Very online.
Our policy towards prisoners captured from the Japanese, puppet or anti-Communist troops is to set them all free, except for those who have incurred the bitter hatred of the masses and must receive capital punishment and whose death sentence has been approved by the higher authorities. Among the prisoners, those who were coerced into joining the reactionary forces but who are more or less inclined towards the revolution should be won over in large numbers to work for our army. The rest should be released and, if they fight us and are captured again, should again be set free. We should not insult them, take away their personal effects or try to exact recant taxation from them, but without exception should treat them sincerely and kindly. This should be our policy, however reactionary they may be. It is a very effective way of isolating the camp of reaction.
I’m very torn. On one hand, this model of forgiveness is truly saint-like. I remember having an intense conversation about Puyi (China’s last emperor, and subsequently a Japanese puppet ruler) and how the people ultimately forgave him. I might try to dig it up later.
On the other hand, the precious garden that is Earth is being deconstructed down to its component chemicals in order to make a handful of people extremely rich along the way. There is no word that can properly encapsulate the crime being perpetrated against all present and future life. Ecocide? Omnicide? It will make the horrors of the previous century into a mere prologue for what is to come. Everyone who is aiding and abetting this cosmic crime deserves the most savage punishments that the human mind can dream up, and it still wouldn’t atone for a fraction of the misery they’re working so diligently to create. And as much as I’d like to appeal to my own better nature, I simply can’t convince myself otherwise.
There is no word that can properly encapsulate the crime being perpetrated against all present and future life. Ecocide? Omnicide?
The priority isn’t getting justice for this; the priority is stopping it. Often (and I think this is why Mao’s sentiment is echoed in a bunch of other revolutionary writings) the quickest way to stop the harm is to give the perpetrators a way out. If you tell people you’ll kill them whether they fight or surrender, what are they going to pick?
