TBD

TBD on Ning

Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

When Barack Obama was campaigning for president in 2007, his backers frequently compared him to former president John F. Kennedy. After a year in office, however, President Obama's words and actions align more closely with China's despotic Chairman Mao than with JFK's.

When Mao Tse Tung conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. When Obama was elected President, many started referring to him as President of the World. Both Obama and Mao had carte blanche to set out a path of radical change.

As part of his strategy, Mao informed his top echelon, "There has to be a personality cult...it is absolutely necessary."* With the aid of the state media, Mao crafted an iconic image of himself as the savior of the common man. Propoganda was everywhere - including the fields where workers could listen to messages from Mao as they worked. Sound familiar?

In 1958, Mao kicked off what he called The Great Leap Forward, an extraordinarily creative intervention in China's economic development. Mao planned to abolish wages and put society on a non-cash basis. He then set about abolishing private property.

The ownership of tools, animals, and other means of production were taken over by the state - in the name of the people. Just as the ownership of the auto, banking and insurance industries of today have been taken over by our government.

Chairman Mao, in the name of the people, also took over China's health care. The 'state' determined who would receive this essential service. The elderly were moved into "houses of happiness" so that they could be looked after - by the state. Much like the proposed government takeover of America's health care today.

Chairman Mao's government also plunged the country into a deep debt by drastically increasing spending on the development of heavy industry. But the state-sponsored industry that developed was not only non-productive, it ended up wasting money and resources on a massive scale without producing anything of value. Much like the bloated government behemoth Obama's policies are producing today.

Mao, through a cult of personality and firm control of the levers of government, had the ability to impose his own version of reality on China. Just as Obama has today.

Mao believed that collectivizing agriculture would lead to a new 'utopia.' Obama's campaign promise of 'equality' for all Americans is the modern vision of Mao's utopia. Which, by the way, not only failed, but failed spectacularly.

One year after Mao launched China's Great Leap Forward, things in China started to go wrong. Politics increasingly took precedence over commonsense. Mao's utopian dream turned into a nightmare as the central leadership grew increasingly out of touch with reality.

By the spring of 1959, in theory China was awash in grain. In reality, it was not. Rural communal mess halls that had been handing out free food, ran out of food. China's grain reserves were exhausted and the famine began.

Scholars have estimated that somewhere between 16.5 million and 40 million people died before Mao's experiment came to an end in 1961, making the Great Leap famine the largest in world history. Even Mao himself was forced to acknowledge that he had been wrong. Oops.

By late 1960, private ownership of land was reinstated and a modicum of capitalism was re-introduced. Peasants were finally given incentives to produce as much spare food as was possible by allowing them to sell their excess on the open market. Socialism had failed, yet again.

Chairman Mao never had to pay the price for his failed social engineering. The Chinese people paid it for him. Leaving Mao free to regroup, repair his image, and emerge back on the national scene in 1966 with yet another bold plan. The cultural revolution - which resulted in yet another failed social experiment and untold human suffering. The beat goes on.

The similarities between Chairman Mao and President Obama are too numerous to ignore. Like Obama, Mao's philosophy of how to 'change' China was clear from the outset. "...the country must be...destroyed and then reformed." "People like me long for the destruction because when the old universe is destroyed, a new universe will be formed. Isn't that better?" Quick - who said that? Mao, or Obama's buddy Bill Ayers? Answer: Both.

All of Obama's actions as president to date reflect the same mindset - the destruction of traditional values, the unwillingness to learn from history, the utter reliance on theory instead of reality. And the belief that man takes precedence over God and thus has the ability to shape reality according to man's whim.

Hubris and a charismatic personality allowed both Mao and Obama the freedom to implement costly social and economic 'change.' Change which is not change at all, but another futile attempt to revive the failed model of socialism.

Like Mao, Obama will most likely never be held to account when the socialist, big government policies he has championed fail. And fail they must. History shows us that. The American people will, once again, be forced to pay the very real price for Obama's naive attempt to redefine reality to his own specifications.

* Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com
She lives in South Carolina

Views: 12

Tags: Chairman, Mao, Obama, President, forward, great, leap, socialism

Comment

You need to be a member of TBD to add comments!

Join TBD

Comment by Judi on December 4, 2009 at 1:37pm
Nancy, take all of the preceding comments to your blog and place them in "file 13", lol. I think you made a fine analogy . . . the conservatives will certainly "get it". Bravo!
Comment by Westerly_2 on December 4, 2009 at 12:56pm
"All of Obama's actions as president to date reflect the same mindset - the destruction of traditional values, the unwillingness to learn from history, the utter reliance on theory instead of reality. And the belief that man takes precedence over God and thus has the ability to shape reality according to man's whim."

This is a pretty thundering generality, and no case made for your argument. First, specifically enumerate "all of his actions." What actions? The actions of delibrating with congressional leaders and mlitary leaders in a deliberative fashion beofre deciding on a course of action.
"Hubris" is a value judgement. I see no such quality in the later.
Your vagueness in the second part of your comparison is astounding. You do a studied report of Mao in all its detail, and then sloppily rely on generalities like "hubris", "traditional values, naive attempt, redefine values," etc to "prove" his "mindset. If a person's mindset can be proved, I think you have failed to do so here. What you have here is a great treatice on Mao and the usual recycled red meat for the Nancy Morgan fan club. I guess they're not too fussy.
Comment by caseyjo on December 4, 2009 at 12:04pm
Oh Brother..Now I've heard everything...If you look hard enough to find fault, you will always find some. If you look for the good, you will find that too.
Comment by Nancy Morgan on December 4, 2009 at 11:37am
Where am I wrong? Specifics please.
Comment by D. D. Olson on December 4, 2009 at 10:29am
WTF?
Comment by blondie 11 on December 4, 2009 at 9:42am
I can not believe my eyes--this is bent--twisted
Comment by Bull on December 4, 2009 at 7:37am
Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

Then we have those who make it up and bend it to fit their own agenda, truth be damned.
Right Ms Morgan?

Badge

Loading…

© 2024   Created by Aggie.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service