A popular myth about the Chinese revolution is that Mao’s government ordered the execution of landlords. This is entirely incorrect. Mao actually insisted on nonviolence towards the ownership class that complied with the revolution so that systematic and non-violent justice could be done as a show to the world the new government weren’t just violent peasants throwing a fit; but rather prove that peasants, when given power, would act more fairly than those that ruled before.
Despite this push from all official sources to NOT kill landlords, with assurances from Mao’s government that renters would be free to make legal claims on the land they’ve historically rented and their landlords would be legally punished, the people, when given the opportunity, decided to kill their landlords en masse.
Some of these landlords, undoubtedly, were “fair” landlords. Some were undoubtedly “able to keep rent tolerable.”
All of them were leeches on society, and society, when given the freedom to express their true feelings of reality, understand these leeches need to be physically removed from this plane of existence.
People generally do not have it in them to kill others. It’s one of the few things people cannot generally just do. It requires someone to be pushed, punished, tortured, sometimes for years or for someone to pose that same immediate danger.
Landlords will always fall into one of those categories.
A popular myth about the Chinese revolution is that Mao’s government ordered the execution of landlords. This is entirely incorrect. Mao actually insisted on nonviolence towards the ownership class that complied with the revolution so that systematic and non-violent justice could be done as a show to the world the new government weren’t just violent peasants throwing a fit; but rather prove that peasants, when given power, would act more fairly than those that ruled before.
Despite this push from all official sources to NOT kill landlords, with assurances from Mao’s government that renters would be free to make legal claims on the land they’ve historically rented and their landlords would be legally punished, the people, when given the opportunity, decided to kill their landlords en masse.
Some of these landlords, undoubtedly, were “fair” landlords. Some were undoubtedly “able to keep rent tolerable.”
All of them were leeches on society, and society, when given the freedom to express their true feelings of reality, understand these leeches need to be physically removed from this plane of existence.
People generally do not have it in them to kill others. It’s one of the few things people cannot generally just do. It requires someone to be pushed, punished, tortured, sometimes for years or for someone to pose that same immediate danger.
Landlords will always fall into one of those categories.