Such practices are inherently anti-technocratic: a politician with a PhD who has to work some manual labor may be a worse technocrat, due to less time spent wonking out, but he or she is a better human being and governor.
Han relates a great story: A respected Peoples' Liberation Army veteran returned to Jimo after four years in the army, to much acclaim, and he was elected secretary of a village Communist Youth League. He was asked to work on the irrigation project, which involved four people pushing a wheelbarrow of mud weighing 1,000 pounds. "But his army life had never put him to the test of such hard work." The leader could not do the work, and thus was the naozheng the incompetent person in the group. He was not re-elected the following year.
"It was important that leaders could talk high-sounding words, but they had to live up to what they said at the same time. Otherwise nobody would listen to them. " The CCP's policy then was: yu chenfen, dan bu wei chenfen (class labels are important, but they are not the exclusive factor in judging a person)."
I find it very hard to believe any demonstrating Yellow Vest wouldn't agree with these policies and beliefs of the CR; putting politicians to work would be Yellow Vest demand #26 if they only knew about it.
Macron does not appear very physically strong" but that is no matter. What is important is that he only finally said the words "Yellow Vests" in public on April 25rd he clearly has no interest in working shoulder to shoulder with them, no matter what job we can find for him to not be the naozheng at.
Why would such a sensible policy forcing politicians to do SOME real work likely be opposed by supporters of Liberal Democracy? Because forcing them to do things they personally don't want to do is an alleged violation of Western individualist rights. The irony, of course, is that the 1740-1840 heyday of Liberal Democracy rested upon the stolen wages of slaves. And when the slave-masters were forced to work in the countryside what a horror the CR was!
I don't see it that way at all. I think, especially when tied to promises of advancement, it is a perfect apprenticeship for future politicians. China knows that, and they are sending another 10 million urban cadres to the countryside more well-rounded, respectful leaders in the future for China thanks to CR 2.0.
The Cultural Revolution lessons for modern schools
Culture is taught it is not inbred. Thus a revolution in education is just as fundamental as a revolution in the "work" of politicians. The CR grasped this as well.
I would be remiss not to include a short section on education in this final part. Previous parts of this series examined Han's data and conclusions regarding educational policy changes, because giving equal access to education and making schooling truly egalitarian and not urban-elite based nor technocratic was truly a primary, if not the primary, motivation and goal of the CR. I reiterate Han's thesis and data, which I gave in Part 1, because it is so necessary: --this study contends that that the political convulsions of the Cultural Revolution democratized village political culture and spurred the growth of rural education, leading to substantial and rapid economic development." Education change is the middle link between political culture change and economic change.
Firstly, there is a major problem of gender imbalance in modern schools: in Iran and seemingly all other modernised areas women outperform men, including at security spots i at university. This is not a cause for celebration, but a huge problem.
If men were outperforming women, we would say that there is some sort of prejudice occurring or, as is the case now, the system is simply set up for young men to fail more often than young women, correct? You never hear this view in the West, as their societies are far more matriarchal than in Asia.
But China's Cultural Revolution did what I think all schools should do: not simply "be schools".
It is something like a crime against humanity how young, fun, spirit-filled boys are forced to wedge themselves behind a desk for their entire youth. The Cultural Revolution did what many boys find fun doing stuff: they had to work on a farm, a workshop, a lab, and even money-making activities. That all beats "school" for young and teenage boys.
Crucially, these are all activities which educate kids on the serious facts of life, facts which are vital for happiness far more than yet more technocratic learning.
A teenager who cuts grass, picks up garbage or simply breaks rocks for 7 hours one day a week learns many things. Among them: if you do not study you will be doing this boring work for the rest of your life; hard work is needed to maintain society; manual labor is hard, and thus those who do it must be respected; "boring" or toiling labor requires just as much attention and effort as "office work", or mental work, and thus must be respected; some jobs wear humans out faster than others, and thus social safety nets with different rules are required to avoid widespread misery.
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