In Defense of Socialism

Before the 2016 election campaign, I was really looking forward to  Republican Party, a change of policy to focus more on economy. However, Republican candidates are really disappointing and they talk too much about cutting funding but not anything about stimulating the economy.

Especially the high sport on Trump, have any Americans read about history? Restricting immigration, walls on Mexico borders, separating Muslims, can he be more stupid? How could anyone with real sense vote on him?

At least, I understand one thing, most people make decision totally out of self interest, without any reference to Justice, Morality or Altruism.  As long as the policy would benefit them a little, they don’t care others suffering or dying.

 

In the contrary, Bernie Sanders really caught my eyes and convinced me his socialist approaches. Free college, free medical care, increasing minimum wages  and more support for poor people.

Socialism used to so unpopular simply due to the bad examples of previous Soviet Union and China. But that is the fault of Communism not socialism.  As Karl Matrix has predicted, Capitalism would eventually lead to large inequality, in the end sabotaging  the basic societal function. There is no way eliminating the inequality without government intervention . Socialism is definitely necessary in US.

Besides, here are some usual arguments against socialism.

People who don’t work should be punished  and shouldn’t get any support at the expense of working people.

This is totally a capitalist ideology. Why is working necessary when we have absolutely enough resources to feed all the people? I believe the natural resources and human progression should be shared by all the human beings, not just hold by few people through unfair legacy.

Working is absolutely not necessary, and in the near future, the majority of human beings would not be needed in the work force, due to the replacement of robotics. Still, we need to insure everyone would have a decent life.

Socialism would decease the incentive for economy.

Again, this claim  was in some sense true in the past but not  any more in the future.  Tedious and pure labor jobs would be replaced by machines, and what left for human beings are creative and rewarding things. In the future, people would not separate work and life, but view as a mixed, integrated life style.  And also, I don’t believe money is the pure or strongest incentive for lots of entrepreneurs there.

Anyway, in my eye,  Bernie Sanders seems to be the only one I would vote if I was given the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why is it wrong to kill people?–words After the terrorist attack in paris

I wake up with the shocking news of the horrible terrorist attacks in Paris, which have claimed more than 120 innocent people’s lives, wounded more than 300 people. Tragedy happens every second on the Earth, but not this kind of massive intentional killing, which totally infuriates me. Behind every attack, terrorists always claim that they have legitimate reasons to do so,  either as revenge or as a way to get their voice heard.

Does it suffice to serve for killing anyone as you like?

For me personally, I believe, nothing can justify hurting other people, let alone killing. I am atheist,  so the belief is not coming from registration to any religious moral codes. As an individualist and libertarian, I am fine with lots of things even slightly against social convention, only on one condition— it won’t affect others.It is due to my realization that any individual is far more complex, capable and emotional than I could image, so who gives me the right to affect their life experience?

We all have the feeling of extremely loneliness, the feeling that no one actually can understand us. In fact, the vice is also true, we actually never know anyone in the world, including our parents, siblings, lovers and close friends. Human beings are such a complex system that each is like a huge universe. Every second, thousands of thoughts merge into our minds. Even put in the same situation, what we see, feel and experience still vastly vary from person to person, let alone everyone is facing different external environments.

Just due to the super complexity of our inner life, words can never convey what a person feels. Great writers, painters or musicians can be more capable of expressing the inner life, but still only a small portion. Others, who may not be gifted in those abilities, doesn’t indicate in any sense that they are inferior to those great people. They might be a waiter, a soldier, a cleaner, a driver in your eye, but they also have full range of extraordinary feelings, stories, and experience you will never know.

Don’t look at others like objects, like a means to your end. Treat people with decency and love, and pure uninterested concern, just because they are valuable as human beings. Everyone you encounter in your life, possess a beautiful universe inside himself, the only thing I could wish, is to bring a little pleasant episode in his world.

I recommend this famous documentary by a French photography, as a way to get a glimpse of other people’s life.

Also this little book, who is man

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0804702667/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2ETWPX87WR5HC&coliid=IWFYX8TFRN1HR

推荐一本书–the lessons of history

最近一位新认识的朋友推荐了他的一本至爱之书给我，就是这本the lessons of history.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Lessons-History-Will-Durant/dp/143914995X

我翻了一下后，他急于问我对于此书的看法，我答曰： 写得很好，文字功底很好，但似乎有点太概括了，感觉只是在讲一些大道理，必无太多的新意.

结果一句话把他给惹火，数落了我近15分钟，把书中的原句一段段翻给我看，说我不appreciate 全美国最好的历史学家，弄得我异常的尴尬。不过两个小时的沉默后他还是很婉转地道歉了，不过我也觉得我自己的见解过于草率。

之后有空我就很认真又读了这本书，写得真的很好，作为一个花了近40年只为写一本 the story of civilization 的历史学家，在这么多年后用了90多页写得很简洁的总结他之于历史很多问题的看法，不得不说每一句话都有很多的东西埋在底下，没有一定的积累根本读不出他里面的意思。

这就是读这种简短的书最大的困难。看似写得很浅显,  真的要悟到却很考验读者的积累。相反，读厚的书，比如crime and punishment, 比如in search of lost time, 读者的门槛会低很多。大概是作者太过于仁慈，怕我们看不明白，用了太多的铺陈，套了太多的描述与故事，即使有不同的interpretation, 但不至于miss掉全部，而这种书，悟不到就很容易像看了一个平常的事物过去了，悟到了就能似乎进入了另一番天地。

从这本看得出来，Will Durant 真的配得上一个大家，看问题是如此的冷静与精准，所有的预言都如此准确，真的不得不令人五体投地。对比于其它一些的nonfiction，读到他的书，有一种硬生生地把我领悟力拉高了一层的感觉。此书会放在我的书目单里，随时都可以拿出来一读再读，相信每次读都会有不一样的感觉。

噪音太多

看完此书，突然有一种 the rest is noise的感觉。我觉得，在中国受教育，最糟糕的就是历史教育。教的什么玩意儿，乱七八糟，写书的人是脑子有病？ 本来解读历史就是挺不靠谱的事情，关键还是夹了太多民族主义，唯物主义的观点去解读。我不是反对马克思本人，但他这种唯物主义历史观，不说对错，至少太过于片面了，他忽略了太多的东西，而那些被他忽略的，正是人类最美好的东西。

真正的历史学家，最令人敬佩的点在于，他们把自己放得如此之低，以至于可以客观与冷静， 这跟政客是完全相反的态度。人都有一个弱点，好为人师，喜欢表达自己的意见，也不看自己是什么水平。 现代传播的媒价，更加大众化，empower很多平常的人，我们就看到了互联网上太多的声音，太多的人急于发表自己的意见，急于展示自己的想法，即使他们不到30岁，根本没有多少的人生经历，也根本没有多少的知识储备。他们在那里，急于地谈人生，谈理解，谈社会，谈道德，还洋洋洒洒写大论，似乎我们的先人，长者都是傻子，都是老顽固。而我们也被这多么无聊的噪音埋没了，越来越不知所综。

我以前也是其中一员，但随着年纪的增长，我变得保守，愿意相信传统的生活习惯，道德准则，长幼秩序中蕴含着大的生活智慧，不愿意随便听别人的话，不愿意看随意专家的书。只是觉得，太多自以为是的人，不如不听，不如不看，还是相信自己的判断力为上策。

附–推荐书完全出于抛砖引玉~~