Classic Revolutions

Fighting in the Vendee.

1. The French Revolution is a classic revolution.

It was about a bunch of bullies behaving badly.

In August 1793, the revolutionary government, called the Committee of Public Safety, ordered General Jean-Baptiste Carrier to carry out a "pacification" of a region of France called the Vendée.

The government wanted complete physical destruction.

(This was not Gaza and did not involve Israelis)

Carrier

The 'problem' with the Vendee was that the peasants did not like the revolutionary government.

The revolutionary government was opposed to religion. In November 1793, they held a celebration of the Goddess "Reason" in Notre Dame Cathedral.

In early 1794, government soldiers, commanded by General Louis-Marie Turreau, marched to the Vendée.

They were ordered to kill everyone and everything they saw.

Thousands of people, including women and children, were massacred; and farms and villages were destroyed.

This was fascists against peasants.

Nantes

In the city of Nantes, General Jean-Baptiste Carrier organised mass drownings.

Naked children, women and men were tied together in specially made boats, towed out to the middle of the river Loire and then sunk.

The revolutionary government killed tens of thousands of French civilians in various parts of France.

(No Israelis were involved)

2. China had a classic revolution, led by Mao.

Mao was a bully.

The really bad bully tends to end up in a leading position in (1) a country (2) a company or (3) some other such institution.

The really big bully tends to be good at (1) conning you (2) seducing and bribing you (3) intimidating you.

Think of the boy at school who can charm the headmistress, while at the same time he is organising extortion rackets and the sale of drugs.

Think of the handsome politician who claims to be a devout and honest Christian, while at the same time he is supporting a policy of torture and genocide.

The Economist, 19 december 2007, had an article that makes us think that the classic bully was Mao Zedong, the former leader of China. ( Staying at the top Mao and the art of management Economist.com)

According to Jung Chang's and Jon Halliday's 'Mao, the Unknown Story', Mau was responsible for '70 million deaths, more than any other 20th-century leader'.

Mao was an incompetent leader. He was only interested in sex and money and power for himself.

Masons?

The Economist identifies 4 key ingredients in Mao's bad management of China. ( Staying at the top Mao and the art of management Economist.com ) :

1. A powerful, mendacious slogan.

This is all about conning you.

Mao's slogans included: 'serve the people' and 'let a hundred flowers bloom'.

Hitler had the slogan 'God with us'. Stalin had the slogan: 'Life has become more joyous, Comrades!' Bush and Blair have talked about a 'war on terror'.

This is all about conning you.

Mao was a fake. Michael Yahuda wrote ( Review: Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday By ... ) 'the fabled crossing of the Dadu chain bridge, when, according to Mao, his heroic soldiers managed to cross the narrow bridge against heavy machine-gun fire, is shown to be a complete invention.'

In the real China, under Mau, 'economic growth was pathetic and living conditions were wretched.' (Staying at the top Mao and the art of management Economist.com )

The real Mao liked sexual activity with the 'handsome young men in his guard who put him to bed.' (EveryMao). Mau liked boys.

In 1994, Mao Zedong's personal physician, Dr. Li Zhisui, published The Private Life of Chairman Mao. According to Li Zhisui, young virgin peasant girls were brought to Mao for sex, often group sex. (Book Review - Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine). Mau like young girls.

According to The Economist, 'Mao lived like an emperor, carried on litters by peasants, surrounded by concubines and placated by everyone.' Staying at the top Mao and the art of management Economist.com

Michael Yahuda, in The Guardian 4 June 2005, wrote: "Mao ... disdained the peasants...

"He is shown during his command of armed forces in the countryside in the late 1920s and early 30s to have lived off the produce of the local peasants to the extent of leaving them destitute...

"He derived a sadistic pleasure from seeing people put to death in horrible ways." - Review: Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday By ...

Young Mao

2. Ruthless media manipulation

This is all about seducing and bribing you.

Mao was able to control what people thought about him.

The Economist asks: "So why did a vast list of Western political, military and academic leaders accept the value of Mao's brand at his own estimation?" (Staying at the top Mao and the art of management Economist.com)

This is all about seducing and bribing you.

According to The economist, Mao "talked only to sycophantic journalists and his appeal in the West came mainly from hagiographies written by reporters whose careers were built on the access they had to him."

Mao grew opium and made money from selling it.

This helped to enriched top people and make Mau popular. In at least one year he made $60 million. (Review: Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday By ... ) (NYFWH 15: Mao Zedong's Opium, Manhattan Project, Gagarin ...)

3. Activity substituting for achievement

This is all about seducing and bribing you.

Politicians and company bosses like people to think that they have a plan.

They like you to think the plan will solve all your problems.

Mao had lots of plans.

"From the Anti-Rightist Movement of the late 1950s to the Great Leap Forward, a failed agricultural and industrial experiment in the early 1960s, to the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, Mao was never short of a plan." (Staying at the top Mao and the art of management Economist.com )

This is all about seducing and bribing you.

But, as with Bush and Blair, there were problems.

According to The Economist, under Mao, "Policies were poor, execution dreadful and leadership misdirected... The business equivalent of this is restructuring..."


4. Sacrifice of friends and colleagues

This is all about intimidating you

According to Chang and Halliday, a doctor who saved Mau's life was left to die on a prison floor after being falsely accused of disloyalty.

Mao jailed or killed, or 'psychologically crushed' his opponents.

According to Michael Yahuda, during the Cultural Revolution Mau watched films of his colleagues being tortured. (Review: Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday By ... )

This is all about intimidating you.

Michael Yahuda wrote that Mau "consciously used terror as a means to enforce his will on the party and on the people who came under his rule.

"In the course of the Long March, Mao is shown to have had no qualms in sacrificing thousands of scarce fighting men in fruitless diversions to serve no other purpose than to advance his bid for leadership." (Review: Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday By ... )




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