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"REMEMBERING TIANAMEN SQUARE - THE DEADLY TRUTH ABOUT COMMUNISM" - by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera; Breakpoint.org, June 4, 2019; http://www.breakpoint.org/2019/06/breakpoint-remembering-tiananmen-square/ [AS I SEE IT: Just as the young people in China have no memory of the brutal nature of communism - as demonstrated at Tianamen 30 years ago - and are taught a revised history in their schools, so too many of today's youth have no memory of the great horrors of what socialism has done throughout histgory and continues to do even today. Too many have failed to be educated in our schools but instead been indocrinated with a revised history about so much of our past - and our pressent [by our mainstream media and internet sources]. Those of us who do remember and no better are responsible to make sure they do know the truth. - Stan]
The next day [June 4], the army advanced toward Tiananmen Square. Protestors attempted to impede the army’s advance and destroyed more than 100 military vehicles, and damaged nearly 500 others.
But ultimately resistance would prove to be futile. Trucks and armored personnel carriers joined tanks and attack helicopters. The army’s principal target was a 10-meter tall statue dubbed the “Goddess of Democracy,” which was erected by the students and bore a more-than-passing resemblance to the Statue of Liberty.
After first firing warning shots, the troops fired directly on the protestors. Estimates of the death toll range widely, from hundreds to thousands. In addition, at least 1,600 people were arrested, many imprisoned for more than two decades, and others who were never seen again.
The message from the Communist Party was clear: To be rich might be, as Deng once put it, “glorious,” but forget about being free. The events of June 1989 made clear that the Communist Party was determined to retain complete political and social control. Given this history with this regime, no one should be surprised at the recent crackdown on Chinese Christians and Muslim Uighurs.
But what is surprising is how many Chinese today are untroubled by the events of June 1989. Even worse, the authors of a recent article in the Washington Post described a popular nostalgia for Mao Zedong. Mao’s rule was among the most brutal in all of history.
This is the Mao whose attempt to industrialize and collectivize China virtually overnight—called the “Great Leap Forward”—killed “at least 45 million people.” This is the Mao whose “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” attempted to purge Chinese society of capitalist and traditional elements by killing between 500 thousand and 3 million people, and sending countless more into internal exile. Among its victims were the father and aunt of current leader Xi Jinping, who committed suicide as a result of being persecuted.
The tragic irony is that any nostalgia for Mao only helps legitimize the authoritarianism and oppression now expanding under Xi.
How can we make sense of this selective and misguided historical memory? Most of the nostalgic are too young to have personally experienced Mao’s rule. Even more, they haven’t been taught the truth about Mao or Tiananmen and state-approved or state-run schools.
Of course, that same thing can’t be said of us in the West, whose memory is just as selective and just as wrong when it comes to communism. Writer Cathy Young, who lived in the USSR until she was 17, describes what she calls “Commie Chic.” She’s not referring to Soviet apologists or sympathizers prior to the 1991.
She’s talking about a 2018 Teen Vogue article that urged readers to use Karl Marx’s ideas to understand how Donald Trump was elected president. She’s referring to a 2017 New York Times op-ed insisting that women had better sex in communist East Germany. Or one hard-left publication that recently tweeted “For all the Soviet Union’s many faults, by traversing its vast architectural landscape, we can get a glimpse of what a built environment for the many, not the few, could look like.”
Now if all we knew about communism were its history of oppression and mass murder, that should be enough to disavow us of any nostalgia for it. As the authors of the “Black Book of Communism” wrote, “Communist regimes turned mass crime into a full-blown system of government.” The result was 100 million-plus deaths, including the martyrs of Tiananmen Square.
But that tweet itself about building environments for the many, not the few, tells us all we need to know about the flawed worldview that undergirds this great historical evil. To a communist, the society is always more important than the individual. Individuals must be sacrificed for the utopian and fantastical ‘greater good’ that lies somewhere in the future and always just beyond reach.
Whenever it’s tried, in the past or in the future, this fatal flaw will leave fatalities, because bad ideas have victims. The history of communism, like its worldview, is neither glorious nor worthy of nostalgia.
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
RESOURCES
"Why Maoism still resonates in China today" - Iza Ding and Jeffrey Javed | Washington Post | May 29, 2019
"A Cool Kid Communist Comeback" - Cathy Young | tabletmag.com | December 4, 2018; https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/276374/a-cool-kid-communist-comeback
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"The Tiananmen Square Massacre Still Matters" - Lee Edwards / June 03, 2016; https://www.dailysignal.com/2016/06/03/the-tiananmen-square-massacre-still-matters/
"Why a Former CEO Says Capitalism, Not Socialism, Encourages Morality" - Daniel Davis / @JDaniel_Davis / June 04, 2019; https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/06/04/why-capitalism-not-socialism-encourages-morality-according-to-a-former-ceo
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PRAYER MATTERS:
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against
the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
In Nigeria (ranked #12 on the 2019 World Watch List), our brothers and sisters face increasing persecution on multiple fronts, including deadly attacks by Islamic extremists and extreme discrimination by Muslim families and communities.This month, we invite you to join us as we stand in prayer for our Nigerian family.
June 4 | NIGERIA - A Nigerian pastor tells us that prayer is the most pressing request for believers in his church and area. “We do not want to deviate from the truth when there is so much hardship.”
*Names changed to protect identities
June 4 | NIGERIA - A Nigerian pastor tells us that prayer is the most pressing request for believers in his church and area. “We do not want to deviate from the truth when there is so much hardship.”
*Names changed to protect identities
This article describes the many deaths that have resulted from past attempts at communism and how some are forgetting such things. The part at the end is especially poignant: "To a communist, the society is always more important than the individual. Individuals must be sacrificed for the utopian and fantastical ‘greater good’ that lies somewhere in the future and always just beyond reach."
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