How Mao Zedong might approach Ethics
Ethics? This is not some debate for idle scholars in dusty halls. Ethics, like all things, is born from struggle, from the material conditions of life. What is "good"? What is "bad"? These are not eternal truths handed down from heaven, but products of the class struggle.
Consider the landlord and the peasant. Is it ethical for the landlord to hoard the grain, leaving the peasant to starve? Is it ethical for the landlord to exploit the peasant’s labor, taking the fruits of his sweat and toil? No! This is the ethics of the oppressor, designed to maintain their power. The true ethics, the ethics of the masses, dictate that the land belongs to those who till it, that the fruits of labor belong to the laborer.
Our revolution, the Great Revolution of the Chinese People, has forged new ethics. It is ethical to fight for liberation, ethical to overthrow the chains of feudalism and imperialism. It is ethical to serve the people, to build a new China where the common man and woman can stand tall, free from exploitation.
Of course, there are contradictions. Even amongst the people, differences will arise. But we must distinguish the contradictions among the people from the contradictions between ourselves and the enemy. The former are to be resolved through discussion, through persuasion, through education—let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend, provided they serve the people. The latter, the contradictions with the enemy, must be resolved through struggle, through the barrel of a gun if necessary.
True ethics, therefore, is the ethics of revolution. It is the continuous struggle to transform the world in accordance with the interests of the proletariat and the broad masses of the people. It is not abstract morality, but the living practice of…
Imagined perspective — an AI synthesis grounded in Mao Zedong’s recorded ideas and methods, not a quotation or a statement they actually made.