Not defending China, but I wouldn’t say that had anything to do with political convenience… the Irish potato famine, or the way world governments are currently letting Israel starve Gaza, are examples of mass starvation caused by political convenience… but Mao’s thing was due to criminal ignorance and stupidity, not political convenience.
…No, it was political convenience, both in the Chinese Famine and the Irish Potato Famine. The British were so convinced that laissez faire capitalism would resolve the issue that they actively got in the way when that turned out not to be true, because it was better to them that the system be seen as working than it actually working. The same applied to the Chinese when Mao was warned that exterminating the sparrows would cause famine, as would ‘deep plowing’ made up by some Soviet guy, but The Party can never be wrong, and if The Party tells you how to do something, you do it that way, even if millions of people die.
It was a situation in both cases where political ideology was put up against reality, and political ideology won, resulting in mass starvation.
When it comes to Israel… I don’t think it really compares because Israel knows Gazans are starving, and that’s actually the goal. They actively want the Palestinians to be gone as quickly as possible. The political convenience is more on the side of anyone who allies with Israel because it’s more convenient for them to have an ally in the middle east, rather than step in and deal with the problem. I guess it would be convenient for Netanyahu specifically, because so long as he keeps the war going, he’s staying in power and most importantly out of prison.
Not defending China, but I wouldn’t say that had anything to do with political convenience… the Irish potato famine, or the way world governments are currently letting Israel starve Gaza, are examples of mass starvation caused by political convenience… but Mao’s thing was due to criminal ignorance and stupidity, not political convenience.
…No, it was political convenience, both in the Chinese Famine and the Irish Potato Famine. The British were so convinced that laissez faire capitalism would resolve the issue that they actively got in the way when that turned out not to be true, because it was better to them that the system be seen as working than it actually working. The same applied to the Chinese when Mao was warned that exterminating the sparrows would cause famine, as would ‘deep plowing’ made up by some Soviet guy, but The Party can never be wrong, and if The Party tells you how to do something, you do it that way, even if millions of people die.
It was a situation in both cases where political ideology was put up against reality, and political ideology won, resulting in mass starvation.
When it comes to Israel… I don’t think it really compares because Israel knows Gazans are starving, and that’s actually the goal. They actively want the Palestinians to be gone as quickly as possible. The political convenience is more on the side of anyone who allies with Israel because it’s more convenient for them to have an ally in the middle east, rather than step in and deal with the problem. I guess it would be convenient for Netanyahu specifically, because so long as he keeps the war going, he’s staying in power and most importantly out of prison.