My daughter Alex in Peace Corps, Zambia, Africa, 2010

陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

陈凯再版/你值得自由吗？
Do You Deserve Freedom?

“自由人”对抗“中国人”序列
"Free Beings" vs. "Chinese" Series

价值一语 Words of Value：

Impersonal as justice of God. --- Victor Hugo

上苍的正义是铁面无情的。 --- 雨果

Justice is truth in action. --- Joseph Joubert

正义就是用行为去体现真理。 --- Joseph Joubert

陈凯一语 Kai Chen's Words：

混淆“道德”与“伦礼”的、不求真的、为了安全感放弃尊严的、逃避个体认同与个体责任的“中国人”是不会赢得自由，也绝不值得自由的。

Moral confusion, fear of truth, abandoning dignity to acquire safety and escaping individual identity/responsibility have characterized the Chinese culture. Those who adhere to such a despotic culture do not deserve freedom and happiness.

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你值得自由吗？
Do You Deserve Freedom?

Kai Chen 陈凯 9/16/2006 （Reprint 8/2/11)

Indeed, it is God who gives us rights to be free. Yet it is us who are using our moral conduct to deserve the rights of freedom. Freedom will not fall on your head from heaven. You must rise up to meet freedom. You must conduct yourself morally under God to earn and deserve freedom. Passivity and perversion of truth will doom you to eternal slavery and misery.

I hope all the Chinese understand the words I have just written above: Truth and moral conduct are the prerequisites for your freedom. Do not ever just dream of freedom yet remain in your old ways and old thinking of non-truth and passivity. Freedom will never come to you or be given to you by some others - those who claim to be your saviors. You must change yourself and act in a righteous way under God to deserve freedom.

Have you seen Clint Eastwood's movie "High Plains Drifter"? I highly recommend this movie to you, especially to my Chinese readers. It will teach you what is "deserving or non-deserving" regarding freedom. Justice is ruthless if people conduct themselves in an immoral and evil way.

In the movie, a small town of people perverted the truth and did an evil deed to one among themselves -- they kept silent when they were witnessing villains beating their own sheriff to death with whips, because of fear and because of their greed to benefit from the death: The sheriff threatened to expose/impede their scheme to profit illegally.

So for money and for fear and for a temporary material gain, the town's people turned their blind eyes to injustice and evil. But when the evil villains returned to harm them, they hired a new sheriff (Clint Eastwood) to help them to resist the villains. Knowing the evil and fear of the town people, the new sheriff (the after-life of the dead sheriff) demanded absolute power from the town people and exposed their evil ways. And after he killed the villains, he ordered the town people to paint the entire town red and burn it to the ground.

This is God's retribution and justice at work: When you tolerate evil and profit with the help of evil, when you resort to fear, injustice and non-truth to prosper, you are digging your own grave. Allowing injustice done to any one of human beings is allowing injustice done to us all. Freedom at the expense of harming and enslaving others is only another name for despotism and slavery.

With this said, I just have to ask the Chinese:

Do you deserve freedom when you lie, when you take advantage of others, when you harm your fellow human beings, when you allow the fear in your heart to stop you from speaking out loud, when you keep silent seeing evil trampling on your loved ones and other innocent lives, when you join the evil to profit for yourself, when you acquiescent to cooperate with evil in oppressing others and suppressing the truth, when you become a "monkey king" (standing everywhere and nowhere) to evade responsibility, when you identify yourself only with your evil culture, your despotic ancestors, your tyrannical government, your racial and ethnic characteristics, but Not your conscience, Not morals by God's law as a decent human being?????

Do you truly deserve freedom? Ask yourself and conscience in your heart: What exactly have you done to deserve freedom?! Only you, as an individual, can truly answer these questions.

陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

最佳社会四大要素
Four Essentials for Best Society

个体价值/基督精神/联邦宪政/英文语言
Supreme worth of the individual
Christianity
Constitutional Federalism/Republic
English Language

陈凯一语 Kai Chen's Words:

www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

纵观世界，美国是人类历史上最自由，最进步，最繁荣，最道德，最具有活力与创造力的人的社会。 个体主义与个体价值，基督精神与终极道德感，联邦宪政与小政府大社会，英文作为法律教育科学的最佳用语是美国社会的四大要素。 世界上其它社会有的只有这四大要素的某些部分，如欧洲的大部分社会，亚洲的一些社会。 中国社会则根本没有任何的这些要素。 世界上人和社会的进步程度也都取决于它们在多大程度上与意愿上试图取得这四大要素。

If you study all the societies in the world, you will find that America is the freest, the most progressive, the most prosperous, the most ethical, the most lively and the most creative and productive country on earth. Individualism with God-given rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, Christianity with awareness of existence of moral absolutes, constitutional federalism founded on the principle of limited government, and English language as the communication tool used in law, education and sciences are the four essentials for all the achievements in American society. In comparison or contrast with other parts of the world, some such as those in Europe and some in Asia only have parts of the four elements. Others like China have none. Not surprisingly, the degree of freedom, prosperity, creativity and productivity, and the speed of progress of all the societies in the world vary according to whether or not any particular country has and is willing to acquire these four essentials.

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Reprint 7/21/2011)

* Individualism with God-given rights for each to pursue life, liberty and happiness

* Christianity with awareness of existence of moral absolutes

* Constitutional federalism founded on the principle of limited government

* English language as the communication tool used in law, education and sciences

I list these four essentials of a progressive society for all of you to ponder and examine. Those societies who measure up to these four fundamental elements are those who are doing well and progressing toward a better tomorrow. Those who do not measure up or those who reject these four essentials are those societies mired in stagnation and perpetual turmoil. They are going nowhere and they are going down the drain.

Let us examine these four essentials for a society's positive direction toward progress:

1. Individualism with God-given rights for each to pursue life, liberty and happiness:

On this 50th anniversary of publication of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", we will remind ourselves that Ayn Rand, like almost everyone in America, was an immigrant from Russia. She, much like Copernicus and Galileo in the realm of physical science, pointed out that in the realm of morality and human society it is the individual, NOT the society or any collective, that is the fountainhead of creativity and productivity. It is the individual, NOT the collective, that is the sun where the energy is produced and emitted. A society thus must be revolving around the individual, not the other way around. Hence, without this correct awareness of the objective reality, any society will never progress for it will suppress the very source of the energy and creativity.
2. Christianity with awareness of existence of moral absolutes

To interpret Ayn Rand's works mistakenly by injecting moral-relativism is a common mistake among the liberals and the American left. Absolute power, not truth, thus becomes the focal point of contention with the liberals and the left in large, much like the socialists and communists anywhere else in the world. America is never a nation with NO God like a communist country. America is never a nation OF God like a theocracy. America is a nation UNDER God, not men. Christianity thus establishes the moral foundation of America. The origin of life, the origin of consciousness, the origin of morality thus are explained via a life\freedom -affirming, happiness\joy oriented belief. Freedom will triumph over tyranny; truth will triumph over falsehood; life will triumph over death; good will triumph over evil; progress will triumph over stagnation; joy and happiness will triumph over misery and suffering.... By focusing on today's human behavior under a moral compass, a better tomorrow becomes a goal and possibility. Hope is thus instilled and inculcated into the human psyche.

3. Constitutional federalism founded on the principle of limited government

Separation of power, a government of the people, by the people and for the people, inner checks and balances and the principle of limited government all mark the American style constitutional federalism. Presidential election, not a parliamentary system with a prime minister, ensures a constant element of change and innovation in governmental reform and policy initiatives. Thus American society is endowed with a rare vitality and risk-taking innovations. Constant but limited human experiment by the government to ensure a freer society is thus implemented via a written constitution. Stagnation and rigidity hence are diminished. Small government and big society with powerful individuals are ensured.

4. English language as the communication tool used in law, education and sciences

Compared with other languages, English language lacks the rigidity and complexity which often constitute barriers in educating a society's population. It often has Latin roots, Greek roots, German roots, French roots.... It has no human restrictions put on it in its constant evolution and development, not like some other European languages such as French. English language is simple to use, free to create, and easy to understand. The best legal, literal and scientific minds of human history had mostly been written in English. And English-speaking countries lead the world in all the aspects of human endeavors. English language as a tool to conceptualize and interpret natural and human phenomena has greatly contributed to the history of human progress. Failure to recognize the contribution of the English language is to deny the simple fact and the truth all together.

The four essentials I list here are essentials for any human society to progress toward hope and a better tomorrow. I hope all of you think deeper into this issue and post your own opinions here on my forum.