受害常常是食人者的借口/工具/武器
Being Victim Often Turns to Being Evil
每日一语:
受害者往往会讨得他人的怜悯与同情。 但受害者往往会成为害人者,只是他们没有时机与强权罢了。 中共人士们曾都借口受害去更残酷得残害他人。 这种恶性的朝代循环今天应在建立强大个体自由,建立真实道德信仰的基点上结束了。 --- 陈凯
Victims often collect pity and sympathy from others. But they often become villains to prey on others as well when they have the power. The Chinese communists often claim to be victims of the old despotism in China. Yet they have become the biggest villains in killing millions upon millions of innocent people. Today that vicious cycle should end in our watch. In order for that to happen, individual freedom based on individual moral responsibility must be firmly established. --- Kai Chen
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Dear Visitors:
What I paste below is a very good article, one of very few in Chinese that talks about morality with common sense.
Chinese language is a very superficial, mythical, collectivist and emotional language. To use such a language to dwell into the depth of morality is difficult. I applaud the author for such an attempt to do so.
Indeed nothing has a meaning without freedom to choose and free will of an individual. Morality is the same. To talk about morality and meaning of life in a despotic slavery is like to expect a eunuch (a castrated Chinese court official) to produce offspring.
Indeed in China all the rulers and authority figures talk about morality of the Chinese to others, such as diligence, bravery, kindness. But the truth/reality is the opposite. Intellectual laziness, moral cowardice, personal viciousness permeate Chinese society. Man-made moral code often means amorality or immorality in God's eye. Overly moralized society often means no morality at all, or down right anti-morality. Talking about morality with a slave in Chinese society is like playing music to a cockroach, or preaching goodness to a zombie. Freedom must first be established in a society before any true moral code by God can be founded by true faith and instilled with meaning into a population.
Indeed victims almost always are villains when the time is convenient to them. Pity with despair is only one such weapon in the hands of the man-eaters. Many communists were victims of Chinese despotism. But they became just as vicious if not more vicious in the cycle of man-eating-man, when they had the power backed by guns. No one has progressed in China from the morass of such a vicious cycle. Everyone is somehow trapped by the power of the blackhole. I hope we all understand that crucial point so we are not doing the same here.
China will remain a society of zombies and vampires, till the day all the Chinese are free to choose and bear their own individual responsibility. Then and only then, true morality can finally emerge to quell the spiritual thirst of the arid land.
Let's make our own individual effort to make that happen.
Best. Kai Chen 陈凯
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[size=24]苦难的妙用[/size]
作者:狄马
2008-06-22 11:31:53
中国的传记作家喜欢描摹传主的不幸,以为传主越不幸,他们的人格就越伟大。最终给人一个印象:这些传主之所以取得巨大成就,不是靠他们自身的才华和努力,而是靠苦难本身的孕育。但这无法解释像歌德、泰戈尔这样命途顺遂的天才;反而,有可能推出一系列荒谬的结论:如果说苦难是对一个人有帮助的话,那么楚怀王就成了推动中国文学事业发展的功臣,因为如果没有他的迫害和放逐,就没有屈原的《离骚》和《九章》;汉武帝就成了支持史学研究的好领导,他虽然没有给司马迁拨经费,但如果不是他阉割了司马迁的话,司马迁可能就写不出《史记》;皇权专制就是好,要是没有政治的黑暗和腐败,李白、苏轼、关汉卿就不会留下那么多牢骚满腹的诗篇;甚至奴隶制也不坏,要是没有秦始皇的皮鞭,奴隶们哪会心甘情愿地修长城、筑皇陵?……而且,为了让这些才子俊逸写出更多更好的作品,最好让楚怀王、汉武帝、始皇爷爷做得更糟糕些——正如一部汽车,动力越大,牵引力就会越大——作为读者,我们自然就会收获的越多。然而,任何人都没有权利要求别人牺牲他的利益甚至生命,来满足自己日益增长的物质文化精神需要,哪怕被要求者是古人或外国人。
在游览长城、兵马俑、故宫、颐和园等名胜古迹时,我们常常听到一句陈陈相因的话:“这是古代劳动人民智慧的结晶。”但解说员甚至是学者们没有告诉我们的是,“这些古代劳动人民”是不是愿意发挥他们的智慧?这些“结晶”又是怎样形成的?是由血、汗、水还是葡萄糖析出来的?在我看来,任何一门艺术如果不能体现人类的尊严和价值,甚至完工之日就是创造者的生命终结之日,那么,这门艺术之所以留存下来,就是因为后人要研究祖先的耻辱。长城也许雄伟壮丽,兵马俑也许奇巧无比,故宫和颐和园也许幽深似海,但作为人类罪恶的象征,我们应该首先记住,这些用白骨奠基,充斥着脓血和眼泪的所谓“艺术”只是因为时间的久远,使我们拉开了距离“审美”。充其量是坏事里面衍生出的好事,不值得赞美。就像强奸使一个寡妇怀孕,使她晚年的生活有了依靠,但不能因此赞美强奸;流氓将一个少年的腿打断,使他没有资格报名服役,从而避免了“为国捐躯”,但不能因此颂扬“打断腿”;一恶棍无端将一男子阉割,使他没有机会犯生活作风问题,但不能因此炫耀说:“还是阉割好哩!”……
一切没有选择的行为,在道德上都是没有价值的。你表扬一个太监守贞操,就像在我们的时代你表扬一个下岗工人勤俭节约,农民衣着朴素一样没有意义。只有当我们可以依照自己的良心选择并对自己的选择负责时,我们的“牺牲”才是有价值的。也就是说,善恶在个人不能负责的范围内是没有意义的。一件我们完全不能把握的事件,在道德上就既没有机会获得好评,也没有机会招致恶损。在皮鞭和棍棒下被动地从事一件他完全不得已的工作,和顶住舆论的压力,毁家纾难,成就一项他认为有价值的事业,这二者是有天壤之别的。如果不问选择和被迫的区分,一味赞叹受难者的勤劳勇敢,即使他们的工作真对后人有意义,也显得全无心肝。
由于和意识形态“捆绑销售”的时间太长,中国的文人学士喜欢把一切问题都“泛道德化”。一座偌大的城市十里不见厕所,市民忍耻到墙角排泄,论者归结为“素质低”,而全然不管市政当局的不作为;一个乡村教师三十年如一日,省吃节用,自费买砖,亲自手提肩背,将一座学校背上山,媒体高度赞扬“刘老汉”的“主人翁精神”,而只字不提教育部门的失职对一个老人的身心摧残;一个云南乡村的女邮电员工资不够坐车,步行穿山,独自往返数百公里,好多地方要靠溜索穿越,记者采访完毕,只是一个劲地称赞她的任劳任怨……这种冷血文化培养出的冷血道德鲁迅称之为“瞒和骗”。“瞒和骗”的要诀在于,闭上眼睛,绕开真实人生,把一切需要改良的现实问题转化成一个无私奉献的道德自律问题,然后用形而上的空洞抒情代替形而下的技术改进。苦难和苦难的制造者就这样一起消失。“亡国一次,即添加几个殉难的忠臣,后来每不想光复旧物,而只去赞美那几个忠臣;遭劫一次,即造成一群不辱的烈女,事过之后,也每每不思惩凶,自卫,却只顾歌咏那一群烈女。”(鲁迅《论睁了眼看》)看来这种 “乾坤大转移”的法术自古有之,于今为烈。
那么,谁是这种牺牲道德的最后受益者?当一些人无论是心甘情愿还是受人哄骗地出售了他们的体能和智力时,谁是这种廉价产品的真正买方?从中国农民的身上我看到了这种道德加减的最后得数。中国农民几千年来忍受着非人的苛待,兵来如篦,官来如剃,换来的只是一句“吃苦耐劳”的道德美誉,而几千年来他们的善良、隐忍是不是提高了执政者的道德水平呢?是不是使得治人者有些许的良心发现而减轻压迫呢?或者干脆反过来说,是不是在更大程度上出现了相反的变化呢?德蕾莎修女自述,她在印度贫民窟里帮助的人,从来不上教堂,因为衣衫褴楼;不会哭泣,因为没有眼泪;从来不祈祷,因为没有用;甚至不会请求,因为没有人会理他们。中国农民从来不请求,是因为上帝听不见;经常笑逐颜开,是因为不用担心有人会罚他不当农民;不害怕死亡,是因为到地狱也不过就是在水深火热中服苦役。