I might have learned something from world! Or not. #7 YKK

October 1st. A ton of things happened on this date. Mao Zedong declared that China was a communist state, Yosemite was established as a national park, Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union.

(I’m relishing the idea that I remember Gorbachev - and the fact that a grueling year of World was worth it somehow.)

But before Gorbachev opened the Soviet Union to the world, Mao Zedong defeated Chiang Kai-Shek and successfully created a country that is communist to this day. A lot of people would say that this is bad because it’s communist, but it’s more the fact that all forms of government have their flaws and communism proved that perhaps it had more detrimental ones. (Clarification: I would much rather live in a democracy than a communist country.) The fact that the country was so big and that a single decision could affect billions within that country for years onward is more intimidating. The Cultural Revolution had a terrible cost on its citizens and the authoritarian rule that is exerted by the Communist Party of China today affects almost everyone in the world to some extent - it’s a very influential country. I imagine that my life would have been affected by it somehow…in the Korean War that it waged with the US? In the mass consumer goods that it produces today? 

But then if you think about it, every significant event has some effect everywhere on the globe. That’s globalization (World history! Thank you Mr. Wise). Was it good or bad? Every sort of government system seems to cause some horrifying damage to its constituents or the people and the environment around them (*cough, cough Jackson and Indians and slavery). But then again, China hasn't exactly done better environmentally or otherwise, and it doesn't give as many rights to its people. Trying to figure out which system is worse or better is extremely time-consuming research. Thinking through all the events that might not have happened if China had not become a communist country could have produced terrible outcomes in society. Or it could have made the world that much closer to utopia. But seeing the examples around me of countries that have done well as democracies and the countries that have not, it makes me wonder. Is it a struggle between the theories of constant improvement and profit, or the preservation of culture and community? Are they ever achievable? Which one is more important? Which system fully appreciates what needs to be appreciated? I appreciate this event for its impact, but not for the practice of communism, which historically seems to have produced more bad than good. And this blog post has definitely produced more questions than answers.

Why did I, a politically ignorant person, even try to editorialize this topic? I would ask people not to judge me, but the fact that I did write about it gives me no excuse. So take it as you will, I guess. Maybe Yosemite was the right way to go.