Terror with a Human Face preliminary materials
There is an inherent duality to the sense of sight. Whereas the eye serves as a vessel with which to view the world, the interpretation of those mental images is of equal importance. Ji Xianlin experiences this duality firsthand through his experiences as a forced participant in the Chinese Cultural Revolution, illuminated in his memoir, The Cowshed. Worship of Mao Zedong replaced the traditional Buddhist teachings that served an important role in Chinese culture, ransacking religious freedom in the same manner as national treasures in the name of Communism.
Enthymeme: The Cowshed serves as an example of totalitarianism as a political religion because of its depictions of complete allegiance to the Communist Party at the expense of core freedoms. Mao becomes the Buddha figure, the arbiter of wisdom and doctrine for the many Communist allegiants.
Primary sources
- The Cowshed by Ji Xianlin
- Witness by Whittaker Chambers
- The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
The Cowshed will be my main primary source while I plan to cull a few passages from Witness and The Origins of Totalitarianism.
Secondary sources
- Totalitarian Religions – essay by Waldimar Gurien
- Politics as Religion by Emilio Gentile, chapter “The Leviathan as a Church”, perhaps other selections
- We Have Ceased to See the Purpose – essay by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
- The Hidden Violence of Totalitarianism – Essay by Anne-Marie Roviello