CLUMSY COMMUNISM LOSING BADLY IN BEIJING: 6/8: To the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism by Sean McMeekin (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-World-Rise-Fall-Communism/dp/1541601963
When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the world was certain that Communism was dead. Today, three decades later, it is clear that it was not. While Russia may no longer be Communist, Communism and sympathy for Communist ideas have proliferated across the globe.
In To Overthrow the World, Sean McMeekin investigates the evolution of Communism from a seductive ideal of a classless society into the ruling doctrine of tyrannical regimes. Tracing Communism’s ascent from theory to practice, McMeekin ranges from Karl Marx’s writings to the rise and fall of the USSR under Stalin to Mao’s rise to power in China to the acceleration of Communist or Communist-inspired policies around the world in the twenty-first century. McMeekin argues, however, that despite the endurance of Communism, it remains deeply unpopular as a political form. Where it has arisen, it has always arisen by force.
Blending historical narrative with cutting-edge scholarship, To Overthrow the World revolutionizes our understanding of the evolution of Communism—an idea that seemingly cannot die.
1946 MAO AND MARSHALL
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| 0:28.2 | intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. I'm John Batsworth, Professor |
| 0:31.8 | Sean McMakin, to overthrow the world is the book. In 1965, 1966, there's a rally in Tiananmen called by Mao to inspire students to destroy their |
| 0:44.7 | teachers, their books, they're learning, anyone with special knowledge, any professor. |
| 0:50.9 | And I point out to this, Sean, I've done some lengthy reporting about the Red Guards. |
| 0:57.6 | They're still alive. |
| 0:58.8 | They remember themselves. |
| 1:00.4 | They remember what they did, and they're ashamed of it. |
| 1:02.9 | They talk about other people stealing from homes they broke into. |
| 1:06.7 | They stole. |
| 1:08.1 | And it went on for years. |
| 1:10.2 | It was chiefly over in 66, but it went on for years brutality towards professors. |
| 1:17.6 | And again, I'm looking for ideas. |
| 1:19.6 | Mao meant this to happen, ostensibly because he was competing with younger members of the Politburo. |
| 1:26.6 | I don't know. |
| 1:28.3 | He tortured and beat up his own people, the Chinese communists, as well as people he didn't know. |
| 1:34.3 | He turned them loose on the high school where he sent his children. |
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