| The Cultural Revolution is widely known for its bloody massacres, instilling fear through terrorizing acts of brutality and heinous crimes unfathomable to anyone who has never experienced the inhumane persecution and severe anxiety that results from the implementation of communism. Dependent on the organization of the masses to carry out the “revolution,” Mao Zedong coerced the people of China to turn to violence as the necessary measure to secure communism, Mao’s reign, and extinguishing any trace of capitalism. Coercion requires the mind to internalize propaganda as absolute truths, which is exactly what Zhou Enlai did when he introduced the members of the Chinese Communist Party to Mao Zedong’s Ten Theses that instilled severe paranoia of capitalism and counterrevolutionary “elements” being in society, making them even more loyal to Mao. The ideas that incited the Cultural Revolution are just as important as the bloody revolution itself in that it could not have happened without the people who took on the responsibility of accusing and/or murdering others, including their family and friends. In Mao’s Ten Theses he repeatedly references the importance of education and influencing the minds of the future generations; the fragility of the mind was Mao’s ultimate advantage to creating a murderous dystopia in which blood-soaked streets meant his success in infiltrating the minds of youth who would undoubtedly continue their crusade in his name and the name of communism. Students must learn about the origins of movements like the Cultural Revolution to prevent such tragedies from happening in the future.
Download: Ten Theses Cultural Revolution Lesson Plan Parent resource coming soon! |
