Khmer Noir

3 Replies to “Khmer Noir”

1. Is it possible to kill stupidity, eliminate insanity, destroy a culture that is almost non-existent?

2. I love history and am always sad to see it repeat itself. When this started at the end of May (or should I say “re-started from 2 years ago”), I immediately thought of the French Revolution, Robespierre and the Reign of Terror and then of the Chinese Cultural Revolution from the mid-late 1960’s. Victor Davis Hansen is a much better writer than I and has succinctly stated my thoughts.

3. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution only ended with the death of the tyrant Mao Zedong. In reality, he had been a paper tiger the whole time, sick, drunken, senile and completely under the control of Jiang Qing, the failed actress who rode her husband’s coattails to what amounted to becoming empress of China—and succeeded in turning it into a stage for a comic opera written in hell, in which Jiang settled scores with everybody she thought had gotten between her and stardom. (In reality Jiang was ugly, couldn’t act, and was best known in the Shanghai movie scene for her drunkenness and easy virtue.)

   The first act of the Party after Mao’s death was to overthrow Jiang and her lieutenants and throw them in prison. Being the wife of Mao Zedong only protected Jiang from being summarily executed.