This is from my two tears of studying sceondary school history,
so forgive me if I make errors.
The Cultural Revolution was to consolidate the power base of Mao.
Because of the fiasco of the Great Leap Forward (which Mao came up
with and supported with great fervour), Mao's reputation had been
soiled, and for the first time, it was shown that he was not the
infallible Chairman so respected by the Chinese.
The purposes of the Cultural Revolution were as such:
1. To rid China of the old ways of thinking. What are the old ways
of thinking? Well, they were the schools of thought of Confucius
(Kong Zi) and Mencius (Meng Zi). To the CCP, these ways of thinking
were dangerous for their communist ideals, because the old ways of
thinking violated the Communist insistence on equality. Therefore,
they had to purge China of her old 'culture' and start a new
paradigm. An
2. To eliminate 'dangerous' political opponents. The word
'dangerous' here is used very liberally, as anyone considered an
intellectual was a danger to Mao. These included teachers,
scholars, scientists, monks, religious teachers and even students
of universities. The doctrine then was to swiftly prevent these
'corrupt' people from influencing the young (and uneducated) minds
of China. Some were sent to labour in industrial compounds. A great
number were shot and executed in various means. To add insult to
injury, they were often tried before 'The People's Court', where
the common people would accuse them of mostly 'phoney' crimes such
as planning to revolt against the Chairman and spreading the
'corrupt, Western' ideology to the people.
3. Return power to Mao, as I've mentioned earlier on. Actions taken
were to heap enormous praise onto Mao, such as praising him for the
simplest of things (e.g. for a successful performance, for a good
showing at a sports event, even for a surplus of food) Sounds a lot
like a monothestic religion, doesn't it? In fact, there was this
thing called a 'Little Red Book' containg the 'Great Thoughts of
the Great and Infallible Chairman Mao Ze Dong'. That's your
equivalent of the Bible or the Q'uran.
The Cultural Revolution can be summed up in one simple sentence:
Mao violated his own communist ideals and turned himself into the
Emperor's equivalent, or even worse, a god.
This is one example of how atheism can get the better of a society.
Now, I'm not saying that atheism is bad or evil; what I'm saying
is, that one man utilized the lack of faith of the people to turn
himself into an all powerful entity. Perhaps, belief in the deities
and gods (which is commonplace in China) would have led the people
to be less convinced that Mao was as great as he proclaimed: the
equivalent of a messiah. We will never know.
