What do you think of the "Great Leap Forward" in China?

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I looked at the "Great Leap Forward" again, and how it affected China in the years it took place. What do you think about this economic and social campaign?

Thanks!

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on August 19, 2017)

It seemed pretty screwy for most of the population.

China's Ghost Cities

Tens of millions killed, enough said.

Well, they sure ended up with a whole bunch of useless scrap metal and dead birds, not to mention whole harvests lost to locusts (because they killed all those birds). If I was to engage in anything called a "great leap forward", I'd hope to end up with something a bit more useful than that.

Since a lot of people in the thread don't seem to know what the OP is asking about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward

The great leap forward cause the largest man made famine in modern history.

Basically if you have no one to question your bad ideas then you are on to a hiding to nothing.

It wasn't just the collectivism, it was taking skilled farm labourers away from what they were good at, to work in industry. They instilled pseudo-scientific agricultural practices of Trofim Lysenko.

I similar food shortage was caused by Mugabe, however in tat case the world didn't allow Zimbabweans to stave.

It has a similar effect to the famine in Russia in the 1920s, then in the 1930s under Stalin--for similar reasons.

Collectivism in agriculture, climate, repression, ignorance, stubborn adherence to a socialistic "Plan."

It was an unmitigated disaster for Mao. He was forced to resign. But he sure made a comeback with his Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
First, his comrades killed all factory owners and all landlords..and all farmers who employed at least one employee. 


After that, they went after "the rich". They took the farms of large farmers.
After that, "the rich" included any farmer who owned his own land. They took that land too. 


Finally, "the rich" was defined as any peasant who owned a pig. 

 


Class Warfare is like a grass fire...it is difficult to keep it from spreading and getting out of control.

The death toll rivalled WW2. Just a senseless, worthless waste of human life. At least WW2 the dead gave their lives for something.

The Great Leap Forward is a good example of why Leninism doesn't work. Most types of Leninism aren't as deadly as Maoism, but all Leninism is fundamentally broken.

Lesson Learned: When disadvantaged people organize and fight for their rights, that is a good thing ... though we cannot rely on authoritarian leaders to bring the masses together. Only information technology can do that effectively.

The internet is a magical tool that turns "impossible" socio-political pipe dreams into possibilities. For centuries, people (such as Lenin himself) regarded social anarchism as a infantile pipe dream, but the internet is starting to change all that.

It waas perhaps well intended, but the outcome was horrible. It epitomises the old saying 'The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.'