Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

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amatuertrader
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Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by amatuertrader »

The Khmer Rouge killing intellectuals sounds like such a bizarre thing to do, and they also tried to kill all teachers, educated people and even people who wore glasses.

I got a sense of that sentiment when trying to get my nephews and nieces to go to school in a rural village in Thailand.

There was a real resistance from the local villagers because once a child had some education they no longer were interested in working on the farms. In fact they could show me examples of high school grads who had no job opportunities and would just lounge around all day and get fat and lazy.

It was more than the kids just thought they should have better employment but they actually got kinda snobby from hanging around more "wealthy" kids in high school.

Education totally jeopardized their way of agrarian life and a huge waste of time and money for their children, even if someone else was paying for it. Mandatory 3rd grade schooling was about all that had any value, taught how to add and subtract, how to read and write sorta.

I tried to get them beyond that but failed over and over for 20 years and won't ever try again.

I don't know what this thread is suppose to be about, but has anyone experienced similar difficulties in Cambodia?

Does it somehow help explain why the Khmer Rouge wanted to kill all the intellectuals?
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Big Daikon
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by Big Daikon »

Was some of that due to copying Mao's formula? "Agrarian Revolution" and all?

Interesting contrast to the Soviets who promoted education.
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by Queef »

The Khmer Rouge killing intellectuals sounds like such a bizarre thing to do, and they also tried to kill all teachers, educated people and even people who wore glasses.
Not bizarre at all. The KR leaders were educated and knew exactly that an educated population was more likely to think and become rebellious. That's not proper to the KR. Most authoritarian regimes will do whatever it takes to keep their population
as uneducated as possible.

There was a real resistance from the local villagers because once a child had some education they no longer were interested in working on the farms. In fact they could show me examples of high school grads who had no job opportunities and would just lounge around all day and get fat and lazy.
Were all HS grads a bunch of lazy fat fucks? Was it a minority? A handful of examples do not represent a trend.

It was more than the kids just thought they should have better employment but they actually got kinda snobby from hanging around more "wealthy" kids in high school.
That just sounds like Asia in general. Status-based societies.

Education totally jeopardized their way of agrarian life and a huge waste of time and money for their children, even if someone else was paying for it. Mandatory 3rd grade schooling was about all that had any value, taught how to add and subtract, how to read and write sorta.
May be their kids are just retarded. They could've gone to the city, worked, and sent some money home. Education didn't jeopardize anything. The kids fucked it all up.

I tried to get them beyond that but failed over and over for 20 years and won't ever try again.
Why did you try in the first place, Mr. White Knight In Shining Armor? Some people just don't want to be helped. Take care of your own people and let the rest rot if that's what they want.

I don't know what this thread is suppose to be about, but has anyone experienced similar difficulties in Cambodia?
Every day. At work. At home. Everywhere and anywhere. The vast majority of people aren't motivated to do anything REALLY productive. Give a Cambodian individual (especially males) a Master's degree from one of the top Cambodian universities (which really isn't saying much) and he's going to become king shit of turd mountain. Nothing will move in the right direction. That being said, I've met a very small amount of outstanding Cambodian people. If they were born in the US, they would've become successful entrepreneurs or been on Forbes' 30 Under 30.

Does it somehow help explain why the Khmer Rouge wanted to kill all the intellectuals?
No.
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by amatuertrader »

Queef wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 10:14 am The Khmer Rouge killing intellectuals sounds like such a bizarre thing to do, and they also tried to kill all teachers, educated people and even people who wore glasses.
Not bizarre at all. The KR leaders were educated and knew exactly that an educated population was more likely to think and become rebellious. That's not proper to the KR. Most authoritarian regimes will do whatever it takes to keep their population
as uneducated as possible.

There was a real resistance from the local villagers because once a child had some education they no longer were interested in working on the farms. In fact they could show me examples of high school grads who had no job opportunities and would just lounge around all day and get fat and lazy.
Were all HS grads a bunch of lazy fat fucks? Was it a minority? A handful of examples do not represent a trend.

It was more than the kids just thought they should have better employment but they actually got kinda snobby from hanging around more "wealthy" kids in high school.
That just sounds like Asia in general. Status-based societies.

Education totally jeopardized their way of agrarian life and a huge waste of time and money for their children, even if someone else was paying for it. Mandatory 3rd grade schooling was about all that had any value, taught how to add and subtract, how to read and write sorta.
May be their kids are just retarded. They could've gone to the city, worked, and sent some money home. Education didn't jeopardize anything. The kids fucked it all up.

I tried to get them beyond that but failed over and over for 20 years and won't ever try again.
Why did you try in the first place, Mr. White Knight In Shining Armor? Some people just don't want to be helped. Take care of your own people and let the rest rot if that's what they want.

I don't know what this thread is suppose to be about, but has anyone experienced similar difficulties in Cambodia?
Every day. At work. At home. Everywhere and anywhere. The vast majority of people aren't motivated to do anything REALLY productive. Give a Cambodian individual (especially males) a Master's degree from one of the top Cambodian universities (which really isn't saying much) and he's going to become king shit of turd mountain. Nothing will move in the right direction. That being said, I've met a very small amount of outstanding Cambodian people. If they were born in the US, they would've become successful entrepreneurs or been on Forbes' 30 Under 30.

Does it somehow help explain why the Khmer Rouge wanted to kill all the intellectuals?
No.


Well that's a rosy outlook on life. What keeps you from jumping off a bridge?
amatuertrader
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by amatuertrader »

"Take care of your own people and let the rest rot"

I guess you missed the part where I said they were my nephews and nieces?
That's my family, maybe I don't quite understand by what you mean by "own people".
amatuertrader
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by amatuertrader »

You try to act like you are some sort of scholar, but come on, we all watch Southpark and know what queef means.

More than likely you are just a sock puppet of the K440 house of twerps.

What are you doing over here? Got bored of waiting for something interesting over there?
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by Doc67 »

amatuertrader wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:08 am You try to act like you are some sort of scholar, but come on, we all watch Southpark and know what queef means.

More than likely you are just a sock puppet of the K440 house of twerps.

What are you doing over here? Got bored of waiting for something interesting over there?
we all watch Southpark and know what queef means.
I didn't. I googled it. Disgusting!

But at least I have learnt something new today. :hattip:
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by SternAAlbifrons »

Resentment was a big part of it too, not just ideology.
A millenium of pent-up, justified, resentment at the implacable rigid system that favours the few.

Of course the murder was not justified
- but the resentment is understandable
Spoiler:
and possibly still there
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by phuketrichard »

Doc67 wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:23 pm
amatuertrader wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:08 am You try to act like you are some sort of scholar, but come on, we all watch Southpark and know what queef means.

More than likely you are just a sock puppet of the K440 house of twerps.

What are you doing over here? Got bored of waiting for something interesting over there?
we all watch Southpark and know what queef means.
I didn't. I googled it. Disgusting!

But at least I have learnt something new today. :hattip:
i've learned more from south park than watching Fox news :beer3:
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: Khmer Rouge Killing Intellectuals

Post by Johno35 »

amatuertrader wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:34 am The Khmer Rouge killing intellectuals sounds like such a bizarre thing to do, and they also tried to kill all teachers, educated people and even people who wore glasses.

I got a sense of that sentiment when trying to get my nephews and nieces to go to school in a rural village in Thailand.

There was a real resistance from the local villagers because once a child had some education they no longer were interested in working on the farms. In fact they could show me examples of high school grads who had no job opportunities and would just lounge around all day and get fat and lazy.

It was more than the kids just thought they should have better employment but they actually got kinda snobby from hanging around more "wealthy" kids in high school.

Education totally jeopardized their way of agrarian life and a huge waste of time and money for their children, even if someone else was paying for it. Mandatory 3rd grade schooling was about all that had any value, taught how to add and subtract, how to read and write sorta.

I tried to get them beyond that but failed over and over for 20 years and won't ever try again.

I don't know what this thread is suppose to be about, but has anyone experienced similar difficulties in Cambodia?

Does it somehow help explain why the Khmer Rouge wanted to kill all the intellectuals?
That is one of the things so often glossed over in the reporting of the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge most senior leaders in the Central Comittee were themselves some of the most privileged and educated Intellectuals in Cambodia in all of the 20th century.

The bulk of the most senior leadership were teachers and professors before becoming the Khmer Rouge. The man responsible for the Khmer Rouge security centers was the director of Pedagogical institute that trained teachers. He had a PHD in Philosophy & History. They had PHD’s in economics and history from prestigious French Universities, one had a degree in English literature and operated an English language institute, another was a lawyer. Pol Pot was a history teacher. Comrade Duch was a mathematics professor.

The larger question is why and how did a group of the most educated Cambodian Intellectuals (many of whom were teachers and professors) destroy education and kill people they deemed as being intellectuals!

“The mass movements of modern time, whether socialist or nationalist were invariably pioneered by poets, writers, historians, scholars, philosophers and the like. The connection between intellectual theoreticians and revolutionary movements needs no emphasis. But it is equally true that all nationalist movements were conceived not by men of action but by faultfinding Intellectuals.” The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements 1954

“What does an economy run by intellectuals look like? It is colossal: big plans, big statistics, gigantic steel plants, factories, dams, powerhouses, the biggest ever! The intellectual cannot be bothered with the prosaic business of producing food, clothing, and shelter for the people. He wants to start at the end and work backward. He pants for the grandiose, the monumental, and the spectacular. Though factories, dams, etc are practical things, the intellectual sees them as symbols of power and lordship rather than means for utilitarian means.” The Temper of Out Time - by Eric Hoffer

“It is significant that there should be so many schoolmasters in the ruling intellectual elites. The passion to teach is far more powerful and primitive than the passion to learn; and for all we know the passion to teach may have been a crucial factor in the rise of revolutionary movements of our time. Now and then when I look at Russia, Asia, and the new Africa it seems to me that a band of maniacal schoolmasters have grabbed possession of half of the world and turned it into a vast schoolroom with millions of cowed pupils cringing at their feet. This unprecedented unfantilization of whole populations has been one of the most fateful consequences of the Intellectuals coming to power. And it is this nightmare that the schoolmasters wildest dreams are coming true; when he speaks the whole world listens. And how these school masters do talk! Four hour speeches, six hour speeches, a schoolmasters heaven.”
The Temper of our Time by Eric Hoffer 1967

“Who would have dreamed fifty years ago that intellectuals ready to give their lives for the oppressed would make an article of faith of cynicism and the big lie? Who would have thought that power would corrupt the idealistic intellectual more than it does any other type of humanity.” The Temper of Our Time - Eric Hoffer 1967

“The reason for this paradox is that when intellectuals come to power it is as a rule them eagerly endowed among them who rule the roost. The genuinely creative person seems to lack the temperament requisite for the seizure, exercise, and above all, the retention of power. A ruling intelligentsia, whether in Europe, Asia or Africa treats the masses as raw material to be experimented on, processed, and wasted at Will.” The Temper of Our Time - Eric Hoffer 1967

“The intellectual does not believe in high wages. Affluence, he thinks, corrupts the people. He wants them to work not for filthy money but for a holy cause, for the fatherland, for glory, honor, the future. He wants to ennoble them by making them work for words. The ability to induce people to work for words can, of course, be of vital importance to poor countries trying to get ahead.” The Temper of Our Time - Eric Hoffer 1967

“The unprecedented dehumanization of our century has seen was conceived and engineered by idealists. It is remarkable how worshipful of the machine intellectuals become when the economy of a country is in their keeping, and how naturally they take to treating human beings as cheap all-purpose raw material. They have processed human flesh into steel mills, dams, powerhouses, and it was all done in the name of a noble ideal. It needs an effort to realize that the twentieth century is the century of the idealist.” The Temper of Our Time - Eric Hoffer 1967

“Why should power corrupts the intellectual more than it does any other types of humanity? One of the reasons is to be found in the assumption that education remedies a person for the task of reforming and reshaping humanity- that it equips then to act as an engineer of human souls and a manufacturer of desirable human attributes. Hence when power gives him the freedom to act, the intellectual will be inclined to deal with humanity as with material that can be molded and processed. He will arrange things so that he will not be thwarted by the unpredictability and Intractability of human nature. The anti-humanity of the intellectual in power is not a function of his inhumanity. An elite of intellectuals is more avowed to the service of mankind or of a nation than any other elite. But a savior who wants to turn men into angels will be as much of a hater of human nature as a monster who wants to turn them into slaves and animals. Man must be dehumanized and turned into an object.” The Temper of Our Time - Eric Hoffer 1967
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