陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

和平不是绥靖
Peace vs. Appeasement

价值一语： Words of Value:

No peace was ever won from fate by subterfuge or agreement; no peace is ever in store for any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin, --- victory over the sin that oppresses, as well as that which corrupts. --- John Ruskin

和平绝不是从宿命的托词与协议中赢得的；如果我们不能击败我们的耻辱与原弊，我们就不可能有和平；和平是通过我们战胜压迫和腐败我们灵魂的原弊的邪恶而赢得的。 --- John Ruskin

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By Kai Chen 陈凯 （Reprint 9/29/2011)

In my essay "On Humans and Devils", I only want to point to the Chinese audience that "Westernization" means victory over evil and sin toward a linear, directional history.

Yet the mainstream Chinese thinking is that of a circular fashion, that of identifying oneself with devil and sin to achieve a momentary peace. The world history repeatedly demonstrates to us that this moral confusion and appeasement toward evil only breeds more bloodshed and disaster. The peace in Chinese mind is not a "true" peace at all, it is instead, "Nothingness" - death. They seem to think that as long as one covers his eyes, nothing in front of him will truly exist; as long as he denies his own existence, he will achieve the so called "state of peace". The Chinese are only deceiving themselves. And the thousands of years of Chinese history has already proven to everyone in the world but the Chinese that their history is of war and bloodshed and atrosities unimaginable by normal human beings.

To a large degree, denying the existence of sin and devil in their own soul leads to that everyone in China becomes the embodiment of that very sin and devil. The Chinese thinking is that if everyone is corrupt, there would be no corruption, if there is no light, there would be no darkness. They simply stopped striving to achieve humanity and freedom. And they have simply created a world of slavery to deny the existence of freedom. Thus, somehow they thought they could be at peace with themselves, no torment, no struggle, no enlightenment, no progress, no Nothing at all.

This state of being is indeed NOT　called "peace". it is called "Death". And indeed the Chinese history is a history of deaths and destruction. Logic is ruthless and inescapable.

I hope when you feel lazy and want to just be confused to feel some "peace", you realize you are just doing the opposite. Peace only belongs to those who endlessly struggle against sin and evil, for they do, indeed, exist in your soul no matter you admit the fact or not. Stopping your effort to struggle against sin and evil will mean endless torture and misery in your life. Freedom indeed comes with a price -- eternal vigilance.