Zhou Baosong: The Meaning of Public Life

The meaning of public life

1 Introduction

Today I would like to discuss three issues of public life with you. First, what is public life? Second, what is the importance of public life? Third, what conditions do you need to practice good public life?

Why discuss "public life" as an issue? Over the past decade, the environment in China's public sphere has continued to deteriorate, with a tighter civil society and fewer public activities. Activities that used to be normal, such as ideological lectures, summer camps and reading groups, are now restricted at any time. This is even more the case with network monitoring. The deletion of articles and bombing accounts is happening every day. It is difficult to find a public platform where people can express their opinions with confidence, let alone in-depth exchanges.

In such an environment, everyone is forced to step back into the private sphere, not caring about not participating in public affairs. People also began to gradually get used to a life without publicity. It's not that they don't want to care about public affairs, it's that they're not allowed to do so. De-publicization is a clear trend in recent years. This state has brought great harm to individuals and society, and many young people feel powerless and lost because of this.

Friends who are familiar with me know that I have been making various attempts in public life over the years, including discussions on Weibo and Facebook, Lidian reading group and Lidian salon, summer camps for intellectual youth, city cafe salons, public lectures, and Organize various ideological and cultural activities in Chinese University. I just shared some of my experiences with you through photos. First, I want to say that a beautiful public life is not only conceivable, but also achievable. Second, I want to cheer everyone up. I hope everyone knows that even in such a difficult time environment, our efforts will not be in vain.

2. What is public life?

First, what is public life? There are three important aspects of public life.

First, public life refers to the life in which people participate and practice in public ways on public issues in the public sphere. Compared with the private realm, the public realm is open to everyone in principle, allowing everyone to enter and exit freely; public issues are issues that are related to public interests and worthy of citizens' attention; public methods refer to an open, rational, and mutually respectful way of communication.

The connotation, boundaries and forms of "public life" are not easy to clearly define, but in today's Chinese context, it is not difficult for everyone to understand its meaning. For example, the online salon we are conducting is to realize a kind of public life, because we It is a free and open communication on issues of common concern on a public platform. We could even say that we are already trying a public life by stepping out of our personal circles and going out and caring for society with others.

Second, the motivation for participating in public life is not personal interests in the narrow sense, but the imagination and pursuit of public interests. Public life is different from economic activities. The purpose of people's participation is not to maximize personal interests, so they will not use others as tools and means for profit. On the contrary, they somewhat have the idea of common good and social justice, hoping that society can become better and more just.

Third, to carry on from the above, public life always means that we are with others. We discuss together, act together, feel together, and change together. Although we have different identities, we always hope to respect each other in public life, and no one will be discriminated against because of differences in origin, class, gender, belief, etc. A very important point of public life is seeing and acknowledging that others are equal to you and have the same rights. We must therefore learn to listen, tolerate and respect different viewpoints. Publicity is always associated with the values of openness, diversity, and democracy.

The above three points are all normative and reflect our expectations of public life, not that the reality is already so. It is precisely when we see the unsatisfactory reality that we put forward these aspects, and we hope that we can work together to create conditions to realize such a public life.

3. Why is public life important?

Next I want to talk about why public life is so important to us. I share four points here.

One, public life can bring us joy and satisfaction. This seems normal, but I think it is very important. If public life does not give us joy and meaning, but is always painful and burdensome, people will ask: Why should I yearn and pursue this kind of life? Since man is a social being, he must develop and realize himself in social activities. Public life is not optional, but an important condition for people to live well.

We come from all over the world, and it is rare to be able to walk together and discuss tonight. In this exchange, we feel happy and fulfilled, and even feel that such a life is beautiful. why? Because we are thinking hard, building friendships, finding resonance, and experiencing a being together in a community for something meaningful. These joys are hard to describe, but once tasted, they will be unforgettable.

For the past few years, I've held an idea salon in a coffee shop in downtown Hong Kong, one a month, usually on weekends, where serious topics are discussed. The cafe is small, but there are a lot of people coming, and everyone has to stand tightly together for hours at a time. I asked them, why do they have to come so hard? They told me it wasn't hard at all and it was a lot of fun. What to enjoy? Enjoy the joy of a group of people thinking hard together, which is hard to experience in the business world.

I am often advised that you spend so much time and energy doing these things, why bother. Not so. I plan these events and am happy most of the time because I see so much beauty that others don't.

Second, another value of public life is to help us find a special connection between people, which we can call "public connection". We do not live alone in the world, but always in connections. We have relatives, friends, and lovers, and these intimate connections form an important part of the meaning of our lives.

But the nature of the public contact I'm talking about is a bit different. For example, imagine that we live in the same city, and one day the government announces a policy that will seriously damage the ecological environment. Some people launched protests, calling on everyone to protect their homes together, and organized various actions to put pressure on the government. This is quite typical public participation, and everyone is familiar with it. In this process, if you are actively involved in it, you will find that you and other people who have the same goals, you begin to establish a connection, a kind of identity, and even a different feeling for the city.

For example, in Hong Kong, many people like to call this city "my city" - my city. When you feel like this is your city, it must mean some kind of connection between you. This is what I call public connections based on public practice.

One might ask, why is public contact important? My idea is that if people are social beings, we have to make connections to build ourselves and find meaning in life. One of the values of public life is that it takes us out of our personal circles to see the bigger world and to build more public connections with others. This connection will not only change our relationship with the world, but also our understanding of ourselves.

Third, in the process of participating in public life, we are also developing human abilities, such as the ability to make rational judgments and distinguish right from wrong, the ability to compare and weigh between different viewpoints and arguments, the ability to listen, understand and feel others, and the ability to hold on to beliefs and principles of competence, and civic virtue in general. Without these capabilities, it is very difficult for us to participate effectively in public life. The development of these capabilities can often only be achieved through public participation. This means that public life itself provides us with good opportunities for continuous learning: learning to be democratic citizens, learning to be social masters.

Fourth, finally, I would like to stress that actively participating in public affairs and striving to become a person with public awareness and public concern are important conditions for social change and social progress. We all know that society does not change for the better for no reason, and those with power will not suddenly discover their conscience and implement institutional reforms. Social change requires many people to work together. If everyone just stood by and waited for a ride, the world we live in would be stagnant, or even worse.

We therefore understand why the authorities are doing everything possible to suppress public participation and make our public life increasingly thin and fragmented. Public life is powerful. When people walk together and start to think independently, the system will panic, because they know that their own set of things can no longer be examined rationally. The current social control is to drive people back to the private sphere and turn them into economic animals indulging in consumption, so that we ignore or even forget that people are both social and political beings.

4. Conditions of public life

Since public life is so important, what are the conditions for good public life? I think there are three levels of conditions worthy of attention, they are institutional, cultural and personal conditions.

The first level is institutional conditions, that is, our socio-political system must guarantee relevant rights and provide sufficient resources to allow and encourage citizens to participate in public affairs. The most direct and the easiest to understand is the free system under the system. Without freedom of speech and thought, freedom of the press and the press, freedom of belief and association, and freedom to participate in political affairs, the breadth and depth of public life are severely limited. These freedoms constitute fundamental rights of citizens and should be expressly guaranteed by law. Our constitution is written like this.

Many people think that the reason why freedom is important is to protect individuals from the interference of public power in the private sphere, so that individuals can freely do what they want to do. But this is only one side of it. The other side of freedom is to ensure that individuals can participate in and enjoy public life. Without freedom, public life will wither, public connection will be lost between people, and everyone will live incompletely.

Some might think this is a bit of an exaggeration. Even without freedom, people can be compensated in other ways, such as trying to earn money and spending as much as they want. If there is no public life, it is better to return to the private world, and the quality of life will not be affected. I understand this kind of thinking. After all, the sense of freedom is different, and the pain of losing freedom will be different.

But just think about it, in a society without freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of the press, freedom of association, everyone will suffer, because we have no way of knowing what's going on in the world, we can't read many good books, we can't Connect with others and express yourself without fear. In a word, without freedom, the healthy development of human beings will be greatly harmed.

The second level is cultural conditions. Even if the law gives us the freedom to participate, if there is no cultural soil and cultural infrastructure for public life, for example, everyone only cares about speculating in stocks and houses, not interested in public issues, and there is not enough cultural space for everyone to breathe, public life It will be difficult to develop healthily. Public libraries, independent bookstores and independent publishing houses, squares, cafes, media, online platforms, etc., are all indispensable cultural infrastructure.

Another important point is that public life needs a set of common languages to carry. People think and communicate through language, and public affairs are about everyone, including how to exercise power to be justified, what rights and obligations citizens should have, how resources should be fairly distributed, etc., all of which must be fully discussed in society. , and gradually form a consensus. But for these discussions to take place, a mature normative language must exist in society, and people can freely use these concepts, values and theoretical frameworks for analysis and dialogue. Where did this language come from? It is up to everyone to work together.

The third level is personal conditions. This should not be difficult for everyone to understand. Anyone who has been on Weibo knows how difficult it is to have meaningful discussions there. Don't put on hats, don't make personal attacks, don't go to the top of the line, and focus on facts. These basic requirements for public discussion have become quite scarce now. What is even worse is that some people initiate collective reports at every turn, insisting that the other party disappear completely. How can there be good public discussion in this environment? !

Indeed, we should all have basic civic qualities, and we should try our best to maintain the public character of society. I know the current situation is far from ideal, but we don't have much room to bemoan. If we don't work hard, things will only get worse. Our public space depends on everyone to support it little by little.

In recent years, every time I finish a lecture, someone will always come up to me and tell me, Teacher, you said it well, but the reality is not like this. The system is so powerful that nothing we can do can change the reality. I don't think it's necessary to be so pessimistic. That is, tonight, for example, hundreds of us are here to discuss, undoubtedly the practice of public life. It may not change the system for a while, but I wouldn't say such exchanges are meaningless. Everyone's conscious non-submission to power and truthfulness of life are all resistance to the true meaning.

When did the revolt happen? When realizing that we are free agents and taking the initiative to say no to power. Rebellion does not always have to be vigorous, it can also be carried out silently in subtle and everyday places. This conscious resistance, as long as it persists, even becomes our way of life, the first thing to change is ourselves. Because we live in the world, and we change, the world must change with it.

This seems to be common sense, but I have experienced a lot to understand. Once I do, I stop asking if what I'm doing is working right now, because I know the world will be different if I try to do it well. I don't think this is Ah Q-style self-comfort. Think about it, there was no such party in the world tonight, we made it exist. When we begin to communicate, we all gain more or less, and the world is different.

From this point of view, the so-called change does not need to be earth-shattering, it is good to start from where we can focus. From today onwards, if we think seriously, live seriously, and participate in public activities seriously, we are practicing a kind of resistance, and we are showing the attitude of dissidents. Why is this an objection? Because we did not follow the script of the system. We go out of our way through thinking and practice.

Full text here: https://theinitium.com/article/20200927-opinion-notes-public-life/