Cooper Conscience of An Agnostic

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-0983-4750-5
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 142 Seiten

'The Conscience of An Agnostic' is an exploration of religion, the universe, and spirituality. The book's premise is that it is simply impossible to determine, with any degree of confidence, as to whether there is a transcendent, creative being which is responsible for the existence of the universe. The conclusion that inevitably flows from this realization is that agnosticism is the most intellectually honest position to espouse.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cooper, Robert

Leseproben

Chapter 4
The Random Cruelty of Life: Murderous Dictators History is replete with examples of unspeakable cruelty. Man’s inhumanity to man has been on stark display since the beginning of human civilization. There has always been armed conflict somewhere in which people kill other people in the pursuit of power and control. Historians have estimated that over one hundred million people were murdered by their own government in the 20th century. Perhaps the most prolific mass murderer in history is Chairman Mao Zedong of the People’s Republic of China. As the head of the Communist Party of China, Chairman Mao launched an economic and social campaign known as the Great Leap Forward, which lasted from 1958 to 1962. This program aimed to transform China from a primarily agricultural economy into a socialist economy through rapid industrialization and collectivization. However, the program caused an enormous misallocation of resources leading to a dramatic reduction in food output and millions of deaths by starvation in the Great Chinese Famine.4 One of this program’s features was the introduction of mandatory agricultural collectivization in which the government prohibited private farming. Farmers who engaged in it could be subjected to social pressure and even persecution. Historians have stated that the Great Leap Forward resulted in the death of tens of millions of people. Chinese historian Yu Xiguang conducted thorough research and found the death toll may have been as high as fifty-six million people. According to historian Frank Dikötter, the basis of the Great Leap Forward was coercion, terror, and systematic violence, which resulted in one of the deadliest mass murders in human history. As if the overwhelming hardship produced by the Great Leap Forward was not enough for the Chinese people to endure, in 1966, Chairman Mao initiated a sociopolitical movement known as the Cultural Revolution—formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The revolution’s stated objective was to preserve and solidify the Chinese Communist system by eradicating any vestiges of capitalism and other cancerous elements from Chinese society, thereby reinvigorating Maoism as the preeminent political ideology. According to many historians, the Cultural Revolution officially started in May 1966 when a document known as the May 16 Notification was issued by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee under Chairman Mao’s direction. Partly in an attempt to restore his tarnished image after the monumental failure of the Great Leap Forward and to vanquish his political rivals, Mao gave a dire warning in this document that the CCP was being infiltrated by counter-revolutionary forces whose clandestine goal was to establish a “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.” He was confident that the movement he had launched would establish China as the glorious model for socialism worldwide and that he would be recognized as its principal architect. In the weeks that followed, the CCP’s official newspaper encouraged citizens, especially the youth, to instigate a concerted offensive to permanently dismantle the “four olds”—old ideas, old customs, old habits, and old culture. In response, Chinese students mobilized, forming para-military groups called Red Guards throughout the country. These groups engaged in wanton destruction of churches, shrines, libraries, shops, and private homes in a full-scale effort to eradicate ancient traditions. Moreover, party officials, teachers, and intellectuals were physically attacked and publicly humiliated; some were even murdered or driven to suicide. Mao’s Defense Minister, Lin Biao, compiled the “Little Red Book” of Mao’s quotations, and millions of copies were distributed to the public. However, the Red Guards began to degenerate into rival factions causing the country to plummet into a state of civil war. By the latter part of 1968, Mao came to the grim realization that the revolution had escalated out of control. In an attempt to subdue the raging violence, he ordered that millions of urban youth be relocated to the countryside to work with the peasant farmers as a form of re-education. The Peoples’ Liberation Army attempted to restore order by any means, resulting in a massive increase in bloodshed and death. It was only with Chairman Mao’s death in September 1976 that the Cultural Revolution finally came to an end. Estimates of the final death toll fluctuate wildly, from 500 thousand to as many as 20 million, along with a devastating impact on the Chinese economy. Mao’s grandiose vision for a socialist utopia had disintegrated into a tragic failure for millions of people whose lives were ruined.5 One of the most brutal dictators of modern times was Communist leader Joseph Stalin. He served as leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until 1953 with the title General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Stalin assumed leadership over the country following the death of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. Lenin served as the head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924. Stalin had thousands of people imprisoned and executed during his reign of terror. Anyone he regarded as a potential rival could be in grave danger, even close associates and members of his own family. His cruelty and disregard for human life were pathological, perhaps stemming from his severe paranoia. To eliminate alleged enemies of the state, Stalin created the “Great Purge,” in which the government incarcerated over a million citizens and executed at least seven hundred thousand between 1934 and 1937. Realizing that Russia lagged considerably behind other countries in terms of industrial progress, Stalin devised and implemented three Five-Year Plans between 1928 and 1938 with the assistance of Gosplan, the Soviet State Planning Committee. The purpose of these plans was to promote economic development over limited periods utilizing quotas. The first two focused on developing heavy industry and the collectivization of farming at the expense of consumer goods production. Unfortunately, agricultural collectivization resulted in horrendous famines, particularly in Ukraine, where millions of people perished from starvation, disease, and bitterly cold weather. With the rapid ascent of Germany as a potential military rival, the third Five-Year Plan placed its primary emphasis on developing armaments.6 After WWII, Stalin was at the pinnacle of his career. Despite the psychopathic cruelty he had demonstrated throughout his years in power, the Russian people practically deified him as the epitome of indomitable leadership and patriotism. His Collected Works was published in 1946, followed by his official biography one year later in which he was exalted for his achievements. However, after he died in 1953, he was denounced by his successor Nikita Khrushchev for committing terrible crimes against the Russian people. A quote attributed to Joseph Stalin: “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”7 Of course, no discussion of murderous dictators would be complete without mentioning Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, a genuinely deranged individual. Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and was later proclaimed absolute Fuhrer in 1934. He is primarily responsible for starting World War II in Europe due to Poland’s invasion in September 1939. Hitler was born in Austria and moved to Germany in 1913. German authorities imprisoned him in 1923 for attempting to seize power in a failed political coup, and it was there that he wrote his famous political manifesto, Mein Kampf. After his prison release in 1924, Hitler gained considerable popular support through his promotion of Pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Communism. He was a compelling public speaker who often condemned international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy. By July of 1932, the Nazi Party had become one of the largest political parties in Germany. President Paul von Hindenburg was persuaded by other German leaders to appoint Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. After his rise to power, Hitler sought to establish a New Order whose purpose would be to counter what he perceived as the terrible hardships imposed on Germany after World War I. His government eliminated various restrictions and annexed territories in which millions of ethnic Germans lived. It also directed a massive strengthening of the German military and, after the invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 despite an agreement with Joseph Stalin not to do so. However, this campaign ultimately turned out to be disastrous. His failure to defeat the Soviets and the United States’ entry into the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced the Nazi regime into a defensive position in which it sustained a series of humiliating defeats. In the last days of the war, Hitler married his longtime partner, Eva Braun, and on April 30, 1945, they committed suicide to avoid being captured by the Soviet Red Army. However, speculation persists to this day that Hitler may have escaped from his bunker and re-settled in Argentina. It is widely known that Adolf Hitler harbored an intense hatred of the Jewish people, and the reasons for this have been the subject of extensive discussion. After his rise to power in 1933, he took steps to end Germany’s democratic system by persuading his cabinet to allow the suspension of individual freedoms of...