America's Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward was Red China's economic and social campaign between 1958 and 1961. The communists wanted to "transform the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization."

The Great Leap Forward was the People's Republic of China's second Five Year Plan. They borrowed the concept of five-year plans from the Soviets. The Chinese communists introduced reforms to encourage the creation of a state-run and managed economy. To do this, it was necessary to "transfer property to collective ownership."

Chairman Mao found something wanting from the Great Leap Forward, and it wasn't the scores of millions who died from starvation. People still had the ability to think. That would all change during China's Cultural Revolution. The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution was China's attempt to erase all vestiges of traditional culture.

Some of the changes made during the Cultural Revolution were seemingly harmless, like changing street names and the names of cities and people. Other changes were violent, such as the ransacking of Confucius' Tomb and the purge of Confucian thinking. Buddhism was portrayed as a cult of superstition and hostile foreign influence. Temples were destroyed and believers sent to re-education camps.

This is the lens through which I view what is happening in the United States right now. Today's news story was datelined New Orleans, as their city council voted to remove four monuments commemorating the Confederacy.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said that the monuments to, among others, Robert E. Lee, had to go, because the Confederacy was "on the wrong side of history."

That is exactly what a marxist would say.

Councilwoman Stacy Head was the only dissenting vote. She proposed an amendment to keep the Lee statue and the P.G.T. Beauregard statue, while adding explanatory plaques to them. She's exactly right. The statues represent a history that must be taught to each generation. These men existed at a place and time that deserves proper context.

Because what's next? If the standard is that slave-owners don't belong in the public square, then Thomas Jefferson is next on the list. Democrats rightly ought to be ashamed of being the party of slavery, which is why they are very quietly changing the name of the Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

Then what. When you realize that some people view George Washington's name with contempt and feel unsafe around the American flag, then what's next is fairly obvious.

Forward!

The funny thing about cultural revolutions. According to Newtonian physics, a force will always create a reaction equal in size, that is opposite in direction.