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August 12, 2008

Once It Was Just a Big, Fuzzy Panda Bear

That would be the Archbishop of Canterbury's view of Communist China.

...But one of the things which struck me there was that we were not talking just about a moral vacuum in general, but a vacuum in what was once before the Cultural Revolution essentially something which guaranteed everyone's welfare.

The Evening Standard points out an inconvenient fact or two about cuddly communists.
..."During the Great Leap Forward of 1958-61, the guarantee ran out for 40 million Chinese, leaving them equally dead. Others survived by eating leaves and bark or, in remote provinces, babies."

Walden, author of China: A Wolf in the World? goes on to observe with a note of sarcasm: "The regime guaranteed the welfare of intellectuals, too, notably when it encouraged them to speak out during the Hundred Flowers episode of 1956. Mao then scythed them down."

Posted by tree hugging sister at August 12, 2008 05:13 PM

Comments

I'd call Rowan Williams a fucking idiot, but that'd be an insult to fucking idiots.

Posted by: Dave J at August 12, 2008 06:13 PM

I read a biography of Mao-Tse-Tung.He started as
a charismatic, brilliant leader, who turned into
an evil bastard.
The lesson is " absolute power corrupts,absolutely" Someone already said that,
maybe it was Voltraire or somebody like that.
When China invaded Tibet, they at first feed
the peasants and helped the farmers, and later killed them.

Posted by: greg newson at August 12, 2008 09:28 PM

The British are hopeless.I don't want to sound like
intellectual idiot,but I also read a book by
a British Bishop named Sponge-or something like that.I don't even think the guy believes in God.
A Bishop in the Church of England,an agnostic?
Their view is, ethics come from the message of religion
and it doesn't matter if it's true, the message is the truth, not the Messiah.Even if Jesus is a
legend, the ethics of his message is the truth.
What the F#ck is that logic!

Posted by: greg newson at August 12, 2008 10:10 PM

Greg, I believe that you refer to the lamentably bad heresies of John Spong, who was the Episcopalian bishop of Newark NJ for a while. The man is definitely two floats short of a parade. He is also (as far as I know) American, not English...

I'd ask which book it was, but they're pretty much all stupid.

Posted by: nightfly at August 13, 2008 10:02 AM

(To defend greg, Diptera, ~ N.J. IS pretty much a foreign country.)

Posted by: tree hugging sister at August 13, 2008 10:58 AM

New Jersey. For THAT they crossed the Delaware? Hell, I wouldn't cross a footpath on a sunny spring day to keep NJ. In fact, I think we should make the Brits take it back.

(Yep. Jersey Girl here. :-)

Posted by: Creatrix at August 13, 2008 04:21 PM

Heh. Spong is not a Jersey native, they just sent him here. I wish there was a refund upon return.

Posted by: nightfly at August 14, 2008 01:47 PM