https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/mao-little-general-horror-cultural-revolution
This is an interview between The Guardian and Yu, a retired journalist.
Straight from the start Yu says she knows why she became a Red Guard.
The following is taken directly from the interview.
“We became Red Guards [because] we all shared the belief that we would die to protect Chairman Mao,” she says over a cup of tea in a Beijing cafe. “Even though it might be dangerous, that was absolutely what we had to do. Everything I had been taught told me that Chairman Mao was closer to us than our mums and dads. Without Chairman Mao, we would have nothing.”
So here we see how Mao manipulated the Education system in order to gain full control of kids who have known nothing but how Mao is more important than parents.
“I believed it,” Yu went on. “I thought Mao Zedong was great and that his words were great.”
Kids are especially vulnerable. And taking advantage of this, Mao had integrated himself into every kid's life. Propaganda posters were hung, songs were sung, and his principles were memorized. If you were to visualize this, it would Mao planting a seed in young, vulnerable brain and controlling each step of its growth. After the seed turned into a tree, he would nail his own portrait onto the tree to show the other seeds that have been planted around the tree.
Mao Zedong was smart. He knew who he could manipulate.
In the interview, Yu also talks about censorship. Censorship was also imperative towards the growth of Mao's campaign. Every mistake was erased, every improvement exaggerated. No one was allowed to speak the truth, even though they were right. This made Mao's words powerful and his image perfect, almost like God.
Yu because of Mao's manipulation trusted him with her life. She did not commit violence, but even though she saw what was happening, she still stood by Mao.
