陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

骄傲来自个人成就与价值取向
Chinese Fake Pride in Collective Mentality

价值一语： Words of Value:

A person's true source of pride for himself only comes from his own achievement, not from the status into which he was born. --- Kai Chen

一个人真正的自豪感只来自他自身努力而来的成就，而绝不是来自他所诞生下来的环境地位。 --- 陈凯

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 （Reprint 9/28/2011)

A person's identity has two fold: Achieved (Chosen) identity, and Ascribed (Birth) identity. The former is associated only with the individual himself. The later is associated with genetics and heritage.

True pride of a person can only be felt with the individual's personal achievement and value orientation in his conduct. If a person only acquire his pride through his ascribed identity via birth, the feeling of his pride can only be described as an illusion induced by some cultural or spiritual narcotics.

To be proud of one's own skin color, race, age, gender, birth-place, family background, social class he was born into, is only an indication of the person's mental sickness. He somehow has chosen to be proud of all the attributes about himself that he has never chosen or achieved. This unfortunately is the only identity many Chinese have, and falsely feel proud of.

When you ask an American what he feels proud of in his life, he would usually answer this question with the achievement he personally have had, and being American because what values America stands for. This is normal and healthy mental state of a person.

What about when you ask a Chinese why he feels proud to be a Chinese, he either fails to answer that question, or he just answer the official line: The long history, the Great Wall, the Emperors' Tombs, the Ancient Palaces... He thinks somehow that is him, even if he has nothing to do with it. He thinks somehow all the symbols and grand structures pointed to greatness. But as I have pointed out before: Churcill's definition of a great nation is only a good nation. In that sense, China was and has never been a good nation before, therefore China is never qualified to be called a "great nation". The values China as a nation has been standing for is only one thing: Despotism. Nothing else.

A person who claims to be proud of being Chinese has either been unaware of what he is saying, or he is identifying himself with the despotic values China has always stood for.

Be aware and beware of the "Proud" Chinese, for they are either sick or they are evil. I can only have these two explanations.