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The incident has elicited a great deal of criticism and raised serious issues. Some say China has reverted to its ancient slavery system; some challenge the mindset of the Communist Party, because before the media exposed the situation the local government had done nothing about it. In fact, certain officials apparently protected the illegal operations. Other people feel great sorrow and pain at the indifference to the plight of these slave laborers shown by local officials, police, the labor department, other workers, and even villagers.
Viewed from a social and cultural angle, this incident reveals the collective moral corruption and deterioration of humanity under the pernicious influence of totalitarianism.
Growing up in the countryside, I experienced the pre-modern society that is still prevalent today in many of China's less developed regions. Villagers live in an extended family society. Although there is no media, these communities have their own ways of communicating and spreading news. It is impossible that local people didn't know about the children working in the kilns. The local police knew it even better. However, as this activity brought in money, the whole group chose to keep silent. How could so many human beings lose their human nature?
One answer is that this is the result of the market economy and pursuit of economic benefit -- but that is not convincing. Such practices are not found in other countries with market economies. I don't believe in the metaphysical supposition that individual human beings are born evil or good. I believe human nature is the product of history. The human characteristics of our time are the direct result of totalitarianism and consumerism.
The totalitarianism of the Cultural Revolution greatly damaged human nature. It destroyed basic human moral standards; it infringed upon human rights at will, and it taught moral nihilism to the people. This nihilism served the revolution disguised as an "absolute principle of historical development." For the sake of revolution, human dignity and human lives could be trampled on at will.
Today, this monster of nihilism cohabits with the rising Chinese consumerism -- the focus on "revolution" has been replaced by "money." For the sake of revolution people could recklessly trample human dignity and ignore moral imperatives. Similarly, in this new historical era the pursuit of money justifies evil behavior.
Before clearing away the evil effects of totalitarianism, our society has rushed into the era of consumerism, which stimulates people's desires. The breakdown of moral standards allows these desires to run rampant, like a wild horse. The desires in themselves are not the problem; the problem is the lack of restraint. Desire without restraint is the desire of a beast; applied to society it becomes collective bestial desire.
Because the totalitarianism of the Cultural Revolution turned too many people into monsters, today we find them mistreating and exploiting people as owners of kilns, foremen, local officials, and labor department staff. The iron shovel is tossed to an enslaved child today, in the pursuit of money, in the same manner it was thrown to people in the "five black categories" during the Cultural Revolution -- to one's teachers, colleagues, or even relatives, without hesitation.
It may appear that the shift from all people "looking toward revolution" to all people "looking toward money" has brought tremendous change. However, even though the focus has changed, human dignity has never been acknowledged and moral defenses against evil have not been put in place. Consequently, we see the astonishing similarity between the new and the old history. If there is no awe or respect for human life and human rights, what evil things cannot be done by human beings?
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(Tao Dongfeng is a professor in the Chinese Department of Capital Normal University in Beijing. He is also editor-in-chief of the scholarly periodical "Culture Research." This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. ©Copyright Tao Dongfeng.)
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(Background note: After hundreds of children disappeared from local villages, a group of 400 parents posted a letter online calling for help in seeking their lost children. Finally, with the help of journalists, the brick kilns were discovered, where children were being forced to work 16 hours a day under terrible conditions, alongside adult workers who had also been tricked into virtual slavery. Following the exposure of this crime, China's State Council ordered a two-month investigation into rural brickworks, mines and other worksites in an attempt to crack down on child labor and forced labor.)
