ABSTRACT
Important political issues were certainly involved. Indeed, there have been reports that the anti-spiritual pollution campaign was a reflection of a power struggle. In January, the Campaign Against Spiritual Pollution seemed to wane around the country. Although the media continued to publish articles on the need to continue to eliminate spiritual pollution, the wind seemed to be going out of the sails. Most accounts were vague about what actually constituted “pollution,” but occasionally writers were specific. An early article in Zhejiang Ribao listed the following as unacceptable: multilateral love affairs, egotism, scrambling for fame and profit, anarchism, disregard for professional ethics, and supra-class theories based on human nature and love. During the autumn of 1983 it appeared as though the suppression of the humanist/alienation school would give rise to a major “movement”--a power struggle into which the population in general would be dragged.
