The highly quotable Mark Twain said, "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence and success is assured."
I'm not going to the bountiful Her Donald S. Shtrumpfian geyser on this one although parallels will be reached, I'm sure. Today, and most likely tomorrow, and for a while longer, I'll be blogging about two other guys who personify the above quotation, but before we abandon the ever-rich Trumpian vein of confident ignorance, can you imagine if, while president, he had had the total control he desperately sought and still seeks? If his every word were taken as gospel and acted upon by sycophantic underlings who were happy in their sworn duties to do whatever the fuck he said? We'd have been drinking bleach and shooting tanning rays down our throats, probably. And to name only a few more of his many foibles we may have forgotten in the comparatively foible-free 10 months of the Biden presidency, staring at eclipses; testing for Covid less in order to ingeniously get lower numbers of positive test results; talking to boy scouts about sex on boats; grabbing women by their pussies; altering disappointingly accurate charts and graphs with our Sharpies; Quixotically opposing bird-killing, cancer-causing, strange noise-making windmills; pretending to write and sign things to look professional; raking forests; nuking hurricanes; and, to facilitate a segue, saluting totalitarian dick-taters.
Mao Zedong was a totalitarian dictator. He was less a leader than an emperor. And he HAD the sycophantic lackeys Trump fantasizes about. He WAS Big Brother. You read "1984" and, like me, you can't help but get a clear idea that Orwell was either describing Maoist China, or using it as a blueprint. Go ahead. I challenge you. See if you can re-read "1984" and not think of China. It's not easy. You could practically open it to any page you like. Start at the beginning and Orwell is writing about pig iron and "The Party." Pig iron, as we know from the "Great Leap Forward" is pretty much useless metal made when citizens are forced into a frenzy of fearful fake fanaticism and start cooking anything made of metal to try to help with a metal drive manufactured by a government that wants its citizens working at "overmax capacity" as they might say in "Newspeak." "The Party" is what the ruling class was called in "1984" and a short form for the Chinese Communist Party used for fearful fake fanatical statements like, "Living in the light of The Party."
I'm not going to get into the details or the politics of Mao. Did the Not So Great Leap Forward kill 40 million? 80 million? A couple million more killed in the "cultural revolution?" Do we count the half million Chinese soldiers who died in the Korean War? It's impossible to get details of anything bad the Chinese Culling Party is responsible for even today, so it's a practically futile exercise to speculate on whether Mao was as bad as Hitler or Stalin or whatever. I'm not going to condemn Marxism, communism, or socialism, as so many are wont to do, by isolating two facts: Mao was communist and his term as the leader of the Chinese Carnage Party led to lots of death, then jump to the insanely reductivist conclusion that communism is bad and further fan the raging flames of fear well stoked by greedy capitalists already. I refuse to bring up Venezuela or mealy mouth about how the Scandinavian examples of socialism are not accurate because they have free markets. I don't like using fairy tale terms like "free market" that are created to add to the overwhelming ignorance that already exists.
What I'd like to zone in on is confidence, and Mao had that in spades, not just personal confidence but the confidence of the people, and ignorance, again personal and of the people. There are so few examples that better illustrate the Twainian wisdom about which I began this entry that it would come as no surprise if the context of the quote were revealed to have been a conversation about China. And let's get back to the quote while it's been brought up. The idea of "success" is so highly subjective that sometimes confidence and ignorance are helpful components in the ease of its acquisition. If at first you don't succeed, act like you have and get rid of everyone who doesn't act along with you. Beats the shit out of trying and trying again, doesn't it?
Again, accuracy has its own definition in China, but there are stories of Mao's health and hygiene that I think are believable that when contrasted with his sexual proclivities, which are, as you can imagine, unimaginable, just scream massive overconfidence. But Chinese emperors being the demigods they are (not were) it's pretty easy to understand, and I dare say, hard to blame the guy. If I had the most beautiful, young girls in all of China falling all over themselves to service me sexually, several at a time, as an overweight, old, unattractive and hygienically apathetic - dirty, old man - what would I do? Hmmmm... lemme think on that...
We'll get to the history later, but let's look at the personal, not to say private stuff first. Let me drop this bomb: Mao never bathed! We know this from the personal records of his private physician otherwise this ordinance of information would be buried like so many other things in the dark shadows of Chinese history until someone fabricated an old-looking document that said Mao took regular baths and because it had a date on it, everybody believed it. He did wipe himself with a warm towel periodically, but he was regularly plagued by body lice. He had unhealthy skin that almost killed him. A mistreated chest pustule turned into an abscess and eventually septicemia. Not sexy.
He never brushed his teeth and had chronic dental problems. If that didn't already preclude oral engagement, he was a heavy smoker. Gonorrhoea, genital herpes, baldness, obesity... not exactly a catch. But since he believed regular sex ensured long life, he didn't let his unsexiness stop him. 4 wives, at least 9 kids and countless mistresses, he enjoyed 3-5 sexual partners at a time, not always necessarily of the female variety so the story goes. (I'll just squeeze in here parenthetically that until 1997, homosexuality was punishable by death in China) I'm a guy who feels bad if I get lucky and bring a girl home and realize I haven't worn my GOOD underwear. I almost envy this dude's confidence!
I know all this seems a bit voyeuristic, but it comes to bear. While strict sexual morality, almost puritanism was preached to the public, Mao wanted to give an impression that he was a sexual dynamo! To further illustrate the do-as-I-command-not-as-I-do attitude of Mao, there is a story of a guard who once touched one of his mistresses on the bottom. He was sent to prison and never heard from again. Ostensibly, Mao's Little Red Book thoughts on communal mentality did not extend to HIS property. And it seems that "disappearing" people is not a new thing in the Chinese Cancelling Party. At any rate, despite his desire to present a strong, virile persona to his close confidants, semen analysis revealed that he was impotent by 1955. He was 62 in 1955. More than half of men over 60 have problems in that department. But being a demigod... So for the next 21 years until his death in 1976, this was one area where Mao was more down to earth than his adoring public were probably lead to believe.
In a similar way, the soft, kind, panda perception that is sold to the people of China, and the world, Mao's official personality, so to speak, is bullshit. He was a brutal, narcissistic dictator. While it remains a matter of opinion whether or not he knew, and just didn't care, that so many people would die because of his policies, it's pretty clear that he consciously brought about the deaths of many people. "Let 100 flowers bloom," was a line of a poem he quoted to encourage criticism of his policies. It was shortly followed by statements about separating weeds from flowers as he rounded up all the people who fell into the flower trap and expressed discord and did the usual: prison, torture, work camps and execution. This was 1957, years after his 1951 campaign against "corruption" that doubled as an excuse to remove all political opponents with extreme prejudice. Is it any wonder then that the number of portraits of Mao always exceeded the number of people in China; everybody got a copy of his Little Red Book, students studied and memorized it and everyone had to carry it with them and quote if commanded; media was controlled so nothing negative about him or the Chinese Coercion Party would spread to the ignorant masses; and religion was banned so there would be no gods before Mao? When I was young and went to church, I never understood when people said we should "fear" God. Mao gave clear meaning to the fear of a god.
Because of this fear, statements of Mao's achievements are greatly exaggerated as well. We won't go too far back for the history, and I'm going to paraphrase it and vastly over-simplify it. Basically, there were two Chinas in civil war in the 1930's, Mao's Chinese Corruption Party and the GMD or KMT (I prefer KMT or Kuomintang). The KMT were kicking ass. Because of this, Mao retreated to northern China. But as he tells it, and therefore, the ignorant, misinformed Chinese populous have been lead to believe, Mao triumphantly lead a Great March of 10,000 km. to the northern part of the country. Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek, the leaders of the second China, the Kuomintang, which was the dominant China of the time, had to deal with an invading Japan, which they did without the help of the retreating Chinese Cowardice Party. In 1937 the Japanese escalated their efforts and this vastly diminished the power and numbers of the KMT. But as Chinese history records, and as all the misinformed people will quote to you, the Chinese Cock-and-Bull Party lead by an heroic Mao Zedong, repelled the Japanese triumphantly!
During WWII the two Chinas were forced to unite (by Russia) so from 1939-1945 they were briefly one China. But, as you might expect, Mao gets all the credit for that too. After WWII, the Chinese Chicanery Party managed to gain public support and the diminished KMT retreated to Taiwan in 1949. In my opinion, the Truman government really shit the bed on this one. If they had committed fully to supporting the KMT, all of China might be like Taiwan is today. No way of knowing, but it's a glorious thought, isn't it? Anyhoo, Mao immediately declared the People's Republic of China in a speech in Tiananmen Square. First thing he did was visit Stalin in Russia (who was still pretty much controlling China) to shore up some power. Mao's style of communism deviated from what was perceived as standard Marxism and that irritated Stalin. He treated Mao as an inferior. But in China, Mao had never been more popular. He wanted to capitalize and Russia wanted to test America's post-war commitments, so invade Korea. Popularity of a communist leader is high and that leads to invasion. This is a pattern I will now present.
If you've never seen the documentary called "Icarus," please watch it now. China and Russia: cheating at sports for decades! Why? Olympic success increases political popularity and strengthens resolve and support for bold political moves like invasions other countries. Russia invaded Afghanistan before the 1980 Moscow Olympics (for which a lot of countries rightfully boycotted them), and learning from their mistake, they invaded Crimea/Ukraine AFTER the Sochi Olympics. If you think Xi Jin Ping and the Chinese Coup Party haven't studied the Russians' playbooks, you might be one of the "ignorant" referred to in the Twain quote at the outset of this post. They've been threatening Taiwan for a long time and that threat grows every day. And if you think the Olympics are only "politicized" by boycotting, you just haven't been paying attention, have you?
I recently wrote this: Well, the world won't call the new Covid strain Xi; we have all but ignored the CCP "disappearing" Peng Shuai (and a long list of others); we call the free and independent country of Taiwan "Chinese Taipei" lest we offend; we gloss over human rights violations in Hong Kong, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, India and their own country (I'm sure I've missed some); the Chinese Communist Party is actively trying to erase the Uyghurs (and other foreign Muslims) in Xin Jiang; they're cutting WAY back on all kinds of foreign influence; they have been doping and cheating at Olympics since the 1980's and likely before; the CCP will probably take advantage of popularity gained by successfully cheating their way to lots of gold medals in Beijing 2022 by attacking Taiwan (the number one semiconductor producer in the world, semiconductors being what China and the world might value more than anything at the moment)(kinda like Russia invading Crimea after Sochi); they refuse to honor agreements, especially those about environment, and are expanding their coal industry as we speak... the world has bent over backwards to kiss China's ass because they have a huge market and cheap (not to say FREE) labor, so, sure, why not literally stop the world for China?
About this: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/olympics-un-urges-truce-1.6271937?fbclid=IwAR1lauEOthoVBalvHYyc_S4ZrP7Y6POxqjAP2Mn9uUS0yWxbP-4khq4ki-g
You see, the second guy I want to talk about in this post is Xi Jin Ping. I believe he is trying his best to emulate Mao and the results may have already been as bad. There's not doubt in my mind they will get worse. That's right, Xi will surpass the douchebaggery of The Chairman. If he hasn't already. It is gobsmackingly offensive and a comparable level of unconscionable to see the favouritism almost every country in the world shows to China because of the corporate virtue of unhinged greed!
At this current time, Major League Baseball is considering a lockout. Why? Just a few players wanting a bigger cut of the profits. There have been strikes and lockouts in all the major sports, ALL because of money. Entire seasons of MUCH more popular sports have been erased over money. But boycott one Olympics over issues like the above, (and for Canada, you can add kidnapping citizens and threatening to kill them) HELL NO! That would be politicizing the Olympics and we don't want to do that. Spavor and Kovrig were innocent. Meng was guilty. She violated international sanctions. Spavor and Kovrig were held in Chinese prison for nearly 3 years! During that time, Meng was lounging in luxurious comfort free to do almost anything but leave the country. Meng was freed when a US extradition request against her was discharged in a Canadian court. The possible death penalty of two kidnapped Canadian citizens who had done nothing wrong may have factored into that judgment. Then immediately after Meng got her way, the two Canadians were released. Just like that. After allegedly committing capital offences! This absolutely proves the charges were bogus. Canada and all Canadians should be fucking pissed off! But what did our leader say? "We're happy they are coming home." What should have been a "fuck you" to China was basically a "thank you." I wonder if you can guess why...
Here are the latest statistics on Canada/China trade. The above situation hasn't seemed to hurt it any, has it? Yes, Canada is on the "preferred trading partners" list of China. All that means is we have our tongues so far up Xi Jin Ping's arse that we can go so far as looking the other way when international crimes are committed. They kidnapped and falsely imprisoned two of our citizens! Only two? Actually no. This was not even the first time this has happened!!! Most Canadians don't even know about the Garratts. It has been suppressed pretty effectively to facilitate economic relations with China. How many more of these cases were there? How many more will there be? I'm sure with the recent crackdowns on ESL teaching, one of the examples of heavy anti-foreigner sentiment that is the latest whim of Xi's Chinese Chauvinism Party, there are Canadians having their rights cavalierly violated by the untouchable Chinese at this very moment.
And that's just one country. What other countries has China mistreated? Other than China itself. How many major sporting leagues around the world have fallen victim to strikes or lock outs over money? Yet we can't, as a WORLD, as a brotherhood of sporting nations, agree to boycott a country guilty of actual crimes? We shut down hockey seasons for what amounts to aggressive negotiation tactics. We can't shut down the Olympics over genocide?
I am just ashamed! I'm ashamed of my country and I'm ashamed of all the other countries who haven't yet boycotted. I'm ashamed of the I.O.C. for selling out to China. They shouldn't have had ONE Olympics let alone two. You know who I'm NOT ashamed of? Australia. Australia is about the only country I can see that has wizened up and gotten tough with China. They oppose the islands China is building for military purposes. Like Canada should, and all the countries of the world should. What? Didn't know about those? That's yet another example of the kowtowing kid gloves with which the world's media handle China. Read all about it. Australia stood up to China even though it cost them a lot of money... as the rest of the countries of the world should. It's mostly coal China wanted from them anyway. So win win! Fuck you, China and let's take a bite out of global pollution at the same time! Well done, Australia!
Know who else I'm not ashamed of? The WTA who have suspended tournaments in China. Me Too is not really a thing in China. It has been banned from all their social media sites by the very efficient Great Firewall of China. The Chinese have a habit of getting around censorship, for example, in this case they just say "mi" which means "rice" in Chinese and "tu" which means rabbit. So it's the rice bunny movement. But I'm sure that's been blocked by the censors too by now. Peng Shuai is not the first person to be "disappeared" by the Chinese Censorship Party either. Far from it! For me, the Chinese Confiscation Party brought that verb into my personal parlance. They are notoriously good at it.
Does ANY of this sound like a country that is a suitable host for international friendship, peace and cooperation expressed in brotherly sporting competition? Or is it just the huge market and labour force? Come off it! NO country NEEDS China! It's not better business, just lazier.
I hope the world does something to crawl out of the cellar of shame they have created by allowing China to become the spoiled emperor of the world. China needs a spanking. Not tariffs or embargos or sanctions. They scoff at those. We need to employ all out boycotts starting, but not finishing, with the 2022 Beijing Olympics. I don't mean to sound alarmist, but the alternative might be war. We may have already crossed that Rubicon. Whether we boycott them or not, China is poised to attack the China they would be if they had done things RIGHT: Taiwan. With the popularity a thoroughly corrupted Beijing Olympics would gain them, the Chinese Cheating Party would have the CONFIDENCE in themselves and of the IGNORANT people, to believe an invasion of Taiwan would end in SUCCESS. "All you need is ignorance and confidence and success is assured."
This blog entry took me two months to create. I started and got emotional and quit about five times. I STILL didn't get into the details of Xi Jin Ping's strikingly parallel life to that of Mao Zedong. I don't feel I wrote this with professional detachment either. But it's the closest I can get. This might be the most important blog post of my blogging life so I want to get it up as soon as I can. I still believe China could be Hong Kong or Taiwan. The Chinese word for China translates to "middle country" or, with a ruler like Xi in control, more accurately "middle kingdom." China needs to look at the center of itself and remove the cancer. That cancer is the Chinese Cancer Party.
Let's get busy boycotting!
Addendum: A little bit of good news on this front! Here's hoping these countries (US, UK, India, Canada, Japan) and others sack up and talk general boycott instead of meaningless political boycott.
Addendum II: As I said, China scoffs at meaningless political boycotts. But they WILL still punish them. Get with the real boycotts and quit the chicken diplomacy!
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