‘Half of China may well have to die’ – Mao Zedong
This is a horrifying story of Psychopathy, paranoia, megalomania and narcissism . How absurdity becomes atrocity. Of what happens when power and the performance of power becomes the goal. How pathology becomes the organising principle for a nation when a disordered mind is granted power.
What happened in China – The Psychological Landscape
In times of great distress, deprivation and uncertainty – human rationality is greatly compromised and we become extremely suggestable.
Following the unimaginable horrors inflicted by the Japanese in the 1930s – 40s many of the Chinese turned to a ‘strong man’. A saviour to restore order, security, and national pride. This ‘strong man’ with no hint of humility presented himself as the only person capable of solving these problems quickly and effectively. A man of vision, a revolutionary whose surety and shameless conviction were compelling .
Strong men, though, are never compassionate; rather, they are consume with a shallow pursuit of power, esteem and self aggrandisment.
‘Strong men’ are never compassionate
To most people on his rise to power Mao must have seemed like he cared. If you looked at his actions on his way to assuming power, he seemed to be fighting a caring cause; pro-worker and anti-imperialist. However what were his motivations, you can do the right thing for all the wrong reasons.
Was he intellectually curious… or…driven to show he was superior to his fellows?
Did he use Information to work for the people… or …to wield power over the ignorant?
Was he actually willing to die for the rebellion… or… did he believe himself exceptional and immune to consequence.
In other words people could easily be persuaded his motives were caring when they were actually pathological. The ‘mask of sanity’ protected Mao Zedong.
So what happens when disorder becomes dictate??
The Great leap forward –
Zedong and his adherents (Lin Biao, Deng Xiaoping, Kang Sheng etc) were full of exceptionalist and narcissistic delusion. Theirs was a conspiracy of cruelty. Attracted to each other for the mutual attainment of power and licence to unleash their barbaric compulsions.
In China the world was reduced to one man’s self portrait, cronies providing the paint. No matter how wrong Zedong was his acolytes would tell him he was right, cheering his every brushstroke at the cost of thousands of lives. Because the world does not make sense if it is not entirely about his greatness and anyone pointing to a blemish must be destroyed..
What did this pathology look like in practice?
First of all, for context, it is crucial to understand that psychopaths think of people as objects so they will not recognise suffering as bad rather it may be thrilling and fulfilling. Suffering seems to be a goal for Mao.
In the mid 1950s Mao’s hubris and megalomania focused on industrial productivity. Largely because he was enamoured of the plans of the USSR for industrialization, which were awesome in ambition, reflecting
he believed, his greatness and superiority. Precipitating his own ludicrous schemes where China would, within 15yrs, surpass the British Empire which had a 200 yr head start. The Great Leap.
His narcissism meant he was convinced that his own naive grasp of agriculture, engineering and biology were superior to experts in these fields. Indeed experts that contradicted his intuitions were jailed, tortured and killed.
Mao’s absurd ideas?
- Forcing fast swathes of farmers to work on irrigation projects instead of producing food that fed the population.
- Forcing the farmers to ignore their own expertise and use naive practices that reduced yields enormously.
- A nationwide Four Pests Campaign, an effort to eliminate flies, mosquitoes, rats, and sparrows to improve human hygiene and increase agricultural output. Ren ding sheng tian, or “Man must conquer nature.”
- Repurposing agricultural lands and workers to steel smelting operations.
- Torturing anyone who pointed out the folly of any of this.
- Hoarding the food that would feed his population to trade with other nations
Some effects:
Rather than incur the government’s wrath, citizens burnt the lumber from their own houses to stoke furnaces for smelting weak metals for Zedong’s industrialisation plans. active.
Homeowners felt pressure to use the clay or straw their homes were made of as fertilizer. These material actually suffocate growth rather than enable it.
Mao’s idea of killing the sparrows to protect the grain is a remarkable monument to disordered thinking. Mao directed citizens to destroy nests and eggs and to pursue sparrows while shouting, banging pots and spoons, lighting firecrackers anything to create a cacophony that would terrify them. Birds expired from exhaustion from their sonic torture. Consequentially within 2 years locusts, previously kept in balance by the sparrows and other birds, swarmed out of control in 1960 and combined with a drought these absurd actions lead to atrocity. Millions of people starved to death over the next two years. The estimated death toll? A minimum of 15 million – a maximum of 75-78 million.
Mao’s regime had enough grain stored to feed the population. In Mao’s disordered mind, devoid of empathy, it was reasonable to withold these stores in case he needed to trade them for further speculative self aggrandisment.
Conclusion: Why are we looking at Zedong? Because, history repeats itself when we do not mitigate against making the same errors. These behaviours echo and rhyme. The same scenarios happen again and again. It may be because our histories tell stories of political parties, borders, grievances, ethnicity and situation rather than recognising that disordered minds and irrational beliefs are the problem . Consequently we do not actively adapt our system to exclude dangerous and disordered thinking from overtaking our societies and decision making.
On a given day we are likely to encounter 1 or 2 people who have a very similar psychological make up to Mao Zedong. We should, as a matter of urgency, prevent people who have no empathy from having a duty of care. Simply – People who don’t care about people should not be in charge of caring for people.
“Sometimes, in the trenches, you get the sense of something ancient. One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms. It was actually easier to believe they were men from Marlborough’s army, than to think they’d been alive a year ago. It was as if all the other wars had distilled themselves into this war, and that made it something you almost can’t challenge. It’s like a very deep voice, saying; ‘Run along, little man, be glad you’ve survived”
― Pat Barker, Regeneration
What methodologies can we use to identify pathological decisions and patterns in society to mitigate harm? A safety net to stop absurdity from becoming atrocity to be caring rather than uncaring. What would that look like?
Recommended reading:
This article draws heavily on the books below
Hughes, Ian – Disordered Minds ISBN 13: 9781785358807
Jung Chang– Wild Swans – ISBN 9780007463404
#Dontputpeoplewhodontcareaboutpeopleinchargeofpeople
#Disorderedminds #Stupidhistory #AbsurdityToAtrocity
