http://youtu.be/PN0WMeVw_Ok

Breaking With Old Ideas

Published on May 31, 2012
One of the most controversial dramatic films produced in China during the cultural revolution, "Breaking" is about the struggle to Democratize education in the countryside. Made during Mao Tse Tung's infamous Cultural Revolution.

(That's from the link, 'infamous' my ass.)

I fully realize that this film is propaganda, but, as all good propaganda, it is based on truth. I have to admit that I was brought to tears in a couple of places (senility, no doubt), but there is a very real truth at the heart of this. Education is developed and maintained by the ruling class for its own ends. Of course, education has evolved over time and is good or bad at different places, points, and times. But the main truth is there: education supports and promotes the ruling class. All education is class oriented. It would be a great accomplishment if this fact could be shared with all the working class in this country. Remember how irate the liberals on PI would get if the ends of education were even questioned. They would all give their bona fides by starting with how educated they were - never grasping (or admitting) that their education, itself, was primarily indoctrination into bourgeois ideology.

The Cultural Revolution was "infamous" only to the bourgeoisie and those who mistakenly thought they could "use" capitalism to end capitalism. I would not say that every aspect of the CR was ideal, but its heart was in the right place. What is going on in China now, I have no idea.

I enjoyed this movie a lot.