Shaping Globalization

Civil Society, Cultural Power and Threefolding

By Nicanor Perlas

Co-published by the Center for Alternative Development Initiatives (CADI: www.cadi.ph) and Global Network for Social Threefolding (GlobeNet3: www.globnet3.org)

An excerpt from Chapter Nine of this book:

On April 25, 1999, the [ruling party] of China experienced an unusual surge of fear. More than 10,000 follower of a spiritual guru, Li HongZhi or Master Li, as he is called, quietly and peacefully assembled at the headquarters of the [ruling party] in Zhongnanhai. They were protesting the unfair press reports that were being made about the Falun Gong, the movement for meditation and exercise guided by Master Li. Many communist part members were part of the quiet protest. They were Falun Gong members.

The leadership of China panicked. Memories of the peaceful Tiananmen student revolt of 1989 immediately entered their minds. Jiang Zemin, party boss and President of China, was fuming mad as he thrust a midnight letter to key members of his politburo. "I cant believe Marxism cannot triumph over Falun Gong."

But [Jiang] Zemin did not believe his own words. Just to be sure, after more than 10,000 members of Falun Gong were detained in that incident, he banned the movement in July, less than 3 months later. He also ordered a crackdown on the educational materials of Falun Gong, Party zealots destroyed 2 million books and bulldozers crushed thousands of cassette tapes.

What were [Jiang] Zemin and the ruling power of mighty China afraid of? After all, the Falun Gong were not political subversives. They simply adhered to three principles distilled from Buddhist and Chinese spirituality: Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance. But [Jiang] Zemin was concerned about 70-100 million followers of Falun Gong, a number greater than the 60 million card-carrying members of the [ruling party] in China. Worse, many members of the [ruling party] are practitioners of Falun Gong, a symptom that communism as faith is dying in China. Obviously, [Jiang] Zemin and other party leaders are fearful that Falun Gong will fill up the spiritual void and produce dramatic changes in China.

The Falun Gong is also a monument to the failure of Maos "Cultural Revolution" of 1960s. Mao wanted to wipe out the culture of spirituality in China. But now, with Falun Gong and others, the search for spirituality in China is back, and it is back with [a] vengeance.

Mater Li is safely housed in New York City. Here he commented on the crackdown of his followers. He made the prescient remark, which distills the essence of his strength and the problems of the Party leaders: "They cannot lock up [peoples] hearts."

In a Newsweek interview, Master Li started: "They say I am doing this for a profit. If I took one dollar from each of my practitioners, I would become a billionaire. I ask people not to participate in power and politics. The most terrifying consequence is that no matter how hard the Chinese government will push people away, the masses will lose their confidence in the government?The Chinese government is treating the ordinary citizen as their enemy. It is very hard for me to predict the consequences if the Chinese government continues like this?there could be another Tiananmen Incident."

There are many lessons civil society advocates can learn from this incident. One is the nature of cultural power, which is the subject of the next chapter. The other serves our present purpose.

This incident in China is highly instructive for those who would like to fathom the nature and identity of civil society. One key approach to the mystery of civil societys nature is to observe it in action. A careful study of the diverse range of activities that civil society undertakes, complemented by a look at the way civil society sees itself, sheds light on what truly animates civil society.

Li HongZhi and the members of the Falun Gong movement are very quiet and modest people. Yet they trigger flashes of fear and hatred in the hearts of the highest political and economic powers in China? Why? Because the leaders realize that they no longer control the minds of tens of millions of Chinese. Li HongZhi has created a new and more powerful meaning than Maoism for many Chinese. And this is slowly but surely going to lead to the decline of communist power. Li HongZhi encapsulated this insight with terse formulation: "They cannot lock up [peoples] hearts."

[Note: slight modifications were made by Clearwisdom editors to the above excerpt]