陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

要大象不要象鼻子？
Chinese Illusion of Perfection

价值一语： Words of Value:

要大象而不要象鼻子； 要毛驴而不要驴耳朵； 要自由而不要责任与异见； 要幸福而不要追求与代价； 要美国式民主自由而不要由这种民主自由带来的必然的一切、、、。 这就是中国人，和一些西方人士的“完美社会说”。 实质上这种“完美社会说”不光是一个幻觉，也是专制制度的基点。 理想社会并不是，也不应该是完美社会，而是，也应该是一个不断“自我完美的社会“。 --- 陈凯

Wanting an elephant but not the elephant trunk, wanting a dunkey but not the dunkey's ears, wanting freedom but not the responsibility and diversity, wanting happiness but not the pursuit and the price entailed, wanting American style democracy and freedom but not everything this democracy and freedom will necessarily result.., this is the so-called ”Perfect Society" complex that the Chinese and some Western intellectuals entangle themselves in. In essence, this complex of "perfect society" is not only an illution， but also the foundation for despotism and tyranny. An ideal society is not and should not be a "perfect society". Instead, it is and should be a "self-perfecting" society. --- Kai Chen

虽然我会真诚地，激烈地与激情地反驳某些人的观点，但我也会用我的生命捍卫他们表达自己观点的权利。 --- 无名者

Though I will honestly, passionately and vehemently oppose some people's view points, I will use the equal emthusiasm to defend their rights to express themselves fully. --- Unknown

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 （Reprint 9/29/2011)

I have quite often encountered this illusion and fantasy based on a "perfect society" theory, propagated from since there was human society. Marxism and Nazism had also been based upon this human illusion and pathology of yearning for a perfect society. They have struggled to use their blood, flesh, pain and misery and lives to achieve a "perfect society". The end result is only invariably despotism and tyranny.

I have talked about this tendency among the Chinese with their opposition of "Westernization" in my article "On Humans vs. Devils" 人鬼谈. They want everything that is good resulted from freedom, but they don't want anything that is bad resulted from freedom. Somehow they want to deny the human choice to choose from "being Human" or "being Devil". They are only living in illusions.

Freedom means humans are free to choose their conduct and behavior, and bear the consequences and responsibilities from that very choice. To stop people from choosing their own orientations and destinies is a sign of lack of faith. In other words, lack of trust in God. It is because we believe that Good will always defeat Evil that we create Free societies such as America's. With freedom, there will be garbage and degenerates, but they are not valued and they will be filtered through a value system based on human life, freedom and pursuit of happiness. To say something like "I want American system and values but I don't want to see homosexuals, I don't want to see leftists and terrorists, I don't want to see humans making mistakes and committing crimes.., is only a sign of infantile fatansy and illusion that corrodes our sense of reality and impedes our pursuit of progress and true freedom.

It is this sick and dellusional urge naturally embedded in human souls to control others to please oneself, that prompted the coining of the terms in the West such as "Original Sin" to curb the ill effect of this human pathological urge. The so-called "Chinese Style Westernization", or "Avoiding Negative side of Freedom and Westernization" theories are nothing but rooted in this original sin that can only result in despotism and tyranny.

Even among many Chinese in their practice of choosing a spouse, you can see this tendency of "wanting elephant but not the elephant trunk" syndrome. They demand the other side to live for them. They want the other side to change for them. They want the other side to correct their "short-comings" and "bad habits" so they will feel more comfortable. This is indeed an illusion, if not a sick dellusion. This tendency results only in unhappy marriages and frequent divorces, for they are not ready to accept a whole person, a whole individual being with distinct characteristics. They don't understand that one only has the right to decide what oneself can do and accept, one can never decide what any other can do and accept.

Though I had no choice to choose where and by whom I was born, I do indeed have the freedom to decide whether or not I will accept the values my birth place stands for or my birth parents represent. Only when we value and live the value of freedom, we can truly become a free being. Resisting the temptation to change others for our own sake is one but important prerequisit of becoming a free being.