A breakup letter with a "left-wing" youth

This is a narrative about my breakup with a left-wing youth from the West.

I first met her on a language learning app. I didn't know her for a long time. It took about half a year to cut the seats in the end, and we were very close. Basically, she was the initiator. We only met once through video.

She has ancestry and cultural background from two continents. She was born in country Z in South America. She currently lives in country A, a developed country in Europe. She is married and her husband is a citizen of country A. She herself does not have the basic ability to use any one of the four dimensions of Chinese. , but better than the vast majority of Chinese (over 95% conservatively estimated) understand Chinese history (mainly based on a grand narrative, with China as a whole as a narrative and observation object, rather than local chronicles or family records), there are great things in life The serious reading volume of the book includes a large number of books from and about China (including "Book of Changes", "Tao Te Ching", "The Analects of Confucius", "Sun Tzu's Art of War", Mo Yan's works, Xiao Hong's works, Yu Hua's works, Pearl Buck's works, etc. ), I have watched a lot of Chinese movies (from works by Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Jia Zhangke, etc., to obscure and extremely niche road landscape films), I am a very active social activist, with a clear left-wing political leaning, anti-capitalist is the core position and is extremely concerned about the political and social situation in China.

The following is the last word I wrote to it, the transmission tool is WeChat. The original text is in English. In order to be as accurate as possible, it is mainly presented in literal translation. Some original texts belong to the language errors caused by real-time software input without careful review and will be directly rewritten in this translation. The missing parts will be filled in due to the difference in expression. I am confident that my English level will never constitute a major misunderstanding. Italics are additional comments that do not belong to the original text.

The following is the text of the letter:

Let me first clarify one thing.

To me, you are not considered a typical "Westerner". I didn't label you. I never posted to you. And even if I wanted to label you, you're clearly not a "typical" "westerner".

I think this fact is self-evident.

Second, one thing is extremely important.

I never asked you to help me.

No, I don't need your help, of any kind.

I was amazed to see the words "resume" and "finding a job" in country A.

Working, living, or even immigrating to country A or any European country, never crossed my mind. These thoughts never crossed my mind.

If my previous statement misunderstood you so much that you thought it was me thinking something like that, I have to say: no, no, no.

At present, the situation in China is far from unbearable. In my opinion, large-scale and large-scale social changes in the short term are still impossible.

Third, I have sympathy for you in general, but I have no sympathy for the fact that you went to prison at 15.

This is all I know about this matter, and without any details, all I have is doubt, not sympathy. ( On this point, I do only know the literal meaning of the seven words she "went to prison at the age of fifteen", and I don't know anything else, which is indeed from her casual mention. The reason why I am here This is mentioned because she thinks I don't care about her "suffering" and expresses "disappointment" in a way. )

By the way, I am currently content to remain in this doubt. I'm not trying to dig and snoop the details from you.

Frankly, at this moment, I don't want to know.

Fourth, I do not think/feel/identify that every human being is equally important to me, whether in general terms or specific cases, whether in an ethical, theoretical, practical sense, whether through philosophy Knowledge and moral practice are completely ignored.

I know how you think/feel/identify. I respect that. But on this point, I totally disagree with you.

In my previous responses, I have stated my values very clearly. The last thing I need is a philosophical analysis of my values, whether their origins are "Western" or "Eastern," how "things" and "categories" interact, or in relation to epistemology or phenomenology.

I don't need to be reminded to think that I need to tweak the intentionality a little bit and then build a possibly more successful intersubjectivity with you, and thus possibly a firmer foothold in my moral consciousness. Or, I need to think deeper and achieve a deeper contemplative state, blurring the boundaries between subject and object, and then redefining and refining my "self-world" duality. ( This long paragraph is my sarcastic response to an earlier discussion involving some philosophical fur )

I've passed the "Philosophy 101" class and I don't need any more lectures on it, at least not now.

Regarding the question that came from you - how can I not have compassion for people who are in a worse situation than me.

My answer is:

I don't sympathize with broad concepts in general; I sympathize with individuals specifically.

It depends on how well I know/know/know these people and how the story is communicated to me and how I receive it. If I don't know/know/know them at all, and the story isn't moving enough, then I really don't care/care at all.

The truth is, I never asked/suggested/encouraged you to do anything other than learn Chinese, which as far as I can remember was the original goal of our encounter.

On the contrary, I am constantly being called/advised/encouraged by you to "believe in the people", "look at things from another perspective", "take to the streets and make your own voice" regarding the political and social situation in China, And these have absolutely nothing to do with language learning.

Regarding your urges and suggestions, I have continued to respond with various questions (in short, rhetorical questions ), on how to change the current prevailing individualism in China and even the world \ indifference to public affairs \ distant events and Human neglect, and something deeply embedded in Chinese culture in my opinion ( like the differential order structure like Confucian "love" ), asks you what's practical, feasible, and effective.

And, I keep reminding you of the fact that the grand narrative from the Chinese government and from the Chinese tradition is very powerful and is highly shared by the vast majority of Chinese in proportion. Especially at this moment, almost all developed Western countries except Japan (a "Western" country that is somewhat "Western" to a certain extent ( this sentence is in parentheses )) have already It has become what you called the "corrupt 'banana republic'" when you talked about the Italian outbreak a few weeks ago, and China is, if not quite, slowly getting back on track.

The answers I have received from you include but are not limited to:

1. Continued emphasis on the importance of love, care and compassion;
2. "Looking at the problem from another, wider, global perspective";
3. Capitalism is the common enemy of ordinary people around the world;
4. The new crown virus will eventually have to become a part of life, and we are facing a greater threat, humanity may enter a nuclear war;
5. China is not special. For this, you can refer to the recent protests in country Z (a country with a total population smaller than Shanghai ), as long as the people unite, they can win ( but in a later reply from her, she said that the situation has gotten worse );
6. The ruling class is rubbish, Trump and Boris should be shot because they are both failed liars and it turns out they can't do anything;
7. and many more

Regarding the articles you sent me earlier, according to your claims they came from a highly coordinated, globally connected, spontaneous revolutionary elite group of experts in their respective fields.

1. Regarding the possible impact of the new crown virus ( when this article was published, the total number of confirmed deaths in Italy had not exceeded 300, the article concluded that Switzerland can easily deal with it, and the Z Congress of South America is a humanitarian disaster, then everyone in the world should Enjoy free and excellent medical care. )

In this mathematical modeling, the comparison of various parameters, including the indwelling time of new coronavirus patients in the ICU, and the usual situation in the ICU are completely ignored ( 1. The new crown is a severe "infectious disease", and the ICU is not equal to an infectious disease ward , the internal isolation of the ICU is an additional problem, so the rapid increase of homogeneous infectious patients in a short period of time may quickly deplete the equipment and equipment reserved for ordinary situations, and then lead to infection of medical staff, further worsening the situation; 2. If the usual The average ICU patient escapes or dies after 1 week of stay, and if the new crown patient has an average of X weeks due to no cure but slowly suffocates, the bed demand is actually directly X times, and this is fundamental in this article. It is not considered, not even mentioned, and it is directly assumed to be equal. )

1. About the lack of water resources (The article is mainly about the lack of water resources, half of the world's human beings do not have clean water to drink, and the conclusion is that this is a humanitarian disaster caused by the capitalist market distribution. )

The basic natural distribution of water resources in space, geography and time is completely nowhere to be found ( there is no specific example in the whole article, the difference between the Great Lakes in the United States and Canada and the South Sahara, the heavy rain in the monsoon season in India, the impact of the central Deccan Plateau, population growth , China's giant water conservancy project as a developing country, etc. )

From an academic point of view, these missing fundamental links make the academic/scientific value of these articles infinitely close to zero.

Yesterday, I was reading the paper on the natural origin of the new coronavirus in "Natural Medicine", and I was discussing with a bioinformatics academic worker 1. The missing cleavage point when comparing the coronavirus in bats and pangolins with SARS2, 2. The magnitude of the virus is poorly understood, and the combined effect of these two points will have an impact on the accuracy of the judgment of which animal the new coronavirus comes from. ( In the case that you know that the ocean abyss exists, and you have only dived to the depth of ten meters, you can't stare at the lotus pond in front of your house and claim that all the fish will not glow until you meet the lantern angler, and then He also said that it must be a relative of the silver carp, because the lips are very thick and they are "covering the sky". )

Then I just got another article from you claiming that the coronavirus is a product of capitalism.

Here is my conclusion and answer:

Life is short.

There will be a moment when even a doomed effort has to be fought for.

But ( your ) this one is not.

Please don't contact me again.

Best wishes for all your future endeavors and struggles.

thanks.

She had some replies after that, and didn't say anything that I didn't expect and deserved my further reply. But she mentioned that in country Z, she is a very famous student leader.

Then I couldn't help but think of her state of life.

When the street movement in country Z was the most intense, a large number of people took to the streets to protest, the government dispatched the army to suppress it, and there were obvious casualties. She sent me a lot of videos and pictures showing the solidarity of the people and the tragic aftermath of the government's repression. She said she was constantly following the situation in country Z through her grandmother and the news, "crying for the brave people of country Z". At the same time, she is in the capital of country A, a famous art capital with beautiful scenery. Every morning at ten o'clock in the morning, she drinks coffee, eats desserts and watches swans swim in a coffee shop by the lake. She repeatedly emphasizes that this is an absolutely indispensable part of her life. . She often tells me that she loves learning very much and is "a bookworm"; she is very caring and "empathizes with everyone who is suffering in the world"; she is very lucky, country A is very equal and very social "Everyone is the same", unlike those capitalist countries where the gap between the rich and the poor is huge, so she feels that she should care more about people in other parts of the world.

She doesn't seem to have a formal job. She continues to study in college at an age when many Chinese children are in elementary school. She often sends me the covers of the books she is reading. Her daily life mainly consists of Muslim friends discussing refugee issues in Europe and organizing demonstrations in front of the government to support refugees because "murders happen every day". She praised the equality and welfare of country A, but believed that feminism in the whole of Europe had gone astray. In her opinion, "equality between men and women" should mean that men go out to earn money, and women provide warmth, love and spiritual enlightenment. She said that she loves China very much, cares very much about the Chinese people, is very familiar with Chinese history, and is particularly interested in modern revolutionary history. Although she has never been to China, her Chinese is probably limited to saying "hello" and "good night", but she has recently started practicing Chinese characters and is currently trying to learn how to write "bookstore" and "courtesy". After I pointed out that her Chinese studies seemed to be progressing too slowly compared to her interest in China, she said that she was going to apply for a scholarship next year (note: this scholarship will come from a Chinese university) to study in China and continue her studies, and now there is no need to spend Too much time is spent on language, and "progress can only be achieved with an ambient language". She thinks that the theme song of "Red Sorghum", "Sister You Boldly Go Forward" is very good. Jia Zhangke is her favorite Chinese director because it is "real China", and she also thinks that a Douban score is less than 5 points, The short comments are all "incomparably stiff" and "pretentious" Tibetan scenic highway films are very good, because the "people are very pure".

This winter, she and her husband escaped the "nasty cold" of European winters and went to the Philippines to show her husband's art—some modernist-looking charcoal drawings of a place in South America because of opposition to the U.S. The "face of the environmental massacre" that was suppressed by the dam. On the day of their main exhibition, there were about 1,000 spectators. In the next few days, they went to a few middle schools and participated in some activities that looked like hobby classes. Then they stayed there for a month, swimming and basking in the sun. In the middle, they learned to plant seedlings in the paddy fields of the locals for a day. To be precise, it was her husband who did the planting. She was in charge of taking pictures: "The people there are very good", "Very pure", "They all love us".

Before the virus reached country A, I repeatedly reminded them to pay attention to this highly contagious virus. I have repeatedly explained and even argued that the virus does not know the so-called "human rights" and "freedom". Human beings can only rely on coordinated action when facing the virus, no matter whether this coordinated action is based on trust and obedience to authority, or wise judgment. , or the fear of slaves for slave owners, no matter how everyone feels about the policy, in the final analysis, there is a final effect. The normal distribution of crowd intelligence, and the skewed distribution of behavioral patterns on contagion results, doomed that if self-control is absolutely relied on, a small number of selfish and arrogant idiots will make the efforts of everyone else go to waste. This has nothing to do with ideology and is purely a scientific conclusion based on objective facts, prudent assumptions and rational deductions. Please, if possible, call on the government of country A to take drastic measures as soon as possible. Her reply is that these are all "conspiracies of various governments" to "threate the people towards totalitarianism", repeatedly stressing that per capita medical resources are the key to winning or losing, that per capita beds are equal to society's invulnerability, China's "medical system has problems", mocking Italy fell because "this banana republic is utterly corrupt". A week later, she and her husband were packing their bags and waiting for the press conference of the government of country A. On the night that the country's prime minister ordered the city to be locked down, they ran all the way back to the city of her parents (probably her parents-in-law). outside the villa because "we don't want to lose our freedom". They're still there, her husband does carpentry and makes nests for birds, and she reads every day, "keeps learning all the time." At this moment, the whole of Central and Western Europe has completely fallen. The per capita infection rate of Country A, which she is proud of "has the world's first-class medical system", is on a par with Italy, and she begins to think about "capitalism is the biggest" enemy", while the Chinese people should "take to the streets and make your voice heard".

After I made it clear to her that the first practical problem she may face with her so-called "going to the streets to make your voice heard" is that the voice of the vast majority of ordinary people in China is still generally supportive of the government, despite this This kind of voice has never been on "YouTube", and when I'm about to start a revolution that I don't know how to end, how am I going to convince the aunt who dances in the street and wraps dumplings in the house What about my mother to support a "human rights" and "freedom" movement that is so rich in meaning that it can't be precisely defined, and then to oppose a "government" that they think is very effective in controlling the epidemic and a "country" that they are proud of ?

In response, she repeatedly asked me to "look at the problem from a broader perspective", "China is no different from other countries", the Chinese people "don't be afraid", and she proudly told me that she has "and experience in government struggles", she is "more experienced than I am" at this point, she has been "in jail three times" and, according to her "friends' estimates," the "government of country Z spent millions" to spy on her . I almost jokingly pointed out that if she's worth millions and I "organize the people", "go to the streets", "speak your voice" in China as she says, then the Chinese government controls my costs In terms of money, it may not cost that much. She immediately started accusing me of being unsympathetic, and then suddenly mentioned that two of her friends had died at the hands of the Z military in this street fight, and I ignored her and the "suffering of others". And then talk about how if she feels the world lacks empathy, she'll feel the world needs more empathy. Then declare that she was "frustrated" by my reaction, that she needed to "go for a walk in the woods", "refuel" and "restore" her empathy.

I find it very strange that a raised hand question on how to mobilize the masses actually works on revolutionary craftsmanship has slipped straight to the grand declaration of religious language that "the world lacks compassion". After she entered the forest, I further asked her, has she ever thought that in order to achieve anything, there must be an operable start?

After her battery was fully charged, her answer was eloquent, but the core was extremely simple:

My way of thinking is wrong, and hers is a way of thinking. Love and compassion are our common foundation, knowledge is not enough, institutions are not enough. However, she is only responsible for love and sympathy. As for how to obtain knowledge, how to build systems, and what else will happen, other people who are full of love and sympathy will do it well. Her mission is to create pressure to promote change. As for how to change society, this is not within her scope of operation. She does not need a perfect plan to act.

Although I only vaguely felt that the panorama formed by the details of things was not so harmonious, at this moment, I finally figured it out for a while and let go of my "friendship" with her.

Her perception of reality aside, her perception of the facts is largely flawed. The so-called analysis from the "expert group" is full of omissions, and there is no basic thinking framework. After grasping two seemingly professional parameters, they start a long discussion, and then wishful thinking put all the conclusions on "capitalism is the root of all evil". As soon as I pointed out that these so-called analytical essays were fundamentally unhelpful, she began to write about "modes of thinking" and "love and compassion", repeatedly claiming that her "philosophical, economic, linguistic , history, and much more knowledge" exists to "help others".

In fact, what I always wanted to ask but never asked was that, as a national of country Z, she could not be banned from entering country Z, and from the photos and introductions she gave me, it seems that she was still happily climbing mountains in country Z last year , it seems that leaving Z country is not because of facing prison. The street movement in country Z has been going on. It has been about half a year since now, and the repression has been happening from time to time. Why has she already traveled from Europe to Southeast Asia under the name of art exhibition at this time, but in fact, she has traveled all over the world, and she has not returned. What about her motherland to participate in the "brave struggle of the people of country Z" for which she "cries every day"? Didn't she go to jail three times? More "experienced in these things" than I am? Every time for what reason? What would a fifteen-year-old girl be caught in jail for? How would he be a conscious and determined revolutionary? Will it be just throwing wine bottles and smashing glass at the police station and detaining them for 3 days? Does this count as a "jail"? Because this is even more "experienced in fighting" than me? Is this the cost of her "anti-capitalist revolution" "guiding" China with WeChat outside of seven time zones? Relying on the vaguely "revolutionary" background and the cheque-like generalities, how she fanned the flames in China was immoral and, more importantly, completely safe, and Jin could "inspire the love and harmony that is the foundation of social change." Sympathy", you can go back to the country house to watch the birds and hide from the epidemic.

Apart from exporting ideas and creating pressure, she doesn't actually create anything. At the most superficial level, her concepts are full of all kinds of logical contradictions, and once the real program of action, policy, and strategy is mentioned, there is not a single one at all. But as long as she pointed this out, she closed her eyes and went straight to her energy, continuing her "love and sympathy" babble. In the spiritual world, she is just a mummy floating in the logical closed loop of "only the output of moral concepts, regardless of the result of moral behavior"; in the physical world, she is just a mouth-cannon king in a society with a particularly high tolerance. Her mental safety is maintained by a pyramid scheme of self-hypnosis, and her physical safety is a parasite within the framework of the existing civilization. She is there every day shouting about the darkness of the world, the evil of capitalism, and giving people Zizek's book list, but as long as the nuclear bomb does not hit her head, compared with the vast majority of people on this earth, she will always be a good harvest at any time. win.

So I wrote the above reply.

Are all leftists like this? of course not.

Bethune is far away, and Luanke is near. They all came to this country to help people here to solve practical difficulties and problems. This is the true spirit of internationalism. They do a lot more than they say.

They never gave themselves a responsibility to "wake up", "educate" China or others, and then they imagined that the whole of China was sitting on a gasoline can anytime, anywhere, and sent her as a spark to start a wildfire and pull the flag. change of weather.

They are not showgirls.

So, to be precise, this is not a letter of breaking up with "left-wing" youth.

I just met Chai Ling from country Z.