Socialist Education in Mao's China

[Optiow]

Hey y'all, I've been reading a bunch about Maoism lately, and I've found I like it. But my issue with Maoism is that so much talk was said about educating the workers and peasants and all the mass programmes during the Cultural Revolution, and how they went to night classes to know more about Maoism etc.

Why, then, when Deng took over did people not rise up against him? If they were educated and motivated, why did they allow Deng to keep power? Why didn't they defend Maoist values and allow China to become the imperialist power it is now? It's been nagging at me, because the way I see it if the education didn't work then doesn't that mean Maoism isn't going to be what brings about the communist society we all want?

[Brah Brah Bro]

china had such a large population and all the people who helped bring mao to power weren't necessarily communists. There were a lot of political forces at work in the country. its easy to get people to feel nationalistic but its hard to get them to look at social conditions in a revolutionary way. I think revolutionary classes are great but i'm already predisposed to them, imagine trying to get working class tea party people in the middle of kansas to understand the exploitation of labour under capitalism, its hard work. So if someone else came along and cloaked themselves in nationalistic rhetoric it makes sense that people might not automatically be rioting in the streets

[Brah Brah Bro]

oops sorry I was assuming you were from the us, the tea party reference might not make sense

[GoddessCleoLover]

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led to chaos that caused Mao to end it after two years. Deng's initial program involved allowing peasants more control over their crops and greater opportunity to profit and this was naturally popular with the peasants. In essence Chinese peasants chose their material interests over Maoist propaganda, something probably would not have surprised Karl Marx.