Hi All,
This concept has its origins in the French revolution, but is mostly known as a key part of the policy of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia- a particularly vicious socialist regime which(in true socialist fashion)- killed millions of her own people and ended up in a conflict with Vietnam , which overthrew this wicked regime.
Year zero was an ideological decree that said that anything before the revolution of year 1, was wicked ,evil and therefore banned. In this rebooting of society anyone violating this or even trying to preserve Cambodian culture and history was killed. To Pol Pot and his regime Cambodia had to be turned into a nation of classless peasant farmers: intellectualism and the middle-class were out.
This springs to mind with the current matter of iconoclastic behaviour toward statues of history, history itself and tv shows- some having been made less than twenty years ago- which are off the streaming channels as they've been self censored as offensive or racist.
It started out with a statue of a slave trader and then quickly developed into anyone the far left hated, to the point where we aren't sure if saying Dracula should be banned (racist toward Romanians) or that the pyramids should be demolished was a joke or not.
This desire to go from a slave trader to Ghandi to Churchill, to even Abraham Lincoln , to the founder of the boy scouts , reminds me of this concept of year zero.
If you have it in your head that Britain is an institutionally racist country with an empire building, slave trading and therefore "evil" past, add a bit of socialist magic and it all makes sense. You have to get rid of all the statues of the past, all the history and all literature. Everything and I mean everything. That's year zero. That's the evil past that must be got rid of and destroyed as it is this past which makes us such a wicked xenophobic racist country today. Of course demonizing historical figures also helps. In this topsy turvy world leftists can say with a straight face Churchill was like Hitler, but worse.
When the revolution begins it will be year one. That's why socialists don't actually care about poverty or racial matters. It's something to attach themselves to as a parasite would. It's a convenient bandwagon to hijack. It's the revolution and getting to day one that counts for them .
This concept has its origins in the French revolution, but is mostly known as a key part of the policy of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia- a particularly vicious socialist regime which(in true socialist fashion)- killed millions of her own people and ended up in a conflict with Vietnam , which overthrew this wicked regime.
Year zero was an ideological decree that said that anything before the revolution of year 1, was wicked ,evil and therefore banned. In this rebooting of society anyone violating this or even trying to preserve Cambodian culture and history was killed. To Pol Pot and his regime Cambodia had to be turned into a nation of classless peasant farmers: intellectualism and the middle-class were out.
This springs to mind with the current matter of iconoclastic behaviour toward statues of history, history itself and tv shows- some having been made less than twenty years ago- which are off the streaming channels as they've been self censored as offensive or racist.
It started out with a statue of a slave trader and then quickly developed into anyone the far left hated, to the point where we aren't sure if saying Dracula should be banned (racist toward Romanians) or that the pyramids should be demolished was a joke or not.
This desire to go from a slave trader to Ghandi to Churchill, to even Abraham Lincoln , to the founder of the boy scouts , reminds me of this concept of year zero.
If you have it in your head that Britain is an institutionally racist country with an empire building, slave trading and therefore "evil" past, add a bit of socialist magic and it all makes sense. You have to get rid of all the statues of the past, all the history and all literature. Everything and I mean everything. That's year zero. That's the evil past that must be got rid of and destroyed as it is this past which makes us such a wicked xenophobic racist country today. Of course demonizing historical figures also helps. In this topsy turvy world leftists can say with a straight face Churchill was like Hitler, but worse.
When the revolution begins it will be year one. That's why socialists don't actually care about poverty or racial matters. It's something to attach themselves to as a parasite would. It's a convenient bandwagon to hijack. It's the revolution and getting to day one that counts for them .
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