Keep Right — Column by Ralph K. Ginorio
One of the ways that Mao Tse-Tung asserted control over every member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was through the ritual of self-struggle. Superficially similar in principle to Christian Confession, this self-struggle forces the Party member to systematically review his or her own thoughts, words, and deeds in order to recognize and reject all failures to fully live up to the Communist ideal.
As you should expect, there are of course stark differences between Christian and Communist self-criticism. Whether individually, with the assistance of a Priest/Confessor as in the Roman Catholic sacrament, or as part of a shared prayer and reflection as in the Reformed tradition, Christian Confession exists to reconcile each human sinner with our God. By critically scrutinizing one’s own choices, a Christian believer is graced with a hope to change one’s own
destructive ways while reaffirming a determination to try to live more fully as a Christian.
Beyond Christianity, reconciliation is also prized. The holiest day of the Jewish calendar is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this day the individual Jewish believer systematically reflects upon his or her choices in hopes of finding a way to atone for sin and recommit to live according to God’s law.
Hindus, Buddhists, and Moslems all have similar rituals. There seems to be a universal human need to be self-critical in a process oriented to reconcile the individual with their bedrock transcendent truth.
Being itself a religion (but one without a God), it makes sense that Communists would do this also. Of course, the way they approach self-criticism is to reinforce the control of the Party leadership over the rank-and-file membership.
Self-struggle, in the Chinese Communist Party model, is done weekly and in writing. From its beginnings, every single Party member wrote a weekly self-critique and delivered it to his or her immediate superior. This continues today.
There is no week without a report, and no week without a self-confessed thought-crime. Everyone sins. Everyone confesses. Everyone incriminates him or herself. Everyone is vulnerable. At any time, anyone may be purged.
Everyone, that is, except for Mao Tse-Tung himself. He alone was adjudicator of all and was judged by none. Chou En-lai, the Vice Leader of China under Mao, himself weekly passed his written self-struggles on to Chairman Mao. Mao used these to reassert his control over Chao, and over every other Party member. Presumably, so too does Xi Jinping rule his fellow CCP leaders today.
Consider the effects of this. In the West a person is expected to have integrity within the dictates of one’s own conscience. In the traditional Confucian East, a person is supposed to faithfully conduct oneself so as to increase the “face” of one’s family and also to deepen social harmony.
But, in their travesty of self-reflection, Chinese Communists expose themselves to perpetual blackmail by their superiors within the Party hierarchy. They are required to sell themselves fully to the Party.
This is what Communists mean by Revolutionary fervor. It is how they apply Party discipline. It reveals the unlimited totality of their commitment to the Cause.
In the West, we assume that there is a human being behind everyone who wears a mask. We assume a Judeo-Christian reality that the individual always exists, and that each of us is open to love and tractable to mercy and compassion. This is not always true.
The Chinese Communist Party practices a thoroughgoing self-annihilation as one of its core rituals. It demands that every participant throw him or herself upon the nonexistent mercy of their Party bosses. It turns what might once have been independent individuals into mere components in an all encompassing Party machine. The CCP demands nothing less than the willing sacrifice of everything that makes a human being a person.
Be clear, fellow Americans, there can be no peace between a Chinese Communist Party which is defined by such a ritual and a humanitarian Judeo-Christian West. They are at war with us, and will be until they either conquer or fail.
