Freedom Vs Tyranny - Ronald Reagan 里根：自由 vs.专制
陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com 完美的专制-要大象不要象鼻子？要毛驴而不要驴耳朵？
Elephant with No Trunk? - Chinese Illusion of Perfection
“自由人”对抗“中国人”序列
"Free Beings" vs. "Chinese" Series
陈凯一语： Kai Chen's Words:
要大象而不要象鼻子； 要毛驴而不要驴耳朵； 要信仰不要个体的自由意志；要幸福而不要真实的存在；要爱情而崇尚宏大的虚无；要自由而不要责任与异见；要选择而不要追求与代价；要美国式民主宪政而不要由这种民主宪政带来的必然的一切、、、。 这就是中国人，和一些西方左派人士的“完美社会说”。 实质上这种“完美社会说”不光是一个幻觉，也是专制奴役制度的基点。 理想社会并不是，也不应该是完美社会。 理想社会而是，也应该是一个不断“自我完美的社会“。
Wanting an elephant but not the elephant trunk, wanting a donkey but not the donkey's ears, wanting faith/belief but not individual free will, wanting happiness but not existence, wanting love but only pursuing it in nothingness, wanting freedom but not the responsibility and diversity, wanting individual choice but not the pursuit and the price entailed, wanting American style democracy but not everything this democracy will necessarily result.., this is the so-called ”Perfect Society" complex that the Chinese and some Western leftist intellectuals entangle themselves in. In essence, this complex of "perfect society" is not only an illusion, but also the foundation for despotism and tyranny. An ideal society is not and should not be a "perfect society". Instead, it is and should be a "self-perfecting" society.
虽然我会真诚地，激烈地与激情地反驳某些人的观点，但我也会用我的生命捍卫他们表达自己观点的权利。 --- 无名者
Though I will honestly, passionately and vehemently oppose some people's view points, I will use the equal enthusiasm to defend their rights to express themselves fully. --- Unknown
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By Kai Chen 陈凯 （Written 6/23/2006, Reprint 4/18/2011)
I have quite often encountered this illusion/fantasy based on a "perfect society" with "perfect human beings" theory, propagated from since there has been human society. Marxism and Nazism are also based upon this human illusion and a pathological yearning for a perfect society. They have struggled to use their blood, flesh, pain, misery and lives to achieve a "perfect society". The result is only invariably more misery and deaths by despotism/tyranny, coupled with a terminal sense of hopelessness and silent desperation.
The Chinese society has always been perpetuated under the illusion of creating a "perfect despotism" with some despots holding absolute power over the helpless masses. The mythologies of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism are the basis for these illusions that mired the Chinese society in an eternal vicious dynastic cycle.
I have talked about this tendency among the Chinese with their opposition of "Westernization" in my article "Speaking of Being Human or Devil" 人鬼谈. (http://kaichenblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/kai-chen-reprintspeaking-of-man-and.html) They (the Chinese) want everything that is good resulted from freedom, but they don't want anything that is bad resulted from freedom. Somehow they want to deny the human choice to choose from "being Human" or "being Devil". They want a total control of human beings without their free will and choices, even at the price of slavery/tyranny. They want "an elephant without its trunk".
Human free will based on virtue/morality makes freedom meaningful.
Freedom means humans are free to choose their conducts and behaviors, hence bear the consequences and responsibilities from that very choice. To stop people from choosing their own orientations and destinies is a sign of lack of faith (and a beginning of tyranny and evil). In other words, it is the lack of trust in God. It is because we believe that Good will always defeat Evil that we create Free societies such as America's Constitutional Republic. With freedom, there will always be garbages and degenerates, but they are not valued and they will be filtered through a value system based on human life, freedom and pursuit of happiness. To say something like "I want American system and values but I don't want to see homosexuals and perverts, I don't want to see leftists and terrorists, I don't want to see humans making mistakes and committing crimes.., is only a sign of infantile fantasy/illusion that corrodes our very sense of reality and impedes our pursuit of progress and true freedom. Despotism/tyranny would be the necessary outcome of such a fantasy/illusion.
It is this sick and delusional urge naturally embedded in human souls to control others to please oneself, that has prompted the coining of the terms/concepts in the West such as "Original Sin" to curb its ill effect. The so-called "Chinese Style Westernization", or "Avoiding Negative Side of Freedom/Westernization" is nothing but rooted in a lack of concept of "Original Sin". The lack of faith in God/Goodness creates an illusion that somehow humans can make themselves perfect. The concept of "Human Being" 人/是人 does not exist in China. The Chinese always believes in “Human Making"/"Human Performing"做人, according to a man-made manuscript such as Confucianism.
Even among many Chinese in their practice of choosing a spouse, you can see this tendency of "wanting elephant but not the trunk" syndrome. They demand the other side to live for them. They want the other side to change for them. They want the other side to correct his/her "short-comings" and "bad habits" so they feel more comfortable themselves. This tendency results only in unhappy marriages and frequent divorces, for they are not ready to accept a whole person, a whole individual being with distinct characteristics. They don't understand that a person only has the right to decide what he himself/she herself can do and accept. A person can never decide what any other can do and accept.
Though I had no choice in choosing where and by whom I was born, I do indeed have the freedom to decide whether or not I will accept the values my birth place stands for or my birth parents represent. Only when we believe freedom and subsequently live by the values of freedom, we can truly become a free being with hope and a future. Resisting the temptation to change others for our own sake is one but very important prerequisite of becoming a free being.
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