Government Corruption In 'Mao's Last Dancer'

Humans are intricately designed creatures who can think, feel, dream, reason and judge. We are all ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ as the Psalmist David says and we were designed with a unique perspective, a pair of glasses if you will, with which to observe and understand the world around us. This perspective is known as a ‘worldview’ which professor Ken Funk (2001) of Oregon State University defines as: “the set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of reality that ground and influence all one's perceiving, thinking, knowing, and doing”. My personal set-of-beliefs is due to my upbringing, my environment and the media. Within the scope of this task, the novel Mao’s Last Dancer has also contributed to the strengthening of my political worldview …show more content…
In my eyes, Communism is equally as corrupt as Capitalism and all governments are puppets, controlled by a global elite. I believe this global elite is made up of the owners of the world banks because no one can have control over that much money (billions of billions of global currency) without having some sort of control over governments and hence society and media (which the government controls). In fact, James Garfield, a former U.S President who was assassinated on the eve of his first presidential year, once said: “Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.” We operate under the illusion of freedom but in reality television, gaming, internet and other media are there to give us a false sense of security and freedom whilst, behind the scenes, governments work at corrupting our society and gaining as much power as possible. I have reached this conclusion through a lot of internet research and reading the news, but my biggest influence has to be my mother who has a realistic (albeit cynical) view on politics and the world in general. This ‘realism’ has influenced me and positions me to see the world (rather, the political world) as it is: full of corrupted, avaricious people lusting for power. Therefore, my worldview on politics has been heavily influenced by the realist perspective of my mother and society (through …show more content…
If Communism - which superficially appears so strong and captivating - is so corrupt and controlling then what does that say about capitalism? Li’s worldview is that Communism is corrupt and so he wishes to share his worldview with the reader and position them to view the world, particularly government, in a different light. This is supported by a great thought Li proposes: "China was like any other nation on Earth. There was no equality. But I, like all other Chinese people, had given Chairmen Mao and his government our unwavering support. I never questioned it. What choice did we have? The media was totally controlled by the government. One couldn't escape their brainwashing. (MLD, pg. 295)” Li now sees that Mao and his Communist dogma was corrupt and manipulative. As such, the reader is positioned to have an open mind concerning the uses of media and the potential government agendas. In addition, the novel Mao’s Last Dancer has also contributed to strengthening my worldview on politics and has the capability of opening the reader’s mind to the harsh world out

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