Mao is a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist, however, most of his policies are nothing close to being Marxist-Leninist. Moreover, Mao disagreed with Marx’s key theory of historical materialism, which is the study of history on the basis of the materialistic condition at that period. Instead, he believed that history is shaped by an individual’s thoughts. We can see this concept being applied throughout his reign. One example is The Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution, commonly referred as the Cultural Revolution. It was led by Mao Zedong for primarily political motives. High US officials described the revolution “a debate on policy between revolutionary romantics and pragmatics” and “a power struggle of ambitious men competing for the succession
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Marx defined alienation as the exploitation of labors by the private property owners causing estrangement of labors from their product, production, themselves and people around them. Whereas during the cultural revolution we can depict Mao’s reference to alienation as the inability of mass population to participate in the politics of the country. Mao wanted every person to actively participate in political matters and process. “Every act must be relevant to …show more content…
Cultural Hegemony as Gramsci describes is “the relation between power and culture under capitalism.” Where the dominant group with power impose their social life in the society, thereby forming a set of social norms. One could argue that cultural hegemony is not restricted to a capitalist system, but could happen in any system other than a Marxist communist system where every person thinks critically. During the revolution schools and social entertainment were all closed. Every individual was expected to participate in politics. Thousands to millions of copies of “Mao’s Red Book” was published. People were told to read the book and do loyalty dance to bring order and spread the cult of Mao. Lin Bao, the defense minister, gave series of speeches to students to propagate Mao’s cult. In one of his speech, he recognized Mao as superior to Marx, Lenin, and Engels. “No one can surpass Mao in his rich revolutionary experience.” Adding on Lin claimed Mao to be on a higher level that Marx and that “99% of the Marxist-Leninist classics which we study should consist of Mao’s writings.” The masses were surrounded by posters and speeches that told them to ‘smash the four olds: old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits; these were deemed bourgeois and capitalist. Basically, Mao controlled the education of the youth and the
Marx defined alienation as the exploitation of labors by the private property owners causing estrangement of labors from their product, production, themselves and people around them. Whereas during the cultural revolution we can depict Mao’s reference to alienation as the inability of mass population to participate in the politics of the country. Mao wanted every person to actively participate in political matters and process. “Every act must be relevant to …show more content…
Cultural Hegemony as Gramsci describes is “the relation between power and culture under capitalism.” Where the dominant group with power impose their social life in the society, thereby forming a set of social norms. One could argue that cultural hegemony is not restricted to a capitalist system, but could happen in any system other than a Marxist communist system where every person thinks critically. During the revolution schools and social entertainment were all closed. Every individual was expected to participate in politics. Thousands to millions of copies of “Mao’s Red Book” was published. People were told to read the book and do loyalty dance to bring order and spread the cult of Mao. Lin Bao, the defense minister, gave series of speeches to students to propagate Mao’s cult. In one of his speech, he recognized Mao as superior to Marx, Lenin, and Engels. “No one can surpass Mao in his rich revolutionary experience.” Adding on Lin claimed Mao to be on a higher level that Marx and that “99% of the Marxist-Leninist classics which we study should consist of Mao’s writings.” The masses were surrounded by posters and speeches that told them to ‘smash the four olds: old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits; these were deemed bourgeois and capitalist. Basically, Mao controlled the education of the youth and the