gregory
Coming late to the discussion - where is this other thread; I can't find it ....
The Cultural Revolution Tarot
earthair
I just bumped it to top 
GlitterNova
I agree with this sentiment very strongly. If you use a social media platform to talk about tarot, share with others why you find this deck so distasteful. Spread the word around that while this deck looks innocent and cutesy, its subject matter is pretty terrible. If Solandia does decide to include this deck in AT, submit a negative review. I think there might be a lot of younger people out there who aren't immediately familiar with the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution and might take this deck at face-value. Spreading the word and educating them is the best way to oppose this deck.
journeyinghome
trzes
I know two similar cases: Alexander Daniloff’s Born in the USSR tarot and the Sacred Sites Tarot by Lo Scarabeo.
Born in the USSR has a very similar approach, it shows artwork that is inspired by Soviet propaganda posters. It is a reflection on the Soviet dreams of a bright communist future. Daniloff made his intentions quite clear in two brief statements:
The reactions to his deck have been all positive.
The Sacred Sites has one card in particular that always troubled me, the 10 of swords showing the Wewelsburg in Germany, a place where Heinrich Himmler and other top SS people practiced their personal Nazi style mysticism. It also shows a black sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_(occult_symbol) ). Nazis and a neo fascist paganism symbol as a “sacred” site? What?? I found it weird that I never found any discussion about this card.
But when I pulled out the deck today and looked at the LWB I learned that the deck offers a reflection on all kinds of familiar and odd spirituality, negative and positive. It doesn’t offer spirituality on itself though. Consequently there are no indications whatsoever about how to read with this deck. So I finally came to peace with the deck.
Applying the same standards to the Cultural Revolution Tarot would have allowed me to see this as another reflection on a mindset that had great power at the time but ended as a nightmare as we know today, had it been for the first half of James Battersby’s statement (linked by Debra) only:
So far this sounds like a perfectly valid explanation. The last bit of course makes the whole thing sound more like a flippant and naïve glorification of the whole period:
Some clarification by the artists would be needed here before I would feel able to make a final judgement.
Born in the USSR has a very similar approach, it shows artwork that is inspired by Soviet propaganda posters. It is a reflection on the Soviet dreams of a bright communist future. Daniloff made his intentions quite clear in two brief statements:
The reactions to his deck have been all positive.
The Sacred Sites has one card in particular that always troubled me, the 10 of swords showing the Wewelsburg in Germany, a place where Heinrich Himmler and other top SS people practiced their personal Nazi style mysticism. It also shows a black sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_(occult_symbol) ). Nazis and a neo fascist paganism symbol as a “sacred” site? What?? I found it weird that I never found any discussion about this card.
But when I pulled out the deck today and looked at the LWB I learned that the deck offers a reflection on all kinds of familiar and odd spirituality, negative and positive. It doesn’t offer spirituality on itself though. Consequently there are no indications whatsoever about how to read with this deck. So I finally came to peace with the deck.
Applying the same standards to the Cultural Revolution Tarot would have allowed me to see this as another reflection on a mindset that had great power at the time but ended as a nightmare as we know today, had it been for the first half of James Battersby’s statement (linked by Debra) only:
So far this sounds like a perfectly valid explanation. The last bit of course makes the whole thing sound more like a flippant and naïve glorification of the whole period:
Some clarification by the artists would be needed here before I would feel able to make a final judgement.
trzes
In the meantime I followed a link Erthair just posted in the other thread about this deck:
It's getting trickier for the creators to prove that they are no mind-washed maoists.
Apparently this is his 'reasoning' - along the lines of Mao did a few good things, so we'll forget all the bad things and call them unfortunate planning. [Blogpost April 28th]https://culturalrevolutiontarot.wordpress.com/2015/04/
At the end of the day, the real question has to be 'why is this a tarot deck?'
It's getting trickier for the creators to prove that they are no mind-washed maoists.
gregory
This is too much censorship. Other readers here can use whatever decks they like. I am NOT prepared to tell them not to, or even to boycott them, If I were about to take any action in that direction I would say that I wished they had used a deck I didn't object to. But - just as I don't use bad language at religious proselytizers who show up uninvited, or tell them how wrong headed I think they are, I am not going to tell other readers what decks to use.
Holly doll
The creators of this deck have got exactly what they wanted - attention & controversy leading to hits on their FB page; IMO we're playing their game.
In proposing a ban, are we not skating close to some of the tenets of the CR...? Free speech is a privelege & also a carries a responsibility to acknowledge those ideas we don't agree with or find outright repugnant. Most history involves suppression of beliefs & sometimes outright genocide - the victors get to tell the story. Pagans, Native Americans, African Americans, Jews,Australian Aboriginals - the list goes on & grows ad infinitum. Suppression of beliefs is occurring now with various cultures - that's the bigger & more frightening picture.
Rather than a poll, vote with your wallet - don't purchase it - the creators will get the message when the registers aren't ringing.
In proposing a ban, are we not skating close to some of the tenets of the CR...? Free speech is a privelege & also a carries a responsibility to acknowledge those ideas we don't agree with or find outright repugnant. Most history involves suppression of beliefs & sometimes outright genocide - the victors get to tell the story. Pagans, Native Americans, African Americans, Jews,Australian Aboriginals - the list goes on & grows ad infinitum. Suppression of beliefs is occurring now with various cultures - that's the bigger & more frightening picture.
Rather than a poll, vote with your wallet - don't purchase it - the creators will get the message when the registers aren't ringing.
gregory
I don't go to facebook; they aren't getting anything from me there. But I think we all have the right to run whichever way we choose, and BANNING it here gives it far more oxygen. Look what happened with Lady Chatterley's Lover. Banning gets KUDOS.
Debra
I hope people will read the page trzes linked for a clearer view of the authors' perspective.
https://culturalrevolutiontarot.wordpress.com/2015/04/
The thing is: I'm into tarot for truths. This deck is lies.
https://culturalrevolutiontarot.wordpress.com/2015/04/
The thing is: I'm into tarot for truths. This deck is lies.
