蚯蚓与人
Longevity vs. Meaning, Survival vs. Life




每日一语：

[size=18]人与动物的根本区别在于人对自身人生意义的追求，而动物只寻求自身与物种的存活与延续。 --- 陈凯 [/size]

The fundamental difference between humans and animals is that humans pursue the meaning of each individual's existence, animals are only programmed by nature to prolong their own, their species' and their offspring's survival. --- Kai Chen

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

Dear Visitors:

One of the most commonly used defense for the despotic Chinese culture is its longevity. The advocates point out that since the Chinese culture has lasted a long time, it must have had some merits, or it must have been better than some others that did not last that long, or some new cultures that have just started such as the US.

Using quantity to justify quality is one of the most common confusions, and one of the most bizarre phenomenon concocted in the perverted Chinese mind in the Confucian culture. Quantification and physicalization are most often applied to humans and human societies in China. The abstract, intrinsic and fundamental difference between humans and animals thus is blurred, ignored and eliminated. No wonder the Chinese treat humans just like animals, in many cases, worse than animals. Mao wanted to kill half of the Chinese population just to fulfill his own power-driven fantasy. And worse, today the Chinese still see him as a great man, regardless all of his crime against humanity, against the Chinese themselves. Most bizarre, isn't it?

One cannot live without surviving, but indeed one can survive without living. We as humans eat, shit, sleep and have sex to live, but we don't just live to eat, shit, sleep and have sex. In any despotism such as socialism, Confucianism, Nazism and communism, humans are reduced to mere numbers and physical quantities. Individuals disappear and mindless, soulless zombies roam the earth. They are force-fed to believe their only meaning on earth is to ensure their own survival, their offspring's survival, and most importantly, their nation's and race's survival. Meaning is abandoned. Values are cast aside. Moral absolutes are cursed to hell. Soul and spirit are belittled as sheer superstition....

Suddenly we realize than we are not even as valuable as the rainworms, for rainworms have survived in the dirt for millions upon millions years longer than humans, and according to the Chinese culture advocates' logic, rainworms must be much, much more valuable than humans. Rainworms don't even have a brain, and if you cut one in half, it will grow into two worms. What a magical survival ability! In contrast to rainworms, humans are much more vulnerable. Humans cannot regenerate any organ is it's cut off, and if the vital organ such as brain or heart is damaged, they do die.

Does this mean humans' are less valuable than rainworms? Does this mean that longevity itself determines a species', or a person's value? Does evolution "mean" anything at all? Where does human self-consciousness come from?

According to the Chinese culture advocates, with their collective mentality, we humans are basically no different from animals, and we are even lower than animals. Then you just have to wonder what causes the Chinese vicious "dynastic cycles", what causes the Chinese society its thousands of years of stagnation and human degeneration, what causes the "zombie syndrome" and the perverted human psyche among the Chinese.

You just have to wonder if you are indeed lower than the rainworms.

Best. Kai Chen 陈凯