And Now for Something Completely Different...

I just don't understand Mao Zedong... Ok, so I know that this is a random turn of events, but I honestly don't know what the guy was really about! Part of me wants to say that he was an evil, despotic, sick and inhuman individual who was responsible for hundreds of thousands of individuals. The other half of me wants to believe that he was genuinely trying to make things better for China and her people. I honestly can't make up my mind!

I think that the problem lies in the fact that there is so much myth surrounding the man. You honestly can't get at the truth. So much of China is hellbent on attempting to fuzz Mao up... It feels like there is too much political cover up surrounding him. Biographical survey talks about this man who burned through women and political supporters like a wildfire. He had many children, yet few of them lived and far too many of the dead died alone, casualties to their father's political ambitions. Although he was fanatically confident in his own abilities and marginal education, the man took on the task of reinventing China, to the point of destruction several times. Yet he is a heroic figure to the Chinese and earned the trust and adoration of millions. I honestly do not understand how he did this though.

Then there is the question of his personal life and health. What happened with all of those wives of his?! And the supposed "orgies" he engaged in with young girls? What about his supposed STD's? Did he really die of heart complications due to the effects of tertiary syphilis, or was it really just the last heart attack to do him in? Does it even really matter though, what his personal life was like? Does who he was in private really affect or influence his god-like status?

So can anyone honestly tell me who Mao Zedong really was? I doubt that, and I wish I didn't but that is just that. The man died, the country loves him and even if they were able to assign truth to Mao's life would it really change anything? Sorry, guess this is a little silly of a diatribe, but here I am encountering Mao for the second time in my life and even though it doesn't really affect me much personally, Mao's influence is all over modern China... What does it mean to me as a student entering into a world that will probably be heavily dominated by China as they gain more and more of the affluence that Americans are abandoning? How do I compete with a mentality so hugely dominated by Mao if I don't understand him?

Rar...