[Peace-discuss] An instructive life

[C. G. Estabrook]

Along with undoubted excesses and crimes, the Cultural Revolution was an attempt 
to deal with a real problem - a problem evident form the failure of socialism in 
the USSR and now even more from the restoration of capitalism in China.

But we don't judge the French Revolution from the Terror alone - and it's 
difficult to give an honest account of that even now.  Perhaps the best reaction 
to the Cultural Revolution is that of Zhou Enlai when asked what he thought of 
the French Revolution: "Too soon to tell."

For us today it's certainly more important to attend to Hinton's summary view: 
“There are two opposing superpowers in the world today: the U.S. on one side, 
and world public opinion on the other. The first thrives on war. The second 
demands peace and social justice.”


On 6/13/10 3:27 AM, John W. wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 7:34 PM, E.Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag
> <mailto:ewj at pigs.ag>> wrote:
>
> Alice says that China is better than the USA when asked.
>
> Alice offers no explanation for her flatly stated opinion. (Zhongguo hao.)
>
> I found the article merely interesting until I got to the final sentence: "Of
> course I was 100 percent behind everything that happened in the Cultural
> Revolution — it was a terrific experience.” Good Lord.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu
> <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>> To: "Peace-discuss List"
> <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>>
> Sent: Saturday, June 12, 2010 10:58 PM Subject: [Peace-discuss] An
> instructive life
>
>
>
> [In 2005 Hinton wrote, “There are two opposing superpowers in the world
> today: the U.S. on one side, and world public opinion on the other. The first
> thrives on war. The second demands peace and social justice.” --CGE]
>
> # The New York Times June 11, 2010 Joan Hinton, Physicist Who Chose China
> Over Atom Bomb, Is Dead at 88 By WILLIAM GRIMES
>
> Joan Hinton, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project, which
> developed the atom bomb, but spent most of her life as a committed Maoist
> working on dairy farms in China, died on Tuesday in Beijing. She was 88.
> ...

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