Editorial - Lost Generation

         In the early 1960's, Mao Zedong started another campaign called the Down to The Countryside Movement. This made youth go and live with a peasant family and observe and learn from their daily life. They were practicaly kicked out of their homes, and family, and forced to adapt to living with complete strangers in a complete different part of the country. These people lived completely different lives from the youth that were sent to live with them. Many teens did this to please not only their families, but their beloved Chairman Mao. Mao is extremely wrong in forcing youth to go because nobody, no matter their age should be sent away against their will, or be isolated.

            There are three reason's why this is wrong. First of all, high school students are exiled to the countryside. This means that they are sent away, without any say in where they are going. They will be apart from their family without knowing the duration of time that they will be gone, and who they are going to stay with. The second reason why this is wrong is because this group of kids is considered the "lost generation" because so many of them missed so much school. They were very uneducated whenever the Revolution ended and it was very hard for them to find work, or regain all of the schooling that they had lost. Finally, think about if you were sent to a family who was not loving, or who had very different religious and political views from you and your family. You would have to live with them until the time came for you to go home. If you were were stuck with a family that was different from you, it would be a long year.

            Some people think that what Mao is doing is the right thing because he is eliminating the three differences. The three difference are workers and peasants, urban and rural, and manual labor and mental labor. Some of the reasons that someone might think that this is right is that this did create equality for a short time. This gave the youth of the country a time to learn about what was happening in the rest of the country. However, in the end, these youth lost valuable schooling time. They lose family and friend relationships whenever they were seperated. Ultimately, they lost equality and went back to inequality.

            Every person, no matter their age, should not be sent away from their life against their will. No one should be isolated with strangers especially when you are a teenager. No matter how important you political leader is to you, this should never happen.