text:
China Since 1978
Vol. 43, Issue No. 52, 27 Dec, 2008
Minqi Li
Socialism, Capitalism, and Class Struggle: The Political Economy of Modern China
This essay traces the evolution of the political economy of China from the 1949 revolution up to the triumph of Chinese capitalism in 1992. It first describes and discusses the tremendous achievements in the first quarter century after the revolution, and also the struggles during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The essay outlines the context of the tussles that followed the death of Mao, the role of the "intellectuals", the alliance or the lack of it with the urban working class during Tiananmen 1989 and how the forces represented by Deng Xiaoping were able to impose their writ on the economy and society of China.
CHINA SINCE 1978Economic & Political Weekly EPW december 27, 200877Socialism, Capitalism, and Class Struggle: The Political Economy of Modern ChinaMinqi LiThis essay traces the evolution of the political economy of China from the 1949 revolution up to the triumph of Chinese capitalism in 1992. It first describes and discusses the tremendous achievements in the first quarter century after the revolution, and also the struggles during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The essay outlines the context of the tussles that followed the death of Mao, the role of the "intellectuals", the alliance or the lack of it with the urban working class during Tiananmen 1989 and how the forces represented by Deng Xiaoping were able to impose their writ on the economy and society of China.Minqi Li (minqi.li@economics.utah.edu) is with the Department of Economics, University of Utah Salt Lake City, USA.In recent years, China has emerged as a leading driving force of the global capitalist economy. The dynamics of class struggle and the possibility of socialist revival in China are issues of great importance not only for China but also for the world as a whole.To prepare for the future revolution in China, it is necessary to review the historical lessons. This paper discusses the experience of class struggle during revolutionary China and in China's tran-sition from socialism to capitalism. It is hoped that by learning from these historical lessons, the Chinese working class will be intellectually better prepared in the future revolutionary strug-gle, and re-establish a new, socialist society in China in the not very distant future.The Capitalist World System and the Chinese RevolutionIn the early 19th century, China was still the world's largest terri-torial economy and China's GDP accounted for one-third of the gross world product.1 In the notorious Opium War (1840-42), China was defeated by Britain and was forced to pay war indemnity, open treaty ports, and cede Hong Kong to Britain. It marked the begin-ning of China's incorporation into the capitalist world system. During the second half of the mid-19th century, China suffered successive major military defeats, lost large portions of territory, and was reduced to a less than sovereign semi-colonial state with foreign armies and navies stationed on her soil. By the early20thcentury, China was reduced to one of the poorest countries in the world.China's incorporation into the capitalist world system not only led to the disintegration of the traditional social structure, but also prepared the conditions for China's great revolutionary transfor-mation. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, all major classes and social groups within the Chinese society had, at different moments of history, risen to China's political stage and each had its own opportunity to lead China's transformation.The peasant rebellion of Taiping Tianguo (1851-65) was crushed by the joint forces of the Chinese gentry-landlord class and western imperialism. The gentry-landlord class attempted to accomplish "self-strengthening" through the so-called "Westernisation Move-ment", which was no more than an attempt of military moderni-sation. The Westernisation Movement failed miserably, as the Chinese army and navy were annihilated by rising Japanese im-perialism in the 1894-95 war.In the early 20th century, the national bourgeoisie was the in-disputable leader of China's national liberation movement. How-ever, the Chinese bourgeoisie was numerically small and economi-cally weak. In its social background, it was intimately connected
CHINA SINCE 1978december 27, 2008 EPW Economic & Political Weekly78with the gentry-landlord class. It was largely a commercial and financial bourgeoisie that served as an intermediary between the Chinese market and the world market. The small indigenous industrial bourgeoisie was also dependent on foreign capital for finance, technology, and markets. Detached and alienated from the masses of workers and peasants, the Chinese national bour-geoisie was unable to mobilise the great majority of the population and lead fundamental social transformations.When the Manchu Qing dynasty collapsed, Sun Zhongshan and his nationalist comrades failed to establish an effective demo-cratic government. China soon fell into chaos and endless civil wars. By the 1930s, when the Nationalist Party ruled much of China, it had degenerated into a corrupt, military-bureaucratic clique.It was the general historical conditions in China and in the world as a whole in the first half of the 20th century which deter-mined that, only with the massive mobilisation of the broadest layers of the oppressed and exploited, led by fundamentally new revolutionary force, could China accomplish simultaneously social revolution and national liberation, and redefine its position in the capitalist world system.When the Communist Party of China (CPC) came to power, it was confronted with three major challenges. The first challenge was to reverse China's long-term economic and geopolitical decline in the modern world system that had started in the 19th century, and catch up with the west. This challenge resulted from the fact that China had become a nation state within the capitalist world system, and therefore had to play by the rules of the system by competing with the rest of the world (and especially the major imperialist powers) industrially and militarily.The existence of the capitalist world system constitutes a set of historical constraints that would apply to all states at all times during the lifespan of capitalism. However, the new People's Republic would have to operate within not only the constant con-straints imposed by the world system, but also the constraints that were the direct outcomes of the Chinese Revolution. To the extent that theCPC came to power as a result of broad and sys-tematic mobilisation of the peasants and workers, the new revo-lutionary state would have to reflect the desires, hopes, expecta-tions, and aspirations of the great masses of working people.It was the set of historical constraints imposed by the Chinese Revolution that led to the second and third challenge for the CPC. The second challenge was to provide the necessary material and social conditions to meet the historically determined "basic needs" of the Chinese working people. The third challenge, was to accomplish fundamental transformation of political, economic, and social relations in China as well as in the world system, to build and consolidate socialism (a much more egalitarian and democratic social system) in China and in the world as a whole.It turned out that Revolutionary China was able to meet the first and second challenge with great success. It also made a great heroic attempt to meet the third challenge but failed.Socialism and AccumulationFor China to stabilise its position in the capitalist world system and potentially climb up the ladder catching up with the west, two conditions were required. First, China had to mobilise all potentially available economic surplus to accelerate the accumu-lation of capital. Second, while China could not be outside of the capitalist world system, nor could it change its peripheral status in the system in the short run, it could manage to minimise the transfer of surplus from itself to the core states that would result from unequal exchange and cross-border capital flows.By eliminating the gentry-landlords, bureaucratic capitalists, and foreign capitalists, the available economic surplus was con-centrated in the hands of the state and the first condition was met. In 1952, China's accumulation rate (accumulation as a shareof national income) had already risen to 21%. By the 1970s, the accumulation rate had increased to more than 30% (State Statistical Bureau of China 1985). To meet the second condition, China had followed the classical Soviet strategy in the form of state-ownership of the means of production and centralised economic planning, in effect, a complete state monopoly over the domestic market.According to Angus Maddison, from 1950 to 1976, China's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 4.7% and China's per capita GDP grew at 2.6%. The Chinese economy more than tripled over about a quarter of century. China grew more rapidly than North America, western Europe, Africa, and the average of east and south Asia, and only lagged behind Latin America. If the Chinese official growth rates are used, China would rank as the fastest growing large economy in the world in this period. Overall, China succeeded in stabilising and possibly improving its relative position in the capitalist world system, reversing the long-term decline that had started in the early 19th century (Maddison 2003 and State Statistical Bureau 1985).2More important than the growth rates were the successes of the Maoist period in the building of capital stock and technical capabilities that prepared the conditions for China's growth "miracle" after the 1980s. In the Maoist period, the state and the people's communes made enormous investments in irriga-tion, heavy industry, transportation, and social capabilities. The central planning system was very effective in the diffusion of industrial and agricultural technologies and economic "self-reliance" meant that by the 1970s China was able to produce a wide range of industrial goods at various levels of technological complexity.Socialism and Basic NeedsIn 1956, with the state-ownership of the means of production established in the cities and collective ownership established in agriculture, the Eighth Congress of theCPC officially pronounced that exploiter classes had been eliminated and China had become a socialist state.In this paper, the concept of "socialism" is used in a specific theoretical and historical sense. It is clear that Revolutionary China that existed in the period 1949-76 remained a part of the capitalist world system and was bound by the basic laws of mo-tion ("the law of value") of the system. Further, as the Maoists argued, throughout the entire historical period of Revolutionary China, there were class antagonisms and class struggles.On the other hand, the Soviet Union, Revolutionary China, Cuba, and other historical socialist states, represented a distinct
CHINA SINCE 1978Economic & Political Weekly EPW december 27, 200879form of state organisation. These states were the historical product of great workers' and peasants' revolutions and their internal economic and political relations were relatively favourable for the working people. It was in their abilities to meet the "basic needs" of the greatest majority of the population that China and other historical socialist states distinguished themselves from the rest of the peripheral and semi-peripheral states in the capi-talist world system.After a continent by continent comparative study of the popu-lations' health conditions in socialist and capitalist states, Vicente Navarro (1993) concluded that: "at least in the realm of under-development, where hunger and malnutrition are part of the daily reality, socialism rather than capitalism is the form of or-ganisation of production and distribution of goods and services that better responds to the immediate socio-economic needs of the majority of these populations". While the struggle for accumulation conforms fully to the laws of motion of the capitalist world system, the pursuit of basic needs raises fundamental questions regarding the rationality of the existing system. The defining feature of the capitalist world system is the endless accumulation of capital. Within the existing system, individuals, groups, and states have been under the constant and relentless pressure, to accumulate, and to always pursue "more". But to what end?"Economic development" is supposed to deliver well-being to the general population. But how can "well-being" be defined and measured? Amartya Sen made the distinction between human achievements or "functionings" and the ownership of the com-modities. While the command over commodities is a means to the end of well-being, it shall not be confused with the end itself. Sen proposed using indicators of capabilities rather than money income or wealth as the measure of well-being or living standard (Sen 1999).The population's life expectancy at birth is a good summaris-ing indicator that can properly reflect a country's achievement in approaching its population's physical potential. According to the World Bank data, between 1960 and 1980, China's life expectancy at birth rose by 30.5 years. The rate of improvement tripled the average rate of improvement for low-income coun-tries. By 1980, China's life expectancy had risen to 67 years, fully 13 years ahead of India and better than the middle-income average. The success of the Chinese socialism in advancing the general population's health conditions is indisputable. In the Maoist era, China also achieved larger improvements in adult literacy and basic education than most of the peripheral countries.What may be more revealing is to compare China's perform-ance in the Maoist socialist period with the period when China undertook the transition to capitalism. According to World Bank data, between 1980 and 2000, China's life expectancy improved only by 3.5 years despite the very rapid economic growth, and China's improvement in life expectancy in this period was smaller than the world average and the average for low-income countries.The achievements of Revolutionary China in advancing people's physical and mental potentials were nothing short of a spectacular success. It demonstrated convincingly the superiority of socialism over capitalism from the working people's point of view in the context of periphery and semi-periphery.Basic Contradictions of Chinese SocialismChinese socialism was the historical product of a great revolu-tion, which was based on the broad mobilisation and support of the workers and peasants comprising the great majority of the population. As a result, it would necessarily reflect the interests and aspirations of the ordinary working people. On the other hand, China remained a part of the capitalist world system, and was under constant and intense pressure of military and economic competition against other big powers. To mobilise resources for capital accumulation, surplus product had to be extracted from the workers and peasants and concentrated in the hands of the state. This in turn created opportunities for the bureaucratic and technocratic elites to make use of their control over the surplus product to advance their individual power and interests rather than the collective interest of the working people. This was the basic historical contradiction that confronted the Chinese socialism as well as other socialist states in the 20th century.In a "normal" class society, the use of outright coercive force is often the primary method of surplus extraction. In the core states of the capitalist world system, and to some extent also in the pe-riphery and semi-periphery, where labour is "free" in the sense that the workers can sell their labour power at the prevailing prices determined by the supply and demand in the labour mar-ket, the "reserve army of labour" or a large pool of unemployed or underemployed workers plays an indispensable role in depress-ing the wages and disciplining the labour force. In a socialist state, however, both approaches of surplus extraction were either absent or substantially weakened. As theCPC rose to power as a result of the broad political mobi-lisation and awakening among the Chinese workers and peas-ants, the construction of the new revolutionary state involved a "social compact" or a set of "historical compromises" that were radically different from what were typically found in other states of the capitalist world system. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the urban working class enjoyed a wide range of economic and social rights that included job security, free healthcare, free education, subsidised housing, and guaranteed pensions that together con-stituted what were referred to as the "iron rice bowl". In the rural areas, with the consolidation of the people's communes, the peas-ants were provided with very basic, but a wide range of public services including healthcare, education, care for the disabled, and care of the old people without children. Collective organisa-tion of work and distribution of income protected the peasants from the worst outcomes of natural disasters as well as the social pressure and polarisation that would arise from spontaneous market activities.These social arrangements (in effect the constitutional rights for the Chinese workers and peasants) not only provided the Chinese workers and peasants with a guaranteed minimum income and access to certain basic public services, but also greatly limited the range of surplus extraction techniques available for the state and its economic managers. The Chinese workers and peasants thus had got a far greater degree of control
CHINA SINCE 1978december 27, 2008 EPW Economic & Political Weekly80over their own labour processes, in term of the pace, style, and intensity of their labour, in comparison with their counterparts in the capitalist states.This was quite obvious for the urban sector workers whose iron rice bowl could not be broken. For agriculture, although the state had monopolised the agricultural markets and could influence the rate of surplus extraction through control over agricultural prices, the level of the total agricultural output (and therefore thesurplus that could be extracted from the agriculture) had to depend on the peasants' productive effort. Collective organisa-tion of the agricultural work and the relatively egalitarian income distribution within the rural collectives had moreover removed competition among individual peasants as a potential disciplin-ing mechanism that could force the peasants to deliver a higher level of labour input.Therefore, for a socialist state, accumulation and surplus ex-traction had to rely primarily on the working people's willingness to make a sufficiently large labour contribution. That is, it had to rely upon the socialist consciousness. To the extent the workers and peasants identified with the socialist state and considered the state's control over the surplus to be in their own long-term common interest, surplus extraction could be relatively effective and accumulation could proceed at a reasonable pace. But if this failed to happen, then surplus extraction became difficult and crisis of accumulation would follow.Other than the socialist consciousness, the state bureaucrats and economic managers could also use "material incentives" as an alternative technique of surplus extraction. In theory, the payments of income to the workers could be structured in such a way so that they were proportional to the workers' labour contri-butions. In reality, a system of material incentives would create an internal labour market within any socialist work organisation. It led to divisions within the working class, undermined workers' control over their own labour processes, allowed some skilled workers to emerge as a labour aristocracy, and provided justifica-tion for the material privileges of bureaucratic and technocratic elites. Unlimited and inappropriate use of material incentives and distribution according to labour would seriously undermine the social basis of the collective socialist consciousness.In theReading Notes on the Soviet Textbook of Political Economy (1961-62), Mao criticised the excessive dependence of the Soviet socialism on material incentives. Mao argued that a socialist economy would have to, first of all, emphasise the interest of society as a whole, the collective interest, the long-term interest, rather than the short-term individual interest. The purpose of socialist work is to serve the people, serve the collective interest, and con-tribute to the building of socialism, rather than to earn more money. Excessive emphasis of material incentives and individual interests would make capitalism unbeatable (Mao Tse-tung 1979).For the workers and peasants to identify with the socialist state, they had to have confidence that the party and state bureaucrats, economic managers, and other technocrats were indeed using and allocating the society's surplus product in a way that would contribute to the working people's long-term common interest. But for this to happen, the material privileges of the bureaucratic and technocratic elites had to be subject to strict limits, and in some cases, be completely eliminated. The elites would have to make an explicit and serious effort to demonstrate their willing-ness to connect with the "masses" and their commitment to the working people's interest (for example, through regular partici-pation in productive labour). Conditions had to be created to deepen and widen the workers' and peasants' participation in the management of the state's political and economic affairs. It would be possible for these conditions to be met so long as a substantial portion of the party and state bureaucrats were com-mitted to the revolutionary ideal and were willing to sacrifice their individual interests for the common interest of working people. However, the historical tendency in the socialist states had been that a growing proportion of the bureaucratic and techno-cratic elites tended to become, and some former revolutionaries tended to degenerate into, selfish careerists who were only inter-ested in the expansion of individual wealth and power. Once these selfish careerists had become the majority in the elites and managed to consolidate their material privileges and power, then a new exploiter class in the form of privileged bureaucrats, privi-leged technocrats, and bureaucratic capitalists, alienated from the worker and peasants, would have taken shape.The fundamental solution to this contradiction lies with the complete overthrow of the existing world system and its replace-ment by a new socialist world system based on egalitarianism and global democracy. However, so long as the capitalist world system continues to operate and exist, there is no easy solution to this contradiction. For a socialist state within a capitalist world-economy to survive as a socialist state, it must engage in constant and persistent struggle, by mobilising the masses of workers and peasants, to fight against its own tendency towards degeneration and "capitalist restoration", while supporting revolutionary movements in other states to accelerate the victory of the world socialist revolution.Socialism and Class StruggleTheCPC came to power after 28 years of arduous and heroic revo-lutionary struggle. Millions perished or gave up on the way. Among the remaining communists, many of them were indeed highly committed, mostly selfless revolutionaries.Once the party was in power, instead of attracting and recruit-ing committed revolutionaries, it increasingly attracted people who saw party membership as the path to power and material privileges. Industrialisation required technical and managerial expertise, which was concentrated in a small group of intellectu-als and "experts" that typically had capitalist or landlord family backgrounds. The social composition of the party had shifted from the workers and peasants to the intellectuals and techni-cians. By 1957, the workers were already outnumbered by the in-tellectuals in the party.Some of the former revolutionaries had also become careerist bureaucrats who were primarily interested in their individual material interests. In the first few years of the people's republic, the party-member cadres continued to live in a relatively egali-tarian way, with the government directly providing them with the basic necessities and a small amount of monetary allowance. After 1955, all cadres were divided into 26 ranks with monthly
CHINA SINCE 1978Economic & Political Weekly EPW december 27, 200881salaries ranging from 30 yuan to 560 yuan. The CPC had thus been transformed from a revolutionary organisation into a bu-reaucratic organisation that was increasingly alienated from the ordinary working people (Meisner 2003).It was in this context that theCPC leadership was gradually divided into two factions advocating two different "lines". One faction, led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, declared that the principal contradiction in socialist China was no longer between antagonistic social classes but "between the advanced socialist system and the backward social productive forces". It followed that the CPC would no longer focus on class struggle. Instead, the party's main task was to promote economic development.While the First Five-Year Plan was an economic success, some of the problems of the Soviet-style centralised planning were al-ready apparent. Mao Zedong criticised the Soviet-style planning for its bias towards heavy industry, coastal provinces, and cen-tralisation, to the neglect of agriculture, light industry, hinter-land provinces, and local initiatives. Partly in response to these problems, the Great Leap Forward was launched in December 1957. In the rural areas, people's communes were formed to mobi-lise the vast underutilised labour force to build large-scale agri-cultural infrastructure and develop rural industries that were oriented towards local needs. The planning process was decen-tralised to allow greater initiatives from provinces, localities, and grass roots workers.The Great Leap Forward accomplished many important achievements. There were many technological breakthroughs, an enormous amount of industrial and agricultural infrastruc-ture was built (much of it continues to be used even today), and hundreds of millions of peasants gained preliminary experience and knowledge of modern industrial production.The economic surge in 1958, however, was followed by several years of major economic difficulties and widespread food short-age, a period that was known to the Chinese as the "three diffi-cult years". The conventional story about the Great Leap Forward and its failure was that Mao Zedong imposed his utopian version of communism upon the party leadership. Under Mao's pressure, provincial and local party leaders imposed wildly unrealistic production targets on the peasants. The breakdown of effective communication and ill-advised decentralisation led to nation-wide economic chaos and massive misallocation of resources. Peasants' incentives were further undermined by excessive level-ling of income under the new commune system. All of these contributed to the major crop failures from 1959 to 1962. The situation was then made worse by the high requisitioning of grains from the countryside as the central government failed to realisethatthe actual level of grain production was much lower than reported. The result was, according to some, the largest famine in the human history(Meisner:214-44). It is not the purpose of this paper to conduct a careful and detailed study of what actually happened during the Great Leap Forward and its aftermath. However, it is important to point outthat now there is a growing body of evidence that seriously challenges the conventional story. Both Joseph Ball (2006) and the late William Hinton (2006) questioned the reliability and the internal consistency of the data used by people who argued that a massive famine took place.In recent years, as a growing proportion of the politically con-scious young Chinese intellectuals and students move to the left, there has been a growing influence of Maoist ideas in China. Many young Maoists have joined force with Maoist revolutionary veterans to defend the social and economic records of the Maoist period. There has been a lively debate on the internet about the actual historical course as well as the short-term and long-term consequences of the Great Leap Forward.Zhang Hongzhi, a veteran of the People's Liberation Army who had participated in both the Liberation War (the 1946-50 civil war) and the Korean War, was a leading defender (but by no means the only one) of Mao for the Great Leap Forward period. Zhang collected a large body of evidence that convincingly demonstrated that, it was Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping (who were in charge of the party's and the state's day-to-day affairs), who were primarily responsible for the "communist wind" (the excessive levelling of income within and between communes which seriously undermined the peasants' work incentives) and the "exaggeration wind" (the artificially high production targets which led to pervasive concealing and distortion of information). Zhang also argued that it was Mao who most actively led the effort to correct these policy errors but Mao's effort was sabotaged by Liu and Deng (Zhang undated).The failure of the Great Leap Forward reflected the fact that by the late 1950s, a privileged bureaucratic group had already taken hold. The communist party had evolved from a revolutionary organisation, the members of which were committed to revolu-tionary ideals, committed to the interest of working people, and willing to make self-sacrifices, into one that included many careerists who were primarily concerned with personal power and enrichment.Given the political situation in China at the time, from time to time, these privileged bureaucrats and careerists were still under the pressure from the workers' and peasants' revolutionary initia-tives on the one hand, and from the remaining revolutionary elements in the party on the other hand. During the Great Leap Forward, these privileged bureaucrats and careerists responded to these pressures in ways that would help to advance their own ambitions given the political environment, but cared very little about the working people's genuine interest. Their behaviour led to disasters for the ordinary Chinese people.Having failed to advance the "social productive forces" in the Great Leap Forward through the "communist wind" and the "exaggeration wind", Liu and Deng moved from an "ultra-leftist" approach to a "pragmatic" or right opportunist approach. In the rural areas, they allowed the peasants to have bigger private plots and sell their outputs on free markets, diverting peasants' labour effort away from the collective work. The collective work itself was partially privatised as a result of the "contracting production to the family" policy. This new partial privatisation had led to rising inequality among peasants as well as growing corruption among the rural cadres.In the cities, the industrial sector was reorganised to concentrate power and authority in the hands of managerial and technical
CHINA SINCE 1978december 27, 2008 EPW Economic & Political Weekly82experts. Bonuses and piece rates were widely introduced to promote economic efficiency. The rising economic and social inequality was justified by the "socialist" distributive principle: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his labour", which Marx considered to be a remnant of the "bourgeois right".Thus, by the early 1960s, a revisionist faction within the com-munist party leadership, led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, had been formed. In the 1950s, there were still some conflicts of interests between those elites who came from intellectual and technician backgrounds (which often meant former capitalist and landlord backgrounds) and those former revolutionaries who had degenerated into careerist bureaucrats, as was reflected by the anti-rightist movement in 1957 when Liu, Deng joined Mao to meet the challenge from the intellectuals with ideological sup-pression. By the early 1960s, the interests of the two groups of elites had very much converged as the revisionist party leaders relied upon technocrats with their "expertise" to advance the productive forces.Against the Liu-Deng revisionist faction, Mao argued that: "thesocialist society is a rather long historical period. Within the historical period of socialism, classes, class contradictions, and class struggles continue to exist. There is the struggle between the socialist road and the capitalist road. There is the danger of capitalist restoration" (Talk given at the Beidaihe Central Committee Working Conference and the Tenth Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, August and September 1962).In 1964, after reading an on-site report on the "Socialist Educa-tion Movement" in a tractor factory, Mao made the following comments: "The bureaucratic class on the one hand, and the working class and the poor and lower middle peasants on the other hand, are two sharply antagonistic classes. They are be-coming or have become the bourgeois elements who suck the workers' blood. How can they recognise [the necessity of socialist revolution]? They are the objects of struggle, the objects of revolution" (Comments on Chen Zhengren's Report on Socialist Education Movement at Luoyang Tractor Factory, 12 December 1964 and 15 January 1965).After several attempts to re-revolutionise the party from within had failed, Mao made a direct appeal to the ordinary workers, peasants, and students, calling on them to rebel against the "cap-italist roaders who are in authority in the party". That became the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.Several historical factors contributed to the failure of the Cultural Revolution. First, China remained a part of the capitalist world system and intense interstate competition was a constant constraint. In the absence of a swift political victory for the Maoists, China could not remain in conditions of political chaos for long without seriously undermining its position in the world system and its ability to prevent unfavourable external intervention. After 1969, the Maoists were forced to retreat from the fights for provincial and local powers, to re-establish domestic political and economic stability. The "old cadres" were rehabilitated and again in control of much of the party and state bureaucracy as well as the military.Second, despite Mao's personal charisma and seemingly un-questioned authority, the Maoists did not have effective control over the army. The "old cadres" were often able to receive sup-port from local army units and repress the rebels by force. Mao made a tactical pact with Lin Biao to secure the army's neutrality. After Lin Biao attempted an abortive coup and was killed in an air crash, Deng Xiaoping (who had led a large field army during the civil war) became the most influential among the remaining army leaders.The unique Maoist theoretical contribution to the international communist movement was that there would have to be "continu-ing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat". How-ever, in the 1950s, Mao and his comrades could benefit from no or very little historical experience. The Soviet Union was regarded as the leader of the world socialist revolution and the successful example of "socialist industrialisation". It was not until the early 1960s that Mao had reached a better and deeper understanding of the class contradictions and class struggles in the new "socialist society". By then the privileged bureaucrats and technocrats had already to a large extent consolidated their power.Finally, the ordinary Chinese workers and peasants were politically inexperienced and unprepared. Despite the Maoist warning of the danger of capitalist restoration, the Marxist-Maoist theoretical reasoning did not seem to fully conform with the daily experience of many ordinary workers and peasants. While there were pervasive resentments among the workers and peasants against corruption and bureaucratic material privileges, to the ordinary Chinese workers and peasants in the 1970s, it must have seemed a quite remote and extremely unlikely possibility that the capitalist property relations would one day return with full vengeance and that the workers and peasants would have lost all of their socialist rights and be reduced to working slaves sub-jected to the most ruthless capitalist exploitation.Exhausted by the inconclusive power struggles, the urban working class became politically passive and was caught off guard by the 1976 counter-revolutionary coup. With the defeat of the Maoists, the working class lost ideological and organisational leadership. Confused and de-politicised, the Chinese working class was to be taken advantage of by both the ruling elites and the opportunistic middle class "democratic movement", paving the way for their tragic defeat in the 1990s.The Triumph of Chinese CapitalismMao died in September 1976. The new Chairman Hua Guofeng, a political opportunist, undertook a coup and arrested the radical Maoist leaders (the so-called "Gang of Four" led by Jiang Qing, Mao's wife), with the backing of the "old cadres" and the implicit support of Deng Xiaoping. Hua soon proved to be politically use-less and by 1979, Deng was effectively in charge of the party and started "economic reform".The early economic reform actually brought about immediate material benefits to nearly every social layer. In the rural areas, the "family contract system" was implemented which in effect privatised agriculture. In the early 1980s, as the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides surged, and with the help of the infra-structure built under the collective era, agricultural production
CHINA SINCE 1978december 27, 2008 EPW Economic & Political Weekly84"comparative advantage" so that it could prosper through export-oriented accumulation.The ruling elites were divided into three factions. The right wing (usually referred to as the "radical reformers" in western literature) was led by Zhao Ziyang, the party's general secretary as well as prime minister. These "reformers" actually represented the most corrupt sections of China's bureaucratic capitalists. Their sons and daughters had gained the most in the early years of China's capitalist transition. Using their political influences and connections, they profited from import-export trade, ar-ranged deals for foreign capitalist firms, and established ties with international capitalist conglomerates. Zhao was in favour of a Chinese version of shock therapy: full-scale liberalisation and privatisation right away. The slogan at the time was: "let the prices make one jump over the river", meaning immediate re-moval of all state social subsidies and liberalisation of all prices.The "left" wing (usually referred to as the "conservatives" in the western literature) was led by Chen Yun, who grew up in a workers' family and was a veteran communist leader. Chen represented the veteran communists in the party who, although by no means were opposed to the general direction of the capitalist-oriented reform, nevertheless maintained some linger-ing affection with the original revolutionary goal. Chen was in favour of a "socialist planned commodity economy" (as supposed to "market economy") where the state would control the com-manding heights. Politically, Chen advocated slogans such as "[The Party] must wholeheartedly rely upon the working class". In fact, Chen was advocating a state capitalist model that would rest upon the expansion of domestic markets, which would in turn require a social compromise between the capitalist class and the urban working class.But the master of Chinese politics was Deng Xiaoping. Al-though Deng had officially "retired", he kept the crucial position of chairman of the Central Military Committee and had the back-ing of the majority of the bureaucracy and the army. Deng under-stood that the state capitalist model proposed by Chen was politi-cally and economically unsustainable. For China to complete a successful capitalist transition and for the bureaucratic capitalist class to secure its fundamental political and economic interests, the remaining power of China's urban working class would have to be broken. For that, the ruling elites would need to have the political support of the intellectuals or the urban middle class.However, Deng was politically experienced enough to know that Zhao's strategy amounted to political suicide. The implemen-tation of shock therapy without breaking the working class's power would immediately lead to a general working class rebel-lion. Further, while a political alliance between the bureaucratic capitalist class and the urban middle class was necessary to de-feat the working class, the intellectuals had to be first taught a lesson so that they would settle for no more than a junior position in the pro-capitalist political alliance. In retrospect, Deng's politi-cal plan worked marvellously well.Greenleft
Hinton, William (2006): Through a Glass Darkly: US Views of the Chinese Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press).
http://www.gongnong.org/ jnmzd/jmmao0212070015.htm). http://devdata.worldbank.org/dataonline).
http://monthlyreview.
org/0906ball.htm).
Read more about Socialism, Capitalism, and Class Struggle: The Political Economy of Modern China


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text:
Android Community
T-Mobile G2x Review
Welcome to Android Community's review of the T-Mobile G2x, T-Mobile's first dual-core device, LG's first dual-core device, and back when it when people called its very close relative the Optimus 2x, the first dual-core period. All that doesn't matter though because there this sassy little lady is, and it's bumpin. Over the past few days we've been putting this phone through some wild tests and real-world use tests, even playing some games on it, and here we've got the first big verdict.
This phone is long and thin, having a 4-inch screen, one notch smaller than what HTC is quickly claiming as their trademark gigantic 4.3-inch competitor. The display is bright, very bright, coming at you with a LCD IPS screen at 480 x 800 pixel resolution and yes, the touchscreen is both capacitive and very, very sensitive – there's NEVER a time when you're going to be tapping over and over again like some of you've wondered aloud in the posts leading up to this one.
The entire unit measures in at 4.90 x 2.50 x 0.40 inches (124 x 64 x 10 mm), weighs 5.00 oz (142 g,) and has a camera on the back as well as the front. The front-facing camera weighs in at 1.3 megapixels while the back boasts an 8 megapixel camera with auto focus, image stabilization, smile detection, geo tagging, multishot, and panorama abilities, as well as an LED flash. You can record in 920×1080 (1080p HD) for video on this back camera, and of course you'll be video chatting the night away with the front.
Volume on this device can be adjusted with the up and down buttons along the right, power button, headphone jack, and HDMI port (with lovely plastic cover,) are along the top. On the left there's absolutely nothing, and on the bottom there's a couple of fabulous bigtime speakers and a microUSB port for all of your power charging and data transfer needs. Of course if you're the kind of person who would rather do this sort of thing via microSD card, you can get at that behind the full-body battery cover on the back.
Also under this battery cover you'll find the 1500 mAh battery and right between the battery and the camera lens, a location to slip your T-Mobile SIM card. The battery cover is clever in that instead of making it all plastic, (light, but appearing cheap,) or all metal, (looks nice but feels heavy,) LG has mixed the two, adding a single metal strip down the center as a gesture that not only adds some class, it ties it directly to the G-Slate which appears so far to be inextricably brand-tied to the G2x in more ways than one. Best friends forever!
Then there's the metal band around the entire border of the device, revealing another major speaker at the top of the phone on the front right above the T-Mobile logo. Again, light and powerful. The front of the G2x is covered with curved Gorilla Glass. This adds a layer of elegance to an already classy device, all of these things together making what's easily one of the nicest feeling Android phones on the market today.
Inside, you're going to find a fat and awesome Dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 1GHz dual-core processor, pumping power for all your high-demand apps and wackiness through this phone like its ambrosia. Sidenote: that'd be a great name for a processor, don't you think? There's also 8 GB storage, 512 MB RAM, and that microSD slot can handle up to 32GB. As for connections you'll get Wifi 802.11 b/g/n, EDGE, Dual-band 4G UMTS/HSPA+ (Bands I and IV,) and Quad-band GSM (world phone) 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. Also jam some video and/or games into your television with HDMI and DLNA, and go wild with your accelerometer, compass, and GPS. And use the phone as a wifi hotspot. And a partridge in a pear tree.
What you're going to get here is a Vanilla Android 2.2 Froyo experience. What that means is that it's exactly as Google intended it to be inside this phone, few to no modifications other than the addition of a few apps and features, all of them welcome, believe it or not: Need for Speed Shift HD, N.O.V.A (demo,) T-Mobile TV, Zinio (magazine app,) and Qik (video chat.) Qik, if you've not used it before, allows you to video chat to other people with Qik, record videos and share them (in a very user-friendly environment,) and send video mail. Simple and well done. Definite competition for Skype (whenever it officially comes out with video chat for Android.)
The couple of games that come with the phone, Need for Speed and N.O.V.A., will blow you away. Need for Speed needs no extra download so you'll be able to jump right in – it's a racing game with a fantastic soundtrack that's so smooth, you'll basically have a heart attack. For extra fun, play it via HDMI cable, using then your device as the steering wheel and your gigantic television as your display.
For an example of what N.O.V.A. has to offer, check out our peek at the G2x back at CTIA – it's still just as tight:
[vms 300456b6a5f416209385]
N.O.V.A. is not a brand new game and it doesn't require a dual-core processor to work, but it sure as heck looks massively impressive on this device, that much you can be sure of. Beyond that, everything is slick. Have a look at how fast everything loads up – no pauses:
[vms f8a370206f111127c0db]
The cameras on this device, again, are a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat and an 8-megapixel back-facing camera with the ability to record at 1080p.
Front Camera Photo
Front Camera Video
Back Camera Photo
Back Camera Photo in the Dark with Flash
Back Camera Video
You'll have just noticed that while the front-facing camera's video and photo capabilities are rather mortifying at 1.3-megapixels, it's not really meant for much other than live video chat – recording is just a bonus. On the back-facing camera, it's nothing but excellence. I need say no more. See a few more examples of photos and video back in our bigger G2x 8-Megapixel Photo and 1080p Video Examples post.
Phone and Performance
Calling in and out has seemed to have no issues whatsoever with volume and clarity. The one issue that we've seen that MIGHT end up being an issue is that, and this only happened once, but it's that concerning, a phonecall was dropped at the same moment the device dropped T-Mobile's 4G signal and moved to 2G. That said, download and upload speeds have seemed alright but have been recorded as not very fantastic. See our extended test back in our G2x Speed Tests Around the City post and see an example right here:
As for further performance, this phone's been quite amazing when it comes to opening and playing gigantically demanding games and movies, and it's been nothing but fabulous when it comes to browsing and doing everyday tasks. No complaints here! Have a look at our full G2x Dual-Core Optimized Benchmarks post and check out a couple examples here:
The battery on this device has been surprisingly excellent. While we're still having less than favorable results with battery time on the LTE version of 4G phone the HTC ThunderBolt, T-Mobile's 4G seems to have little to no effect on the battery at all. One full day of medium to high use has seemed to be about the amount of time you'll be able to use this phone without a need for a charge. That's impressive when you understand fully what this phone is capable of. When I write this review, the phone has been up with no charge for 15:30 hours with medium to high usage, (see that video up there with the games being flipped in and out? I just did that,) and the battery is still at 45%. I played about 30 minutes of a high def video on the phone as well (Tron Legacy, to be exact, check out the post where you see that example back [here].)
There are some people comparing this phone to the AT&T ATRIX 4G. Don't do that. It may have a few of the same guts, but this phone is the class. The form factor here is enough to be worth the average $200 a top-tier smartphone these days ought to cost, but surprise! It's selling for cheaper than that. The media collectors on this device are slick, and the media presenters on this device are double-slick. The screen size is perfect (unless you can't get enough of the slightly larger 4.3-inch screen that HTC is putting on basically every phone they're releasing, and the phone feels excellent in the hand and in the pocket.
LG and T-Mobile have more than likely agreed upon a Vanilla flavoring of this Android device's user interface so that it might pump up to fully modern once Android 2.3 Gingerbread is first available to it. The phone has two of the largest cameras available on the market today. There's a beautiful metal strip with Google engraved in it. The screen is one of the most responsive yours truly has ever engaged with.
So wait, what's bad about this phone? Connection speed, field of play, and the flash hole. The hole is on the back of the phone, basically a crater where dust and pocket lint will more than likely be getting caught as one keeps this device cycling through one's pocket. Field of play is limited by the stripped-down nature of the Android operating system as it exists without a manufacturer-added user interface plopped over it. This limits the phone to advanced users of Android – but what does that mean? It means that utterly new newbs probably wont be able to understand the inherent possibilities jumping around inside this phone, but they'll still very much enjoy it. Finally, the connection speed – we discussed this in short in the post above, and it is an issue if you plan on downloading apps without Wifi on the regular – if you're a Wifi lover, you're golden!
Should you buy this phone?
Of course you should! It's freaking amazing, and especially if you want to compete with the upcoming power of the G-Slate, you're going to need the overclockable power of the G2x on your side. It's a race to the top! Yours truly reviews phones VERY often and uses a single Android at a time for a carry-around. Will the G2x replace the phone I've been carrying around for the past couple of weeks? Sure it will!
At least for a couple more weeks, that is.
[device id=398]
Android 2.2 (Froyo)
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
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The Prohibition of Intoxicants and Gambling
on	 14 January 2021 BELIEF, ISLAM
What is intoxicants? What is gambling in islam?
The Divine verdicts on intoxicants and gambling, as known, were not given during the first years of Islam but, motivated with specific concerns, were delayed. The ban of intoxicants followed the below sequence:
In Mecca, the ayah,
"And of the fruits of the palms and the grapes– you obtain from them intoxication and good nourishment; most surely there is a sign in this for a people who ponder." (an-Nahl, 67) was revealed. The ayah explains how grapes and dates, apart from good nourishment, offer beverages of an intoxicating nature. This imparts a feeling that intoxicants are not counted among good sources of nourishment and therefore hints at their future prohibition. This was the only ayah revealed with regard to intoxicants during the Meccan period.
The Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- was on the receiving end of many questions pertaining to these issues after the Hegira, with respect to which the Almighty declared:
"They ask you concerning wine and gambling. Say: In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit…" (al-Baqara, 219)
A majority of the Believers quit drinking intoxicants, while others continued regardless.
While leading the maghrib salat, an intoxicated Companion jumbled the words of an ayah to the point of distorting the meaning, which occasioned the following Revelation:
"O you who believe! Do not go near prayer when you are Intoxicated until you know (well) what you say…" (an-Nisa, 43)
The number of Muslim drinkers after the above Revelation diminished drastically. Still, before each salat, there would be a Companion who would call out, 'The intoxicated ought not to approach salat!' Muslims were nonetheless beginning to fully realize that it would only be a matter of time before the consumption of intoxicants would be prohibited for good and they were getting themselves prepared in regard.
An overwhelming majority of Muslims had now quit drinking. A few, on the other hand, were in distress over the unpleasant scenes fuelled by drunkenness they would more often than not encounter. Omar -Allah be well-pleased with him-, for instance, was praying for Allah, glory unto Him, to '…provide a clear and indisputable declaration regarding drinking!' A clash following a feast between a few Companions under the influence of alcohol, which left no room for doubting the benefit of a likely prohibition, provided the proper underpinning; a concrete reason for the ban to be instated:
"O you who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination,- of Satan's handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper. Satan's plan is (but) to excite enmity and hatred between you, with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah, and from prayer: will you not then abstain?" (al-Maida, 90-91)
The Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- sent for Omar -Allah be well-pleased with him- and recited to him the Revelation. When he came to reciting the part 'will you not then abstain…?' Omar -Allah be well-pleased with him- declared:
"Yes, we will abstain Allah; we will abstain!" The exact words reverberated among the entire Companions.
Following this Revelation, with the order of the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace-, a Companion called out through the streets of Mecca, the news that:
"Intoxicants are forbidden from here on!"
Rivers of wine flowed through the streets of Medina from what poured out from the broken earthenware and the punctured leather bottles that once contained the now forbidden beverages.
Muslims, who once drank, were now fervently destroying all the stock of wine they had following this indisputable declaration. They were to never drink again. In further emphasis of the ban, the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace- stated:
"Surely Allah has cursed intoxicants, he who prepares it and the place where it is prepared; its consumer and he who encourages its consumption; its carrier, seller, purchaser and he who lives off its revenue!" (Ahmad, I, 53; II, 351; Nasai, Ashribah, 1-2; Hakim, II, 305/3101)
Anas -Allah be well-pleased with him- recounts:
"Alcohol was forbidden just when I was serving people wine at Abu Talha's house. Upon the orders of the Messenger of Allah -upon him blessings and peace-, a Companion spread the news around. We heard his voice while inside. Abu Talha told me to, 'Go outside to see what it is all about!' So I stepped outside and heard him announce that alcohol was henceforth forbidden. I told Abu Talha just what I heard. 'If that's the case', Abu Talha said, 'then go and pour that out!' Soon, wine was flowing through the streets of Medina." (Bukhari, Tafsir, 5/11)
The incident highlights the Companions' precision in adhering to the command of Allah, glory unto Him. Without putting forth any excuses or waiting for even a minute, they immediately spilled out what they had of intoxicants, enthusiastically seeking the pleasure of Allah, glory unto Him, by not only surrendering to the Divine Command, but also genuinely obeying it from the bottom of their hearts.
The Prophet of Mercy -upon him blessings and peace- declares:
"All intoxicatants are impermissible. A little of what intoxicates when consumed more, is also impermissible." (Ibn Majah, Ashriba, 10; Nasai, Ashribah, 24, 48)
"Alcohol is the mother of all evil." (Ahmad, V, 238)
"He who believes in Allah and the Last Day ought not to sit down at a table that has intoxicants." (Tirmidhi, Adab, 43/2801)
"Certain people from among my ummah will drink alcohol by giving it different names." (Ahmad, IV, 237)
The gradual process, stemming from a concern for the maslahah, or common good, that we see implemented in the prohibition of the consumption of alcohol and gambling, provides a handy clue to the method Islam espouses in its call and struggle against iniquities. Even though Allah, glory unto Him, knows eternally and universally in an absolute manner when passing judgment in determining the rulings of Islam, He considers the capacities of human beings, the direct subjects of these rulings, and their levels of competence in accustoming themselves to them. Perhaps the most important manifestation of this can be found in the fact that the ayat pertaining to the creed of Islam were given precedence and revealed in the Meccan era, contrary to the general manner in which the sequence of the Quran is arranged today. Since the Quran existed in the Lawh'ul-Mahfuz prior to its revelation on Earth, it is not difficult to see that the specific concern underlying the precedence given to the revelation of some sections of the Quran over others is strictly maslahah, the benefit of Believers.
What this concern for the common good consists of is the observing of the aptitude and power human beings have in following the Quran and its development; just like how the obligations increase in tandem with the age of a child.
The principle of graduality, best implemented during the blissful time of the Blessed Prophet -upon him blessings and peace-, is part of sunnatullah, the Way of Allah, underpinned with great wisdom of the Almighty, effectively a manifestation of His Mercy. Applicable at all times in communicating Islam, it is, at the same time, the most agreeable to human nature. Indeed, the initial thing one is required to do after entering Islam is to rectify his faith; only after that phase is digested does one then proceed to deeds. Graduality comes into play once again when carrying out the deeds, this time regulating them according to human capacity. Not only is this applicable in inviting people to Islam, but also in all other forms of teaching. Therefore, with the Divine Call that began with Adem -upon him peace-, there has been an observable development in the Message –the fundamental articles of faith have of course remained the same-, parallel with the social development of humankind; a development that has culminated in the religion of Islam.
Source: Islam For New Muslims An Educational Guide,Assoc. Prof. Amjad M. Hussain, Erkam Publications
Reverting to Islam


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The Origins Project Brings Together Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Bill Nye, Ira Flatow, and More on One Stage
in Media, Science | August 1st, 2013 3 Comments
It often seems, at least to me, that our culture is slowly sliding backward when it comes to science education. As a humanities person, my observations may not count for much, but I do find myself getting nostalgic for popular science communicators like Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman; people who could appear in America's living room and enthrall even the most hardened and recalcitrant of minds. Sagan's influence peaked at the dawn of the culture wars, and it doesn't seem like anyone could fill his shoes.
But several influential science communicators have made significant strides in bringing science to a popular audience in the past few decades. Among them is the very affable astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who takes Sagan's mantle in the Cosmos reboot on Fox next year. There are media figures like NPR's Ira Flatow, Bill Nye the Science Guy, sci-fi author Neal Stephenson, and Emmy-award-winning Tracy Day, co-founder of the World Science Festival. Physicist and popular science writer Brian Greene has done excellent work for NOVA, and scientific heavyweights Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins reach millions with popular books and media appearances.
Now imagine all these people on the same stage together, trading stories, jamming, riffing like great jazz musicians, like some Justice League of 21st century science lovers. Well, you don't have to, because this happened, not on primetime television (alas), but at Arizona State University under the aegis of their "Origins Project," whose mission is to foster interdisciplinary research, build scientific partnerships, and "raise the profile of origins-related issues and broaden scientific literacy." Origins Project director Lawrence Krauss MC'ed the March 30th event, and the panel filled a 3,000-seat auditorium for a two-hour session that focuses on "the storytelling of science" (part one at top, part two above).
The event harnesses the slick, entertaining format of TED Talks to demonstrate how cutting-edge research can reach a wide audience eager for a fuller understanding of the physical universe. The first video up top opens with a quote from Michael Shermer: "Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not." The stories that the members of this exciting panel discussion tell are connected to physical reality through scientific evidence that—without artful and compelling narrative—can seem bewilderingly complex.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Unveils a Dazzling Preview of the New Cosmos
Richard Dawkins Makes the Case for Evolution in the 1987 Documentary, The Blind Watchmaker
The Unbelievers, A New Film Starring Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Werner Herzog, Woody Allen, & Cormac McCarthy
Bill Nye, The Science Guy, Says Creationism is Bad for Kids and America's Future
Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Washington, DC. Follow him at @jdmagness
by Josh Jones | Permalink | Comments (3) |
Hanoch says:
We may indeed be "sliding backward when it comes to science education", at least in the US. But the individuals you cite in this post — I am thinking most particularly of Krauss and Dawkins — can only contribute to that problem by aggressively proselytizing their atheism in the guise of science. When the vast majority of Americans profess a faith in God, it is hard to see how these individuals are helping the cause of science. Science would be in a better position if scientists actually stuck to science, instead of attempting to conflate it with theology.
Tondalaya Gillespie says:
Wow and WOW! Would I love to have this group over for dinner, but this is the next best thing.
nick skinner says:
Thanks to all of you guys on the show. I really, really believe you are outstanding in your work, even though I am a humble science translator and not a scientist by trade. Apart from showing us your humanity and good nature and canny humour its was everyone's appeal to the usefulness of enquiry and common sense that impressed me. so much so that there were some parts that simply gave me a huge lump in my throat after thinking to myself Yep, THESE are the GOOD guys; The rest is pure vudusim.
I fell honoured to be living in a time when there are a few sane people around to offset so many billions of crazies.


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Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms
Eugene Lee, Sangji Han, Kyung hyun Lee, Gilsoo Cho
Department of Clothing and Textiles
The objectives of this study are to measure the frictional sounds of three different concentration (0, 8, 16 %) of PCM-treated combat uniform fabrics, and then, to analyze correlation between the SPL and stiffness. Also, it aims to fabricate three combat uniform garment prototypes, and wearing them, to conduct subjective auditory sensibilities evaluation, and finally, to investigate the relationship between subjective sensibilities and frictional sound properties. For measuring sound parameters of fabrics, the generator simulating body movement (4th generation) was used. And then, for evaluating subjective auditory sensibility, the questionnaire was developed to the 5 pairs of adjectives. It was observed that all sound properties except for Fluctuation strength(Z) increased according to PCM concentration increased, and the relationship between SPL and stiffness showed positive correlation, significantly. Finally, Sharp-Smooth and Awkward-Comfort sensibilities showed the differences among PCM concentrations significantly, and the results showed generally negative relationships between SPL, Loudness(Z) and Loud-Quiet, Roughness(Z) and Rough-Soft. Also, SPL and Loudness(Z) correlated to Unpleasant-Pleasant, and Sharp-Smooth had a negative correlation with Sharpness(Z), significantly. Thus, they showed similar tendencies between objective sound parameters measured by fabric frictional simulator and the results of subjective auditory sensibilities of wearers.
Fibers and Polymers
Published - 2015 Jun 23
Pulse code modulation
Acoustic waves
Lee, E., Han, S., Lee, K. H., & Cho, G. (2015). Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms. Fibers and Polymers, 16(6), 1410-1416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12221-015-1410-1
Lee, Eugene ; Han, Sangji ; Lee, Kyung hyun ; Cho, Gilsoo. / Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms. In: Fibers and Polymers. 2015 ; Vol. 16, No. 6. pp. 1410-1416.
@article{0dcbb0fa676e4df08705c5c9d1d82463,
title = "Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms",
abstract = "The objectives of this study are to measure the frictional sounds of three different concentration (0, 8, 16 {\%}) of PCM-treated combat uniform fabrics, and then, to analyze correlation between the SPL and stiffness. Also, it aims to fabricate three combat uniform garment prototypes, and wearing them, to conduct subjective auditory sensibilities evaluation, and finally, to investigate the relationship between subjective sensibilities and frictional sound properties. For measuring sound parameters of fabrics, the generator simulating body movement (4th generation) was used. And then, for evaluating subjective auditory sensibility, the questionnaire was developed to the 5 pairs of adjectives. It was observed that all sound properties except for Fluctuation strength(Z) increased according to PCM concentration increased, and the relationship between SPL and stiffness showed positive correlation, significantly. Finally, Sharp-Smooth and Awkward-Comfort sensibilities showed the differences among PCM concentrations significantly, and the results showed generally negative relationships between SPL, Loudness(Z) and Loud-Quiet, Roughness(Z) and Rough-Soft. Also, SPL and Loudness(Z) correlated to Unpleasant-Pleasant, and Sharp-Smooth had a negative correlation with Sharpness(Z), significantly. Thus, they showed similar tendencies between objective sound parameters measured by fabric frictional simulator and the results of subjective auditory sensibilities of wearers.",
author = "Eugene Lee and Sangji Han and Lee, {Kyung hyun} and Gilsoo Cho",
journal = "Fibers and Polymers",
publisher = "KOREAN FIBER SOCIETY",
Lee, E, Han, S, Lee, KH & Cho, G 2015, 'Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms', Fibers and Polymers, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 1410-1416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12221-015-1410-1
Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms. / Lee, Eugene; Han, Sangji; Lee, Kyung hyun; Cho, Gilsoo.
In: Fibers and Polymers, Vol. 16, No. 6, 23.06.2015, p. 1410-1416.
T1 - Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms
AU - Lee, Eugene
AU - Han, Sangji
AU - Lee, Kyung hyun
AU - Cho, Gilsoo
N2 - The objectives of this study are to measure the frictional sounds of three different concentration (0, 8, 16 %) of PCM-treated combat uniform fabrics, and then, to analyze correlation between the SPL and stiffness. Also, it aims to fabricate three combat uniform garment prototypes, and wearing them, to conduct subjective auditory sensibilities evaluation, and finally, to investigate the relationship between subjective sensibilities and frictional sound properties. For measuring sound parameters of fabrics, the generator simulating body movement (4th generation) was used. And then, for evaluating subjective auditory sensibility, the questionnaire was developed to the 5 pairs of adjectives. It was observed that all sound properties except for Fluctuation strength(Z) increased according to PCM concentration increased, and the relationship between SPL and stiffness showed positive correlation, significantly. Finally, Sharp-Smooth and Awkward-Comfort sensibilities showed the differences among PCM concentrations significantly, and the results showed generally negative relationships between SPL, Loudness(Z) and Loud-Quiet, Roughness(Z) and Rough-Soft. Also, SPL and Loudness(Z) correlated to Unpleasant-Pleasant, and Sharp-Smooth had a negative correlation with Sharpness(Z), significantly. Thus, they showed similar tendencies between objective sound parameters measured by fabric frictional simulator and the results of subjective auditory sensibilities of wearers.
AB - The objectives of this study are to measure the frictional sounds of three different concentration (0, 8, 16 %) of PCM-treated combat uniform fabrics, and then, to analyze correlation between the SPL and stiffness. Also, it aims to fabricate three combat uniform garment prototypes, and wearing them, to conduct subjective auditory sensibilities evaluation, and finally, to investigate the relationship between subjective sensibilities and frictional sound properties. For measuring sound parameters of fabrics, the generator simulating body movement (4th generation) was used. And then, for evaluating subjective auditory sensibility, the questionnaire was developed to the 5 pairs of adjectives. It was observed that all sound properties except for Fluctuation strength(Z) increased according to PCM concentration increased, and the relationship between SPL and stiffness showed positive correlation, significantly. Finally, Sharp-Smooth and Awkward-Comfort sensibilities showed the differences among PCM concentrations significantly, and the results showed generally negative relationships between SPL, Loudness(Z) and Loud-Quiet, Roughness(Z) and Rough-Soft. Also, SPL and Loudness(Z) correlated to Unpleasant-Pleasant, and Sharp-Smooth had a negative correlation with Sharpness(Z), significantly. Thus, they showed similar tendencies between objective sound parameters measured by fabric frictional simulator and the results of subjective auditory sensibilities of wearers.
JO - Fibers and Polymers
JF - Fibers and Polymers
Lee E, Han S, Lee KH, Cho G. Comparison between fabric frictional sound parameters and wearers' subjective auditory sensibility of PCM-treated combat uniforms. Fibers and Polymers. 2015 Jun 23;16(6):1410-1416. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12221-015-1410-1


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the first part of the week was spent down at the beach – a kids and Emma paradise, during which many happy hours were spent being buried in the sand, digging holes, building sandcastles and jumping in the waves. One of the most pleasant surprises, coming as I do from a relatively little landmass (apparently only slightly smaller than Oregon) situated between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, was the temperature of the water. Instead of shivering in the waves and acclimatising oneself by numbing a body region at a time, before deciding 'enough's enough' and jumping fool-hardedly into the freezing water, it was great just to walk in and jump under an oncoming wave* and float around pleasantly warm for however long I felt like, chatting leisurely to the other swimmers about which eateries were the best for crab cakes/children/potatoes etc.
Another joyful discovery at the beach house was outdoor showers in the heat – something that just would not happen at home, but something I could become fairly addicted to given half a chance. Imagine standing under a shower of hot water, outside, complete with all the outdoor noises and sunshine, and not freezing, or indeed getting the slightest bit colder when the water is turned off – in fact it probably got a wee bit warmer!
Getting to know new friends better was definitely one of the highlights too – there is something great about finding people you know you can and want to be good friends with, especially in a place that has been a bit bewildering. It was great to finally sit down and pour out some insecurities/troubles into a friendly ear.


text:
package com.github.leosilvadev.proxy.config;

public class ApplicationConfig {

  public static final String PORT_JSON = "port";
  public static final String ROUTES_PATH_JSON = "routes_path";

  private final Integer port;
  private final String routesPath;

  public ApplicationConfig(final Integer port, final String routesPath) {
    super();
    this.port = port;
    this.routesPath = routesPath;
  }

  public Integer getPort() {
    return port;
  }

  public String getRoutesPath() {
    return routesPath;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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