陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

伟大民主vs.强大专制
Soul vs. Face, Software vs. Hardware

价值一语： Words of Value:

But what is Freedom? Rightly understood, -- A universal license to be Good. --- Hartley Coleridge: Liberty

那么什么是自由呢？ 这只有一个内涵： 上苍给与所有人去做一个好人的执照。 --- Hartley Coleridge: 自由论

***********************************

By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Reprint 10/5/2011)

The temptation to be powerful is often a lot more stronger than the will to be good. Our inner demons propell us to have such uncontrollable desire to be in control -- to act like a God. It is Faith in truth and goodness that pulls us down from our momentary weakness to surrender to evil.

In China and other parts of the world, we have witnessed this human unconditional surrender to evil and their thirst for power. From the Qin emperor to Mao and the current despotic communist regime, faithless people subject themselves to the temptation of power -- the domain controlled by demons in human souls. (If you have seen the movie "Lord of The Rings", you know what I am talking about.)

In America, we have witnessed the opposite: Strong faith in Truth and Goodness have propelled this great nation toward future. Finally, the history of mankind is moving forward by the unmovable mover -- A nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

Despotism may appear powerful, for there is nothing it would not do to secure its own power to control humans. Yet it only polishes a nation's face and vanity, while the nation's soul is gradually starved and poisoned to death. Using end to justify means is an universal tool in the hands of despotic regimes. Today in China, such mentality is translated into the slogan: To build a powerful China so no one can look down on the Chinese anymore. So for a powerful China, every Chinese has to sell their own soul, their own dignity and liberty to the evil authority, and to follow the powerful government to conquer others. Human lives, happiness, liberty are taken only as something secondary and as sacrificial artifacts on the altar of the nation. And moral decay and degradation is only the necessary and inevitable outcome.

Throughout human history, from Germany to Russia to China, fledgling democracies have quite often been crushed by nationalism and "people racism". People quite often succumb to their own inner demons and sins. Nazism, Fascism, Communism often have great popular support, for they appeal to human skin, face and vanity. They appeal entirely to human weaknesses and they are built on human weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Inevitably, they would never escape their miserable fate -- they all crumble because of human weaknesses and their inner demons.

Democracy based on human liberty often appears weak at the first glance, for it somehow appears chaotic, slow to act, hard to reach consensus among people. It takes a tremendous amount of time and patience to nurish its roots -- the human soul and conscience. Yet what grows slowly often is what will stay for a long time, for it is build on a solid foundation -- the human strengths to know themselves, to explore and pursue truth, to observe facts in reality, and to follow their own conscience -- God. Democracy nurishes not face and skin of humankind. Democracy nurishes human inner yearning for goodness, for life, for liberty, for joy and true happiness. Democracy may not have a great artificial human authority, but it has a greater authority from God -- the universal human moral authority. In a democracy, no one will use end to justify means, for any unjust means will corrupt any moral end, regardless how lofty that end may sound.

As in despotism and authoritarianism, there is nothing that government authority would not do under the name of "common good" and "national interests", while in democracy, there is a strict moral guideline to limit the governmental power. There are many things that government authority can never do, such as sacrificing any single individual's interests against his or her will for public good. Such principles will safeguard the moral integrity of the political entity based on liberty and justice. God's law is always above human laws and is always to guide human laws.

So as we strive to overthrow a despotic culture and regime in China, we have to keep in mind that to establish a government under God with liberty and justice for all is a much more difficult, time-consuming, and often delicate and frustrating process. There will be NO panacea and quick solutions. Patience, strong will, unshakable faith, courage and wisdom are in great need in our endeavor for a better society.

Let's never confuse Power with Greatness, or confuse face wth soul. Only such moral clarity can save us from stepping into the same trap our Chinese ancestors had never been able to extract themselvs from.

I do have great faith in human pursuit of truth, justice, liberty and progress. In other words, I do have faith in God. Do you?