China's One Child Policy............

[Adam Smith]

Mindseye:

Okay, officially, the FG's worst problem is probably the philosophy of eschewing medical care, which has alledgedly resulted in deaths. Promoting suicide and wacky beliefs about walking through walls, contacting aliens, enriching a kook hiding out in the US - all these things further the gov't view of FG as a bogus cult that the people should be "protected from".

Funny, but that is not how FG plays over here. A fair chunk of the people at my Chinese school are into FG. I dont know much about their detailed beliefs, but it does not come across as anything like this. IIRC, they keep emphasizing freedom of conscience. This plus prior history of secret religious societies in China is probably what keeps the PRC leadership up nights.

Axi:

This is why any proper communist program includes the even distibution of the available capital into the utilisation of the offered labor

And since the capital does not flow to the most efficient (highest profit) users, much of the capital will be wasted.

communism can't afford to have an army of unemployed, like capitalism has

Kind of ironic given the number of urban unemployed in China vs. current unemployment rate in western economies.

*Dear Lord, please dont turn this into yet another capitalism vs. communism thread.*

[mindseye]

Funny, but that is not how FG plays over here. (...) I dont know much about their detailed beliefs, but it does not come across as anything like this.

Adam Smith, I'm not at all surprised at your response. From what I've seen, most of the protrayals of FG in the US press characterize it as nothing more than a form of taiqi-like exercises. There are few references to the more bizarre teachings of Li Hongzhi, the cult's messianic leader. For your benefit, here's a few interesting nuggets translated from various speeches, publications, and tapes of Li Hongzhi.

Aliens are controlling mankind through computers, making them slaves to machines
Why have aliens invented such a scientific thing for people? Because it belongs to their planet, and they want to bring it to our world to finally mankind. As they discovered, the human body is so perfect that they want to use it to replace people. People would in turn become the slaves of computers and machines, and finally replaced by aliens. How do computers develop so rapidly? Why does the human brain become so active? because human minds are controlled by aliens, who have assigned a number to every person who is able to run a computer. I have deleted the numbers for my followers so that they would not be disturbed when using computers.

Taking medicines merely presses back karma and finally destroys you
Diseases do not arise from this space. Taking medicines can kill the surface virus, and it really works. But the power achieved by practicing Falun Gong can automatically eliminate viruses and karma. When medicines kill the surface virus, other viruses and karma in other spaces know it and do not come to you, so you feel better. But I assure you, they are still there. Human beings accumulate karma from beginning to end. When a person accumulates too much karma his illness will be incurable and he will be thoroughly destroyed when he dies.

When you reach a very high level after spiritual cultivation, you may gain compound eyes like those of flies
..Beyond the worldly spiritual cultivation, compound eyes appear. That is to say, a big eye appears on the upper half of the face, with countless small eyes in it. Practitioners at master level may have many eyes, filling the whole of their faces. All these eyes may see anything they want to see through this big eye. One glance may see thorough all levels. Modern zoologists and entomologists have studied flies. Their eyes are very large, and through a microscope one can see that they contain many small eyes. This phenomenon is called a called a compound eye. Only when a person reaches a very high level can he attain compound eyes.

Modern science is wrong
Modern science has actually developed on a basis which is wrong, and which has incorrect understandings of the universe, mankind and life. Therefore, the practitioners of Falun Gong do not accept modern science at all, and regard it as erroneous.


A few more, if you want the full translations, check the web site ... or some Falun Gong publications.

The Nanjing Massacre and Hitler's killing were caused by changes of astronomical phenomena

I defeated the "snake spirit"

Mankind had been completely destroyed 81 times

The Earth has exploded many times

Falun Dafa is a magnificent palace, while Christianity is just a small and simple room

I will stage a marvelous spectacle by bringing all my disciples to fly into the sky

Science has led to the moral degradation of human society

Demons will take the lives of those who betray Falun Dafa

[ranskaldan]

Hey, that (FG) sounds just like Christianity!

(Could that explain the West's vehement defense of the FG?)

(mmm, I don't check in for 2 days, and this thread has drifted off to the Falun Gong?)

[Sikander]

Originally posted by axi


This is why any proper communist program includes the even distibution of the available capital into the utilisation of the offered labor, so that nobody remains unemployed. This will lead to low-tech, labor intensive productive techiniques if need be, but communism can't afford to have an army of unemployed, like capitalism has.

It is also why it's better to be unemployed in a capitalist / socialist country than employed in a communist country.

[Ecthy]

I still say it was 8 weeks not months

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Adam Smith
Funny, but that is not how FG plays over here. A fair chunk of the people at my Chinese school are into FG. I dont know much about their detailed beliefs, but it does not come across as anything like this. IIRC, they keep emphasizing freedom of conscience. This plus prior history of secret religious societies in China is probably what keeps the PRC leadership up nights.

I am not at all surprised that Li Hongzhi has been busily whitewashing FG around your neck of the woods. Right here it sounds just like a typical cult: where else would you find believers kneeing down in front of a protrait of the leader?

Did you read some of Li's writings? He asserted that he is the biggest Buddha (whatever that means), that he bent a water pipe that was frozen solid with his bare hands when he was eight, and that he is delaying the destuction of the earth for 30 years.

FG is a doomsday cult, nothing more.