Iain Hawkes’s Reviews > Bombard the Headquarters! > Status Update
Iain Hawkes
is on page 79
Well, this is depressing. I mean, I wasn't expecting a book on the Cultural Revolution to be "fun" or anything, but the sheer scale of destruction and death quickly ran the gamete from "shocking" to inuring me against it. :( I doubt I can offer any particular insight or say anything that hasn't been applied before, but what really struck me reading this is a) perpetual revolution is doomed to fail, because you're...
— Jul 29, 2026 11:30PM
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Iain’s Previous Updates
Iain Hawkes
is on page 79
...eventually going to run out of enemies to purge (when you're in power, how are you still revolutionaries?), and b) while this is arguably beyond the book's purview, it's an example of what some scholars have called "classicide." As in, if fascism is doomed to always seek enemies based on ethnicity, communism is doomed to seek enemies based on class. The result? High body counts across the board.
— Jul 29, 2026 11:32PM