Iron Fist or a Forked Tongue?
The West's Great Leap Forward

Brent Jessop - Knowledge Driven Revolution.com
October 29, 2007

The motivation of the powerful take on the same primary objectives; more power through more control. The methods used can be different, but the desired outcomes are the same. Is a forked tongue better than a iron fist?

The following quote is from Georgetown University Professor Carroll Quigley's Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time and describes the reforms forced on the Chinese people shortly after the ascendance of the communist regime to power.

The second stage in [communist China's] agrarian reform (1955) sought to establish cooperative farming. In effect it took away from the peasants the lands they had just obtained. The argument for forming collectives was persuasive; most peasant holdings were too small to work effectively, since abundant fertilizers, new crops and methods, specialized tools, and efficient land management could not be used on the average peasant farm of half an acre. To permit such improvements in farm practices, the peasants were forced into cooperatives. By the end of 1956, 83 percent of the peasants, or 125 million families, had joined into 750 thousand cooperatives.

The third stage of agrarian reform, constituting the basic feature of the "Great Leap Forward," merged the 750 thousand collective farms into about 26,000 agrarian communes of about 5,00 families each. This was a social rather than simply an agrarian revolution, since its aims included the destruction of the family household and the peasant village. All activities of the members, including child rearing, education, entertainment, social life, the militia, and all economic and intellectual life came under the control of the commune. In some areas the previous villages were destroyed and the peasants were housed in dormitories, with communal kitchens and mess halls, nurseries for the children, and separation of these children under the communes' control in isolation from their parents at an early age. One purpose of this drastic change was to release large numbers of women from domestic activities so that they could labor in fields or factories. In the first year of the "Great Leap Forward," 90 million peasant women were relieved of their domestic duties and became available to work for the state. In many cases, factories and craft centers were established in the communes to use this labor, manufacturing goods not only for the commune but for sale in the outside market.

One of the chief aims of this total reorganization of rural life was to make available, for savings and investment, surpluses of agricultural income from the rural sector of Chinese society in order to build up the industrial sector. The regime estimated that it could reverse the pervious division of agricultural incomes, under which 70 percent was consumed by the agricultural population and only 30 percent was available to the non-agricultural sectors of Chinese society. At the same time, it was expected that the communes would totally shatter the resistant social structure of Chinese society, leaving isolated individuals to face the power of the state. Finally, it was expected that these isolated individuals could be mobilized along military lines to carry out agricultural duties in squads and platoons assigned to specific fields and tasks. – 1159-1160

The West's Great Leap Forward

The brutality and suddenness of the changes to Chinese society rot by the communist regime cannot be over stressed, but the gradual changes in the western society have been very similar to the desired outcomes of the Great Leap Forward. The approach of our elite was not a immediate 'Leap Forward' but rather a slithering gradualism.

Communal Farms

One of, if not the most, important tool of control is food. If you are dependent on others for food, your ability to resist any of their demands is dramatically reduced. Alterations in the food can also change the physical and mental health of those eating it. Conglomerating the Chinese peasants into cooperative and then communal farms took the ability of the individual to provide for himself and his family, creating a dependence on the larger state run groups.

The Chinese regime's goal was to create massive monocultures to exploit large agricultural technology and force the majority of labour into other non-agricultural industries. Now, almost exclusively, the west has massive monoculture corporate farms. Small farmers have been forced out of business and into non-agricultural industries. Was the ultimate goal not the same?

Communal Kitchens

Preparation of food is also an important skill of independence. The use of the communal kitchen and mess hall was to remove this skill from the average Chinese peasant and further increase the power of the state over the food supply. In the west the preparation of food has been gradually expropriated by fast food or other restaurants in a form of corporate communal kitchen / mess hall. But, food eaten in the home is increasingly prepared and even pre-cooked in factories only to be reheated in a microwave by the ultimate consumer. This, just like the communal kitchen of the Great Leap Forward, takes the control of the food supply away from the individual.

Child Rearing by the State

The Great Leap Forward's goal of 'relieving' women of their domestic duties to use their labour in fields and factories was performed by force over a short period of time. What about in the west? The CIA funded the major feminist groups and magazines which convinced the average western women through huge propaganda to labour in the fields and factories over the course of a generation. Is a forked tongue better than a iron fist?

With women in the fields and factories, the children were to be raised in nurseries in isolation from their parents at an early age. Most western children spend the bulk of their time in state approved daycare (communal nursery?), until they are old enough to enter state run public schools. Was the ultimate goal not the same?

Isolated Individual to Face the Power of the State

Have people of the west not been isolated from our neighbours? How many people reading this article feel confident that their neighbour would come to their aid if the government kicked their door down? If you were accused of being a terrorist, would your neighbours come to your aid or would they respond with 'I had no idea he was a terrorist'?

If the ultimate goal was the same, is it any less abusive if it is predominantly done with a forked tongue instead of a iron fist?

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Iron Fist or a Forked Tongue? The West's Great Leap Forward

Iron Fist or a Forked Tongue?
The West's Great Leap Forward