SKIRMISHER

You used to see him. Now you don’t.

Nothing’s more amusing than seeing somebody admitting to the errors of their old hardline, ideologically anal-retentive ways. Like China, which this year begins its spanking new Big Leap “Forget Those Shit” Forward — an earnest about-face-and-bend-over campaign of “rectifications” that simply involve reducing what used to take entire volumes of hardbound books into a staccato of short clever quips.

Mao Zedong? “Oh, yeah, that old guy…”

Wars, dynasties, communist revolutions? “What’s (burp) that again?”

Socialism has been reduced to a single, short chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a sentence. The text mentions Mao only once — in a chapter on etiquette.

“Nearly overnight the country’s most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950’s. The changes passed high-level scrutiny, the authors say, and are part of a broader effort to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves today’s economic and political goals.

Supporters say the overhaul enlivens mandatory history courses for junior and senior high school students and better prepares them for life in the real world. The old textbooks, not unlike the ruling Communist Party, changed relatively little in the last quarter-century of market-oriented economic reforms. They were glaringly out of sync with realities students face outside the classroom. But critics say the textbooks trade one political agenda for another.”

China is in fact just in time; everybody needs to zap those bad, yucky memories, keep the eternal sunshine of their spotless minds, and be dazed-happy enough to board the Magical Mystery Tour. Destination: Who cares about destination. Just keep on driving, baby.

WHERE’S MAO? [NY TIMES]

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