“Communism and Capitalism—a Case Study” with College of Complexes Forum

This is a joint event with the College of Complexes, a weekly free speech forum on social issues and current events. At this event, the topic of the feature presentation is “Communism and Capitalism—a Case Study,” by Eric Mao.

Instead of talking on general terms, let's look at a real-life example of communism in action, and its supposed antithesis, capitalism. Eric will discuss the modern China's experience in communism: the backdrop, process, outcome, and the future. For the flip side, he will cover pre-communism China, contemporary Taiwan and the origin of capitalism--US and the West.

The presentation will be followed by questions from the audience, and then a rebuttal/remarks period in which all in attendance can speak for 5 minutes at the podium.

PRESENTER
Hailing from Taiwan, China, Eric takes comfort in the unearned privilege of "going back to where you came from." He also goes by Eric 'Shepherd' Mao---because (he explains) sheepdogs, not sheep, are the coolest. With a master's in computer science and MBA in finance and marketing, Eric has a career in fintech. However, he is now in transition to being a writer and commentator in geopolitics. He founded the Geopolitical Forum on the Meetup platform for bi-weekly meetings with international relations enthusiasts and thinkers in Chicagoland. Eric has slaved on Substack under @ericsheperdmao and has a presence on X as @ShepherdMao. He finished writing "Diversity the Modern Fetish and Equality in the Guise of Ideal" in 2018 while he
was still a libertarian. Now he considers himself to be a pragmatist.