From Consumerism to the War Against the Poor

It is not just consumerism that has so successfully undermined the ideological foundations of the Chinese Communist Party.  The fact is that the very concept of “people” in “People’s Republic of China” has effectively been redefined to exclude the poor.  Think of not only the rural farmers left without land to work but also poverty-stricken city dwellers made homeless, both in the name of the “faster, better, cheaper” motto of economic growth and progress.  Communism was supposed to protect the poor from exploitation by the rich.  Now that China has become a major world economic power, the Communist Party has joined the ranks of the rich and mighty, using authoritarian control to wage war on the poor.  Presumably, the government is now strong enough to make sure that any “real Communists” are excluded in having a say about this new ideology!