What were the causes of violence in China's Great Cultural Revolution?

Question

What were the causes of violence in the Great Cultural Revolution? Could violence similar to this happen in any society under the right conditions?

Answer 1

The violence was deliberately organised by Party aparatchiks. Those were poorly educated people who resented having anyone in a superior position- intelectually or otherwise. Mao used this resentment to physically exterminate any opposition- real or imagined- to his one-man rule. He murdered anyone who could be the focus of any organised opposition and anyone famous enough or educated enough to be even remotely considered as such a focus.

Sure it could happen even today. Many politicians engage in "class politics" or "race politics" in which there is a deliberate incitement of hatred and resentment towards an "oppressor" group.
What made the mass murders of the cultural revolution possible was the fact that Mao controlled all the guns (army and police), (and no private guns in CHina) so no one could resist being dragged out into the street by a bunch of thugs. Eg. Mao got groups of failed students to go murder their professors. Easy -when the professor has nothing to fight back with
Can it happen today? sure. All it needs is a race riot (for example) and a decision from politicians to keep the police away. Of course you have to disarm the (soon to be) victims first

Answer 2

Mao Zhe Dong and his propaganda. He thought he could modernize China by destroying everything foreign and Western. I believe he also used this as a method basically taking out the liberal middle class. During Mao's time, the poor who was mad because they were poor, rose to power and deeply misunderstood what this power was for.

Under the right conditions, anything can happen.
There are many examples like the middle east or in Africa. But I guess I can give one closer to home. I think the L.A. riots, though definitely not as violent, qualifies as some sort of cultural revolution. You can argue that both the L.A. riots did absolutely nothing just like you can argue the the Cultural Revolution in China did nothing (except kill many people and brought the economy down even more).

Answer 3

because no one liked the cultural revolution dummy..LOL
however, every one liked Mao so no one really blamed him. he started this out as a way of bringin china to a more modernized country. however this kind of got out of hand. he admited that him self.
and this can happen to any other country under same condition, probably worse. because remember, every one in china LOVED Mao (leader) and still, this violence happened. in some other country with an unpopular leader will only cuase more violence.