A Study Of The Mass Discourse In The CR In Relation To The Class Struggle Ideology-From Cassirer's Perspective

The cultural revolution (the CR) is a special event in the Chinese history, beginning in May, 1966, and ending in October, 1976. The mass discourse at that time is a special form of discourse used by the masses every day in the CR. This paper, by adopting Cassirer's statements concerning the distinction between man and animal, man as a symbolic animal and the characteristics of human language, aims to provide a systematic study of the characteristics of the mass discourse in the CR and gives a tentative exploration into the question of the relationship between the mass discourse in the CR and the class struggle ideology in that historical period.Cassirer challenges Plato's definition of man as a rational animal and points out that man is not only rational, but also irrational or emotional. He believes that man can employ what he calls propositional language to express his rationality and employ his emotional language to express his emotion. Further more, Cassirer questions Aristotle's proposition that man is a social animal and maintains that sociality is not unique to man and it is rather common in the animal world, which may be highly organized and has very strict labor division. Unlike in the animal world, man in his world is not only social, but also individual, that is, he is creative and can take initiative and his creativeness and the initiative are unfolded in his social activities. As man has language, he can use it to create a symbolic world and it is precisely with this symbolic world man transcends the limit of the physical world, thus being able to strive for better possibilities of life. And the most significant of all is that man can never stop creating new and grander symbolic worlds, and go on and on to transcend the world that he has created, reaching for better and higher forms of culture. By contrast, since animal has no language, it cannot have symbolic thinking with which it can react to the physical reality by reflection; it is unable to transcend the limit of the natural reality that is given to him and can only respond to it on instinct. For animal, it has only the natural reality; it has no possibility.By adopting Cassirer's view on man and language in analyzing the masses and their discourse, we then find that the masses in the CR are always emotional or irrational. Their individuality and creativity are often buried by a stereotyped discourse mode. They are bound by this semiotic mode—the mass discourse, which they themselves has created. Because of that, the mass discourse of the CR, which as expressions of their idea and emotions is always emotional, irrational, and unreflective. Most of time, its creativity and individuality are often covered by the mass discourse itself. That's why the mass discourse is always bound within itself.We then believe in analyzing the relationship between the mass discourse in the CR and the class struggle ideology that it is the class struggle ideology that leads to the CR and determines form and content of the mass discourse in the CR, which in turn strengthens the class struggle ideology. As a result, the malignant circle is produced between the two.In the conclusion we make a summary of the paper and at the same time we point out the significance of this study and its possible limitations, in the hope of inviting critical comments from the readers.