I caught a kid at a sandwich shop in town a few months ago reading a book by Mao. It was sitting on the counter next to the register. As he was taking our order and ringing it up he noticed I was looking at it. He quickly took the book and slid it behind the partition out of sight.
After our food was in our hands (not prepared by him...), I spoke VERY LOUDLY as we left (everyone in the restaurant heard me as it was small, and it was lunchtime so it was packed, and everyone got quiet when I started speaking - I pretended not to notice how loud I was... LOL).
I don’t remember my exact words but something along the lines of not understanding why any young person would want to read a book written by a person who slaughtered so many innocent people, and believes in guerilla warfare that leads to a communist state. I added that people are free to read what they want but that I certainly hoped the “young man at the counter” was NOT a fan of the murderous dictator Mao.
Now, hopefully this young man was reading the book in order to “know the enemy”. HOWEVER, seeing how he reacted when he noticed me looking at the book cover I highly doubt that was the case. I didn’t bother to look back as I left the restaurant after my little “outburst”.
It’s truly frightening how many young people in this nation are brainwashed into believing things like Che was a Hero, and Mao was good, that Chavez is WONDERFUL, along with Stalin (who is enjoying a resurgence of popularity in the Neo-Soviet Union right now).
I plan on bringing in my copy of the Black Book of Communism for Mr. Mao. It's a HUGE hardcover book detailing the crimes of communism.
We were at an outdoor book fair a few weeks ago that had a pretty strong Leftist/hippie element. One booth, in particular, was completely over the top. It was basically the communist/anarchist/revolutionary booth. They had a copy of their tabloid prominently displayed up front, which featured a picture of Mao.
I happened to be standing next to a conservative-looking guy in a Polo shirt, so I got his attention, pointed, and said loudly in a flat, non-singing tone, “If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow.” < /Beatles>
He raised an eyebrow and chuckled. I know the guys running the booth heard me, but they didn’t respond. Unfortunately, I got called by the wife to look at some stuff in another booth, and then we needed to leave. I was really getting warmed up to verbally tear in to those twerps.
I think some people see utopian dictators and their henchmen as romantic figures while we see them as repulsive. I remember growing up, a lot of kids older than me were all excited about Mao and Castro. They were caught up in the idea that if only the "right" person is given absolute power, he can create a perfect society of perfect people. To me that seemed like really an old, reactionary idea, going all the way back to the Pharoahs in ancient Egypt and hardly a way to run a modern society. On the other hand, I was fascinated with the American idea of limited government with separated powers, so no one gets complete control and things balance out. To me that was more revolutionary than all the commies and fascists combined.
I read the Communist Manifesto and didn't find it captivating. I thought Nietzsche could turn a clever phrase but he was really second-rate. I found Mein Kampf to be torture (know your enemy, even if he is long dead). But I read John Locke and Madison and Jefferson, and they seemed like true revolutionaries who understood how a complex society runs (No "give me absolute power and I will make you perfect" nonsense. No ranting about getting a priesthood or a vanguard or a superman to whip people into line).
I noticed that people who beleive in free societies have a healthy skepticism about institutions even as they support institutions and try to make them better. Utopians, on the other hand, want to tear down everything but then they have a religious fervor about what they would build - no sense of skeptism or even humanity with them. Maybe when you grow up in difficult circumstances you see people as they are and you are repulsed by fanaticism and utopianism? While those who are given everything see utopia as possible and desirable? Even when I was young I had an unromantic (in the wider sense of the word) frame of mind and I did not understand why some people believe in the things they believe in.