Mao Zedong Part 2: The ‘Great Leap Forward’
Real Dictators
The Great Leap Forward
Mao's version of events is rhetoric, is increasingly absurdly different from the situation on the ground. He said, will power alone can carry us through? Now what a claim that is. We are remaking history in our own image - we're doing it as we want it to be done. The tragedy, of course, was that it was based on false economics. You couldn't build a modern economy on that collective principle. It had to have managers and specialized technical knowledge. All Mao can guarantee is labour. And he decides that we can have a steel industry if everyone just gets together and hopes. Which causes all kinds of trouble during the Great Leap Forward because no one knows how
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