Talk:The Killing Fields
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[edit] Communist, Capitalist
One wants the article to be factual instead of judgemental. You're supposed to know, through your background knowledge, what the Khmer Rouge is? The word communist is not neccessary here (where you put it); same as Christian not in The Crusade, that we often come across. First, communism has nothing to do with his actions; he happened to carry the communist banner (Chinese Brand). Look at Vietnam or Laos, or the communist government after him. Yet, all of them have their own issues that I am sure you can point out. How do you judge when you find out that Pol Pot received a three-way support from the Chinese, American, and Thai governments? Second, on the other hand, it is very true that the proud and self proclaimed colonist-turned-capitalist Americans were the slave masters and owners who cause death to untold number of imported and native slaves.
Perhaps half of the world could be a better place if people know what they are saying, through the right use of the words. Otherwise, unfortunately and ironically, the wrong ones at the wrong time could end up leading a lot of them to The Killing Fields of the world. One's excitement should not be the cause for another's incitement.
More often quite a few elements in the society knowingly and intentionally--with either a "happy" stroke of their pen, a few clever punches on the keyboard, or couple semantics on the pulpit--use this very same technique to manipulate the mass to achieve their own ends. In other words, while Pol Pot might have used the guns, others have used the letters. Both can kill, but guns can run out bullets; and when was the last time you run out words? Maybe "Guns don't kill; people do" shoud be changed to "Guns don't kill; people don't kill; their words do."
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You made your point, but maybe a bit too flowery for academic standards. Most of the time, you don't need to indict someone to crimes of slavery and murder to make them make a minor change in wording.
[edit] Communist Khmer Rouge
I was surprised the word "communist" did not appear anywhere in the article so I added it. What would cause someone to talk about the Cambodian Killing Fields at length without even once mentioning that the Khmer Rouge were communists? Hmmmm....
- Perhaps because the Killing Fields were devoted to murder rather than economics. Mark1 06:28, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
- It's a sadly short article for many reasons, mainly systemic bias. Clearly a fuller discussion of the Khmer Rouge is warranted in the article. --Dhartung | Talk 08:55, 17 August 2005 (UTC)
Mark,
Communism does not just have to do with economics, it's also an ideology. One of the most important precepts of Communism and Marxist/Lenninist thought involves thought control. The Khmer Rouge followed Maoist ideology, as well as recieved direct support from China, (and Mao was very, very good at thought control, i.e. China's "Cultural Revolution.") History has shown us that, more often than not, Communist governments have used very overt means to achieve this objective, (not always.) The founding of the Tuol Sleng prison to silence, political opposition, the supposed "bourgeois intellectuals," and other unfortunate dissidents, is one example of this precipice being carried out. Most of these inmates were systematically interrogated and murdered, along with other victims from the general population and buried in the mass graves now notoriously known as "The Killing Fields." However, I personally feel Communism can not be 100% blamed for the severity of the Khmer Rouge's actions and much of the blame lies with the individuals themselves. Because of this aspect, I believe labeling the Khmer Rouge as a Communist organization is correct.
I beleive a more complete discussion of the Khmer Rouge as Dhartung has suggested should be limited here as there is a page dedicated to the Khmer Rouge already and the link is provided already.--Joshsattler 15:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] NPOV
Sentences like this is why the NPOV tag has been added, I don't have time at the moment, but will come back and help out if nothing happens in a few days
- Communist governments are notorious for being very "poor", and for failing miserably to make any economic progress.
- FrancisTyers 09:11, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Numerical Error
The numbers given here are nonsensical but I don't know what numbers would be accurate in their place...
"Estimates of the number of dead range from 100000 million out of a population of nearly 8 million people. to 100 billion."
The proper numbers are 1.5 to 3 million
~*~ (Response to the ABOVE) Actually, the number is 1.7 million. Less than 2000 of Cambodia's 70,000 Buddhist monks survived the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The rest were either massacred or succumbed to hard labor, disease, or torture.
~*~Emma~*~
