The Communist Persuasion: A Personal Experience Of Brainwashing PDF
Preview The Communist Persuasion: A Personal Experience Of Brainwashing
Eleutherius Winance was born in 1909 and lived to be a hundred, dying in 2009.
This book deals with the period between 1949 and 1959, after the communist takeover of China.
In this unusual book Eleutherius Winance, O. S. B.. writes about his experiences with the Chinese Communists; It is unusual in that it Is both a personal and philosophical account. The author was a teacher of philosophy in a Benedictine seminary in West China when the Communists came in. He thought he could remain and carry on. more or less as usual. He discovered that he could not, and two and a half years later he was tried, convicted and expelled from Red China. This Is his story.
The first phase of the book is what he calls in his subtitle, "a personal experience of brainwashing." It is precisely that. It carries weight because if is so obviously authentic and sincere. To the personal side of the book must also be added his fascinating narrative of his trial and deportation. This contains the story of a terrible and cruel journey from West China to the eventual sanctuary of Hong Kong. Father Winance is also a philosopher, and quite a bit of the book is given over to detailed philosophical analysis of the whole process of "brainwashing" as a technique to be used in the conquest of a society. Curiously, having undergone the process, he writes without anger or even irritation.
His finding, on the whole, is this: with the more elderly group in the society the "persuasion" is not especially successful, with the middle age group it is tolerated as a means of staging alive; with the younger group it is getting terrifying results. And he observes, several times, that the price that Red China is paying for quick material gain must come out of the character and dignity of the individual.
A final part of the book concerns the specific problems of the Roman Catholic Church in Red China. What Father Winance has to say applies equally well to other religious groups but he speaks authoritatively of The case with which he was most directly concerned.
Because of This division of materials there is a certain diversity of style that may trouble some readers. The philosophical material is occasionally abstruse and requires more than usual concentration. The personal narrative, on the other hand, is fluent and lucid. There is more than enough here to satisfy several tastes.
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