What do you think of the joint initiative of Taiwan’s left-wing scholars?

Photo credit: Caspar Friedrich- From Prof. Kramer

When the relevant news came out last month, I saw the title but didn't pay much attention to it, thinking that calling for peace is always good. Although such groups and voices are in the minority, I admire their persistence and courage.

Yesterday I saw an article written by Long Yingtai in NYT, which listed the open letter signed by 37 Taiwanese scholars and attached a link to the original text. After clicking it, I didn’t know until I read it. Once I read it, I was shocked and had a lot of questions on my face. ? These are the contents? Is this how they understand and judge reality? Is this the left-wing scholar in Taiwan today?

Friends who need it can find the full text to read. Due to the length, time and ability, here I will only take the first major issue mentioned in the open letter as an example to calm my mood and have a serious discussion with all the Taiwan predecessors.

"Russia's invasion of Ukraine is certainly unforgivable, but the medium- and long-range reasons that fueled the war must also be investigated." The word "however" in the first sentence is the essence of the open letter, showing the traditional Chinese The "wisdom" of human beings in dealing with the world also accurately identifies the vision, conscience and true role of their predecessors in the world.

Although I did not follow up every day, I think I have followed the war from the beginning to now, and read the continuous reports and comments from different professional institutions. How come the facts I know are different from those of these senior professors? How did they make such a big This event was condensed and captured into this summary? Are we living in two different information worlds? Do left-wing professors also study the news broadcast for 30 minutes every day with their notebooks? ? ?

The inability to fully grasp the facts and grasp the key points is a lack of sense of reality among these left-wing scholars. But the intentional slapping of the stick on the other side is not just a lack of historical sense among these senior professors.

Let's imagine this scene: A strong man, full of resentment and grievance, insists on raping his childhood sweetheart, a neighbor girl. After raping her, he is still not satisfied and cannot settle down, so he plans to rape, kill and dismember her, and actually puts it into action. In a blink of an eye, the woman was screaming under the blunt knife. Passersby and other neighbors could not bear to watch it and tried their best to stop him from raping, killing and dismembering her.

How should this be evaluated under criminal law? The strong man is undoubtedly guilty of rape and intentional homicide; and the means are extremely cruel and the consequences are very serious. In countries that have not abolished the death penalty, he is usually sentenced to death. What about the neighbors? This is undoubtedly legitimate defense, and the Criminal Law defines legitimate defense in this case as "unlimited legitimate defense", which means that in order to achieve the effect of rescuing the victimized neighbor girl in this situation, the ongoing The strong men who commit crimes inflict unlimited harm (including death). This is the general understanding and common practice of normal countries.

Now let's go back to this scene. On this side, he was trying to be strong, sweating profusely while raping and dismembering the body; on the other side, no one dared to go up and beat the strong man, so they could only try their best to help the neighbor girl put on more clothes and put on more protective gear. He handed her some scissors and pepper spray, and whispered timidly: Girl, you still need to work harder to resist rape and murder. At this time, an old man who heard the news came and shouted loudly for this crime to stop immediately. The crowd might have been excited at first and were expecting the old man to help them, but who knew what the old man would say next to stop the killing and save reality: 1. Scold the passers-by and neighbors who came to help, saying that they were not What good stuff? 2. Sternly request these passers-by and neighbors to stop providing clothes, protective gear, scissors and pepper spray; 3. The rapist and murderer should sit down and have a good talk with the victim...

What do you think of this old man? How should we view such a person? I don't know what kind of foresight and complexity can justify such a distorted worldview and values.

I don't believe they didn't know about the Butcha massacre, I don't believe they didn't hear about the Makariv atrocities, I don't believe they didn't read about the Snake Island defenders, I don't believe they didn't know about the people who refused to surrender and were shot. I don't believe that the veterans who were mowing the streets were unaware of the more than 6,000 children who were forcibly exiled and adopted.

They must have felt regret and grief, admiration and emotion, but when they decided to speak, what considerations and judgments made them treat these as secondary factors? How can we kindly help them understand their knowledge? How can we defend them and say that this is not a patriotic view?

Have you seen them write open letters to denounce Russia? Have you seen them openly challenge the authority? Is it possible that our understanding of reality and usefulness is so different? In the minds of these left-wing professors, since reality is powerless, If they want to change the authoritarian regime, then in terms of results or strategy, is it still the most feasible to cooperate with their needs and narratives? Or do they think that effectively disciplining the authoritarian regime and maintaining utilitarian cooperation requires recognizing the difficulty and rationality of Leviathan? Premise? To do this, he would ignore historical facts, reality and moral precepts?

If I were to put it bluntly, forget it, I won't say anything straightforward. If I were to put it seriously, who the hell are these left-wing professors on the same side with? If Lu Xun hadn't broken with the left, his coffin would be Can't it be covered anymore?