# What is Maoism? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151 "2002-08-29T19:35:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Montezuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Montezuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montezuma)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/1 "2002-08-29T19:35:32Z")
I just wanted to know what Maoism is and how it incorporated China, and has many followers in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/2 "2002-08-29T19:36:47Z")
Google, “maoism”. [http://www.maoism.org/](http://www.maoism.org/) Enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Montezuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Montezuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montezuma)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/3 "2002-08-29T19:43:48Z")
Thanxs. Anything else? ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/4 "2002-08-29T19:59:05Z")
One thing to keep in mind is that definition of Maoism, like other political “isms” depends on who (and when) you ask. One of the most active groups claiming to be “Maoist” in the world today are the rebels fighting to overthrow the government of Nepal. Neighboring China supports the Nepali government and says the rebels are misusing the term “Maoist”. I found the following in a story in the Washington Post, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A1563-2002Jul13:](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A1563-2002Jul13:) > [@](#): > > Liu Jianchao, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said China has never supported the Maoists in Nepal. He condemned the rebels for soiling the memory of the Great Helmsman, as Mao is sometimes known. “The armed anti-government forces in Nepal usurped the name of Chinese leader Mao Zedong,” he said. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/5 "2002-08-29T20:07:37Z")
\>\> Thanxs. Anything else? You read and digested the entire site in seven minutes? Well, I hope you can write a god summary of your conclusions for us. [http://www.maoism.org/msw/mao\_sw.htm](http://www.maoism.org/msw/mao_sw.htm) “Maoism, embodying itself within the peoples of the world, is marching unstoppably to command the new great wave of the world proletarian revolution.” Why is my newspaper not carrying this important news? ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/6 "2002-08-29T22:47:04Z")
You mean you haven’t heard of the new great wave of the world proletarian revolution? The players set a strike date for tomorrow. They mean business. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/7 "2002-08-29T23:18:01Z")
Thanks, **sailor** , for saving me the time. Methinks there’s a report due tomorrow or something. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/8 "2002-08-30T13:08:39Z")
could you maybe be a little more specific or explain what you’re looking for? Maoism can mean a lot of different things whether you’re talking 1950’s China, or 1990’s Shining Path Peruvian guerillas. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/9 "2002-08-30T15:17:11Z")
Defining “Maoism” is tricky, because the Chairman was such a fruitcake to begin with, and was COSNTANTLY changing his mind about the course China should take. MAo was like communisms version of Mr. Toad- he was forever coming up with some ridiculous new scheme that he fully intended to devote his life to… but then he’d change his mind, and move on to some other ridiculous new scheme. Invaraibly, each new scheme led to disaster, and left a lot of misery and carnage in its wake. One minute he was gung ho for, say, industrialization, and God help the poor soul who dared suggest that was a bad idea. Then, he’d decide that it was “back to the land” time, and order the cities emptied, so that everyone could till the soil… and again, God help anyone who dared suggest this wasn’t a great idea. Then, when that failed (or Mao got tired of the idea), he try something else. And God help anybody who’d been seen as supportive of the OLD idea Mao had been pushing. “Maoism” was never a coherent ideology with a real set of principles or goals. Rather, “Maoism” was whatever the batty chairman felt like doing on any given day. ---
**Author:** ![Montezuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3be4f8/32.png) [@Montezuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montezuma)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/10 "2002-09-01T21:13:19Z")
I’ve read about the four olds, \*Old thinking \*Old practices \*Old ways \*Old leaders The general tone was like that, it’s all I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/11 "2002-09-01T23:18:43Z")
I think Maoism is a term often used to distinguish a brand of Marxism from its cousin Leninism. As everybody already said, Maoism is a term as widely interpreted. To use a blasphemous example it is a bit like saying “What is Protestantism?” with out context you will get 100 different answers. Having said that, Often “Maoism” was used to distinguish the revolution from Lenism. Basically the main ideological difference **very oversimplified** was that Leninism held an economy needed to be “ready” or at a certain stage for the revolution to come. Maoism held that peasants, essentially in proto-feudal systems could be hustled into revolution by political revolutionary leadership. Maoists tended to believe in the “countryside first” then the cities, which is different than the “Workers of the World Unite” sloganeering of the Leninists. That’s it in a nutshell for what “Maoism vs Leninism” means in this context and for anyone caring to nitpick it I have left plenty of room in this overly broad explanation. ---
**Author:** ![xejkh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/22d042/32.png) [@xejkh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xejkh)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/12 "2002-09-02T07:02:31Z")
IANAMaoist, but Maoism is different from other “denominations” of communism/socialism in that Maoism: 1. Places much importance on the peasants as the proletariat, rather than the workers 2. As a result of the actions described in 1, tends to focus on the countryside and boosting agriculture rather than industries. 3. Places great importance on willpower. Mao always insisted that willpower will conquer all odds, which was strangely unMarxist. (Marx believed in taking a scientific approach to solve things) ---
**Author:** ![Burnt\_Sugar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@Burnt\_Sugar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burnt_Sugar)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/13 "2002-09-02T11:48:24Z")
I read [Wild Swans](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385425473/qid=1030966762/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-8936574-7534411), which is the experiences of some chinese women in China during Mao’s reign. It was engrossing, horrifying but engrossing. I am not sure if it is completely true or if there was some artistic licence, but I recommend it either way. Great read. (I may be biased, I learn Mandarin and I have been to China, so I am quite interested anyway.) ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/14 "2002-09-02T11:53:48Z")
Puhleeeeeeese, forget White Swans. That woman tries to come across as the model proletariat worker, but she grew up calling Deng Xiao Ping uncle. also, she got out of China when it was virtally impossible because she had connections - don’t believe any of that crap in her book. I’m not criticizing her for how she used connections, but to claim the purest prolitariat motives is to laugh. It sells books, but it was largely a work of fiction. As touched on above, Mao got power through the countryside. Marx and Engles thought it would come from the workers. Score one for Mao. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2002, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-maoism/126151/15 "2002-09-03T03:01:49Z")
I can’t get to the site in **DDG** s link, it’s down or something right now. But since this has been mentioned in this thread: Mao was very big on perpetual revolution. The people had to be always in a state of overthrowing yet another layer of Bad Stuff. As applied in China, this kept things jangled up for decades with the worst example being the Red Guard era. In more pragmatic terms, this meant that it was impossible for anyone in China to build up a stable organization within the Party to challenge Mao. Note how almost all the big shots in China in the last 20 years at one time were thrown in jail and such. (I used to listen to the re-broadcasts of the Chinese shortwave programs on Radio Havana in the 60s. Purely for laughs. Radio Havana itself was never funny. 6 hour speeches by Fidel and all. Radio Moscow frequently had the “we invented it first” stereotype. Funny.)