and techniques we saw during the Great Cultural Revolution in China and what is happening today. What lessons can we draw from it?  [...]

Near the end of Mao’s control of China several things began to occur.  First, many of the leaders who had gained power with him and survived the many purges the Cultural Revolution created began to die off.  Second, Mao began to lose control of the message.  As much as people felt he was a deity [...]

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/02/09/great-news-captain-america-ready-to-take-on-evil-scourge-of-er-tea-partiers/
Over at Hotair they caught this Captain America comic episode where the crime fighters are targeting an out of control group.  The group is openly protesting holding signs.  Here is the paragraph.
“In preparation for the infiltration, Marvel Comics depicts the two super heroes out of costume and observing from a rooftop a street filled with [...]

As you know I’m working through a book on Mao’s last Cultural Revolution.  There are a number of stories in the book of how Mao and his supporters would target someone for punishment if they weren’t considered a proper revolutionary.  To say this was a crazy time, almost as chaotic as the French Revolution, is [...]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2009/12/house-oks-bill-to-lower-the-volume-on-loud-tv-commercials/1
I caught this a while ago and just shook my head in disgust.  Do you really think the founding fathers envisioned anything close to the silliness our current government exhibits?   I know exactly what they are talking about, my wife and I have complained to each other over the resounding difference.  However, it is NOT [...]

In reading Mao’s book, I’ve found one common thread.  Regardless of how committed the students, the Red Guard, the old guard, the bureaucrats were to  their “causes” they always fought over power and position.  Even the purest in theory broke into factions that ended up fighting each other over control and over territory.  The triple [...]

During the great Cultural Revolution Mao allowed for quite a bit of violence and chaos in order to foment his vision of the new China (remember it included Mao not being demonized by history like Stalin and he felt there were people in China chomping at the bit to do just that).  The problem with [...]

As I work my way through the book it becomes apparent that Mao realized a few errors in his plan has the revolution took hold.  He wanted to purge all of the established systems and bureaucrats from China and replace them with people dedicated to the “revolution.”  Whatever that meant.  He sent out young men [...]

In concluding the the chapter on the “Red Terror” the authors make a very good point:
“Between them, Mao and Xie Fuzhi, working toward the Chairman, had sanctioned a reign of terror.  The youth of China had been brought up in  a culture of violence that class struggle represented.  Whereas party violence had normally been carefully [...]