陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

精明而愚蠢的中国人
Typical Chinese - Shrewd with No Intelligence

价值一语： Words of Value:

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. --- Abraham Lincoln: Letter to H.L. Pierce

那些将自己的自由建筑在对他人的奴役上的人们，在一个正义的上苍面前，既不值得自由，也维持不了他们的奴役专制。 --- Abraham Lincoln 林肯

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Reprint 10/8/2011)

I start this topic with only the typical Chinese in mind, not every Chinese. And I use 精明 "shrewd" to indicate a degree of being calculating, manipulating, self-deceiving, vicious cleverness, faithlessness and short-sightedness.... I use 愚蠢 “stupidity" to indicate a state of mindset that lacks true intelligence, and at the same time treasuring that lack of intelligence as the essential of the Chinese culture.

The reason for such a derogatory description is not without basis, and that basis is the Chinese cultural tradition and its emphasis on the so called wisdom of "man struggling against man" as the first and foremost attibute a Chinese person should learn and master. Mao in his proud self-portrait declares: There is an endless joy in the struggle of man against other men. And you must have had the intimate experience of the first lessons in your life by your parents and teachers in which you are NOT taught how to discover and understand the reality and objective world truth, but how to deal with others, to obey, to manipulate, to take advantage of others without being detected, how to climb the social ladder....

When you observe carefully how the Chinese interact with each other, you will validate my point of view by noticing from the Chinese eyes. They are avoiding truth, but searching to detect the tiniest cracks and weaknesses from other humans, so they can worm into their confidence and manipulate them for their own benefit.

All the Chinese literature is about how to survive despotism, how to become a despot, how to manipulate others' emotions and strategize to seize and usurp power, how to be loyal to the oppressors and how to intimidate and control your subjects.... When　Ｉ mentioned to others that my experience as a Chinese in the mainland is nothing but hell, people had never failed to remind me that there are others who had worse experiences. It is as if one should be satisfied in a cage so long as one is better fed than those around him. "As long as you are a fatter pig than other pigs in the pigsties, you are a happier pig." has long become the Chinese definition of happiness. So hell in this sense is no difference from heaven.

There has never been such thing in the Chinese literature as that one should fight against injustice, slavery, despotism and to establish truth, justice, freedom and better future. To a Chinese, there is no better future. Everything has already been destined to happen by his ancestors and fate. So what's the use to struggle? So it is wise to just wait, be patient, endure and die with others in misery. This is the ultimate Chinese wisdom: Die for the others, for the state and the emperors, die with others suffering with you, with contentment and gratitude to those who oppressed you, for otherwise, you will be lost (since oppression is the only form of one's self-identity). Then and only then, maybe you will have a better after-life, after your corpse is eaten away by the parasites and the elements.

All in all, it seems that the only purpose for a Chinese to exist is to please others and to serve the collective -- the state. It has never remotely occured to the Chinese that a person has a special meaning on this planet earth, and he has a destiny by God to fulfill. Only he himself can find that destiny and purpose in his life and no one else should interfere in this regard. Only by having fulfilled that sacred destiny, true happiness is possible and the world will progress to a better future.

In sharp contrast to the Chinese wisdom of "happier slaves", in the West and America, wisdom is defined as the intelligence to understand the laws of nature and God, and the ability to observe these objective laws and rules set not by man, but by the divine providence -- our creator. All the inventions in the West are associated with the discovery of the objective truth and reality, with the discovery of God's law. So there is always a sense of progress and hope for human beings. Tomorrow is better than today, because humans are free, under God.

Struggle against injustice, depotism, slavery and oppression and struggle for human joy and happiness, for human freedom and progress, for a better future have always been the central theme in the Western literature. From Shakespeare to Tolstoy, from Plato to Adam Smith, from Galileo to Einstein, human intelligence and wisdom is in full display. Truth, justice, freedom are always the goals and purposes of human exploration and discovery. Happiness and self-fulfillment has always been the ultimate achievement for human beings. This indeed, my fellow travellers toward freedom, is the individual human being's greatness. This indeed, my fellow former Chinese compatriots, is what a human being should aim at and strive to achieve. This indeed, my pitiful slave-minded ancestral land, is the God's way.

Small-man politics and slave-minded cultural tradition of the Chinese should long have been placed to rest, forever and ever, never allowed to return. The corrupt wisdom of man-eating-man, man-struggling against-man aught to be turned upside down and a new form of wisdom with true human intelligence based on God's law of freedom, justice and truth should be established from scratch. A new mindset, a new culture, a new type of human beings must be initiated, promoted and sustained on the despotism-ravaged land of Asia and Chinese mainland.

My forum is my way to address these fundamental issues, to expose the evils and ills in the Chinese cultural mindset, to promote the new human culture originated and established in the West and in America, and to start a new mode of thinking and behaving for those willing Chinese.