A brief note about the problem of historical parallels

four cleanups // white guard-red guard // cybernetic logic // endless loops

The comparison for China is always going to be Maoist campaigns. For Western observers, the previous four decades did not happen. The Four Cleanups is more alive for them than economic restructuring or the debate over humanism. These latter events are logical and correct; the events of the Maoist past are now—within official party-state discourse and We…