陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

无知无责，愚昧有责
Ignorance vs. Stupidity

价值一语： Words of Value:

"It is not proof of a man's understanding to be able to comfirm whatever he pleases; but to be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false; this is the mark and character of intelligence." --- Emanuel Swedenborg

衡量一个人智慧与品质的标准并不是他的毫无立场的信口开河，而是他是否能鉴别并认定真的就是真的，假的就是假的。 --- Emanuel Swedenborg

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Written 6/22/2006, Reprint 9/27/2011)

I have often said that ignorance is not a crime, but stupidity is.

Everyone is ignorant from birth. It is not a crime. Mentally challenged people are ignorant of many things, but they committed no crime. But crime will be committed if values and value-orientation are added to a person's conduct.

Stupidity is NOT ignorance. Stupidity is a result of a person's value-orientation, namely, stupidity is to value ignorance. To value and treasure ignorance and take ignorance as a sign not of shame, but pride, is indeed a crime. It is a crime against human nature, it is a crime against intelligence, it is a crime against progress, it is a crime against what God intends humans to be....

When I was in China, I had met many ignorant people. I also had met many stupid people. I myself was ignorant at times, but I do not value and treasure that ignorance. I studied and thought hard to fulfill myself with knowledge and intellectual capacities. I take pride in my own progress from darkness toward enlightenment, from ignorance toward true intelligence and faith...

Yet I have also witnessed many people, especially many people in China, who not only remain ignorant of reality and truth, but treasuring this ignorance and even taking it as a source of pride and personal, even national identity. They will refuse, on the basis of a nameless pride and feverish nationalism, to admit the backwardness of the Chinese culture and many corrupt components in that culture, such as its language, its passivity, its despotism, its hierarchical nature, its stagnant and circular pattern of mindset... They remain not only ignorant, but stupid, and even worse, taking that stupidity as a source of pride and identity. They are the foundation of the current despotic Communist regime.

They have NO capacity to judge what is true and false, or right and wrong. They are the eunuchs trying hard every day to castrate their own faculties so they can remain ignorant and stupid. 郭飞雄 is only one such example. Outsiders or insiders, foreign or Chinese, friends or enemies, us or them.., have become their sole criterion to give them a sense of morality, or moral certainty, to judge what is true or false, and right or wrong. They still adhere to Mao's famous (idiotic) quote on Morality:

”凡是敌人反对的我们就要拥护；凡是敌人拥护的我们就要反对。“ "Whatever our enimies oppose, we support; whatever our enemies support, we oppose." --- 毛泽东

What a stupid saying to brainwash the Chinese into moral idiots! What an Anti-humanity declaration of the Chinese against God! What is worse is not so much how much evil Mao had committed, what is worse it even today the Chinese still have not learned from their pain and misery, still have not progressed toward humanity and truth. They remain stupid, they remain anti-God, they remain passive and stagnant. Indeed they have bought and borrowed more hardwares from the West, but their mindset, the software, remains under Qin emperor and Mao. They have simply failed to progress.

In order to reverse this vicious cycle, the Chinese must first face their own "self", their own conscience. They must first face, NOT other humans, or government, or majority, but Truth and God. Each and everyone of the Chinese must progress from ignorance toward intelligence, from self-deception to reality. They must face up to their own biggest crime --- Stupidity. They must bear their own individual responsibility.

真傻和装傻

老江的“三个代表”和小胡的“新三民主义”之类“理论”，常让我想起一个叫《三层楼》寓言故事：

一个愚蠢的富人，看见另一富人家有三楼，轩敞壮丽，好生羡慕，马上叫来泥木匠，要求建造同样的三层楼。泥木匠便开始打地基、叠砖头，富人见了，心生疑惑，问道：“你这是造什么房子呀？”泥木匠回道：“造三层楼啊。”他连忙制止说：“我不要什么第一、二层楼的，只要第三层就够了。还是先给我把它造起来吧。”

“代表着中国先进生产力的发展要求，代表着中国先进文化的前进方向，代表着中国最广大人民的根本利益”，“权为民所用情为民所系利为民所谋”，多么轩敞壮丽的第三层楼呀！可是，没有“权为民所授”的制度保障，它们只能永远停留在空中！

不同的是，故事里的富人是真傻，而老江小胡们则是装傻：他们不可能不知道，不打好地基，不从民主、自由的第一、二层建起，他们高调描述的先进美好的第三层楼根本建不起来。当然，如果按照常识、按照一定的程序循序渐进地建成了楼房，中共及其中高级党徒的巨大特权就没啦。

我们的许多工作都是在建造空中楼阁，而且是建造者明知建不起来的空中楼阁，都在装傻罢了。至于不断发些“中国人权最好”、“社会主义民主最优越”之类呓语，告诉我们三层楼已经建好了，装傻到这些程度，除了苦笑，还让人说什么好呢。

2006-6-19 东海一枭

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关于愚蠢

作者：Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Saturday, September 30, 2006 5:26:29 AM

【作者迪特里希·朋霍费尔（Dietrich Bonhoeffer，1906-1945），是德国牧师，神学家，曾参与德国抵抗纳粹的反对运动，因此被捕。他还曾卷入刺杀希特勒的计划。德国投降前夕他被绞死在纳粹集中营。本文摘自他写的《狱中书简》。】

　　对于善来说，愚蠢是比恶意更加危险的敌人。你可以抵抗恶意，你可以揭下它的面具，或者凭借力量来防止它。恶意总是包含着它自身毁灭的种子，因为它总是使人不舒服，假如不是更糟的话。然而面对愚蠢，根本无法防卫。要反对愚蠢，抵抗和力量都无济于事，愚蠢根本不服从理性。假如事实与一己的偏见相左，那就不必相信事实，假如那些事实无法否认，那就可以把它们干脆作为例外推开不理。所以同恶棍相比，蠢人总是自鸣得意。而且他很容易变成危险，因为要使他挥拳出击，那是易如反掌的。所以，比起恶意来，愚蠢需要加倍小心地对付。我们不要再三努力同蠢人论理，因为那既无用又危险。

　　要恰当地对待愚蠢，认识它的本来面目是必不可少的。十分肯定的是，愚蠢是一种道德上的缺陷，而不是一种理智上的缺陷。有些人智力高超，但却是蠢人，还有些人智力低下，但绝非蠢人，作为某些特定环境的产物，我们惊讶地发现了这种情况。我们得到的印象是：愚蠢是养成的，而不是天生的；愚蠢是在这样一些环境下养成的，在这种环境下，人们把自己养成蠢人，或者允许别人把自己弄成蠢人。我们还进一步注意到，比起不善交际或孤寂独处的人来，在倾向于或注定要群居或交往的个人或团体当中，愚蠢要普遍得多。由此看来，愚蠢是一个社会学问题，而不是一个心理学问题。它是历史环境对人的作用的一种特殊形式，是特定的外部因素的一种心理副产品。更进一步观察就会发现，任何暴力革命，不论是政治革命或宗教革命，都似乎在大量的人当中造成了愚蠢的大发作。事实上，这几乎成了心理学和社会学的一项规律。一方的力量，需要另一方的愚蠢。这并不是人的某种天生能力，例如理智上的能力遭到了阻碍或破坏。正相反，是力量的高涨已变得如此可怕，它剥夺了人的独立判断，人们放弃了（或多或少是无意识地放弃了）自己评价新的事态的努力。蠢人可能常常十分顽固，但我们切不可因此而误认为他很有独立性。人们多多少少会感到，尤其是在同蠢人谈话时会感觉到，简直不可能同他本人谈话，不可能同他进行肝胆相照的交谈。同他谈话时，你碰到的不是他本人，而是一连串标语口号以及诸如此类的东西，这些东西有力量控制他。他已被他人作祟，他的眼已遭蒙蔽，他的人性已被利用、被糟蹋。一旦他交出了自己的意志，变成了纯粹的工具，就再也没有什么罪恶的极限是蠢人所不会到达的了，但他仍然始终不可能了解那是罪恶。在此有一种恶魔般地扭曲人性的危险，它会对人造成无可补救的损害。

　　然而正是在这个方面，我们意识到，蠢人不可能靠教育来拯救。他所需要的是救赎，此外别无他法。迄今为止，企图用理性论证去说服他，丝毫没有用处。在这种事态中，我们可以完全明白，为什么试图去发现“人民”真的在想什么是徒劳无益的，为什么这个问题对于负责地思考和行动的人来说也完全多余。正如圣经所言：“对上帝的畏惧，就是智慧的开端。”换言之，治疗愚蠢的唯一办法，是灵性上的救赎，因为唯有这样，才能使一个人像上帝眼中负责任的人那样生活。

　　不过，在对人的愚蠢的这些思考中，也有一点可慰之处。我们没有任何理由认为，大多数人在所有的环境中都是愚蠢的。长期起重大作用的是：我们的统治者是希望从人们的愚蠢之中，而不是从人们的独立判断和敏锐思想之中，获得更多的东西。