Chapter 4 The battle between the left and the right, or the battle between the top and the bottom

Historically, "left" seems to have been a bad thing.For example, in Chinese, "heretics", "zuoqian", "left throat", "left temper", etc., all indicate that people have a certain degree of aversion to "left". After the death of Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Empress Lu came to power and cultivated many forces surnamed Lu.After Empress Lu died, Taiwei Zhou Bo seized the Lu family's military power, and said to everyone in the army: "Support Lu's right-handed (right arm exposed), support Liu's left-handed." bare".Since then, "left side" has become synonymous with playing the rudder according to the wind and taking sides.

Similarly, for quite a long time, Western society regarded "left" as an abnormal behavior.Left seems to be bad.The French word "sinistre" (disaster) comes from the Latin "sinister" (left hand).On the contrary, people salute and swear with their right hand without exception; "right" in English and "droit" in French not only mean "right", but also mean "right", "legal" and "right" many in one.The left hand is the hand of evil, while the right hand is not only flexible and powerful, but also noble.Therefore, in Western church paintings, the assassin uses the left hand, Eve picked the forbidden fruit with the left hand, and Jesus’ posture shows that the final judgment favors the right hand—his right hand is held high, indicating that his chosen people will enter heaven, The drooping left hand means that the sinner will be driven to hell.Up and down like this, one right and one left, pushing human beings into the poles of good and evil.

It is precisely because of the oppression of the right hand on the left hand that there has been a "left-hand liberation movement" in Europe and the United States since the seventeenth century.In a sense, ending the "rule of the right hand" also means that human beings have made a qualitative leap in political concepts, and it means that human beings are stepping towards "co-governance of left and right".As Aristotle predicted: "The dominance of the right hand is because we are accustomed to use the right hand. Once we are accustomed to use two hands, we have two right hands."

However, at a time when many countries are beginning to "grow both ways", why did a massive "anti-rightist struggle" take place in Chinese history?What exactly does "right" refer to here?Does it mean that China at that time entered the "rule of the left hand"? Obviously, the "anti-rightist struggle" that flourished in the late 1950s was not a real "left-right struggle", but a "bottom-bottom struggle" between the state and society.It cannot be denied that the national liberation of China in 1949 did not necessarily lead to the liberation of Chinese society.The overpowering of the omnipotent state system is mainly reflected in the fact that the country's economic and social organizations are swallowed up by political organizations.Politics is originally a "people's business", so it loses its proper meaning.

The road of centralization and public ownership at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China actually implied two "confiscations" or "confiscations" of society by the state.One is economic confiscation, such as "cutting the tail of capitalism"; the other is intellectual confiscation, which is the "anti-rightist struggle" that followed.When public ownership dissimilates into a state system that confiscates both the spirit and body of the people, socialism also manifests itself as "there is doctrine but no society," or "ism overwhelms society."

Mao Zedong once said: "We advocate the contention of a hundred schools of thought...but as far as the world outlook is concerned, in modern times, there are basically only two families, namely the proletarian family and the bourgeois family." A foregone conclusion), this kind of "polarization" in doctrine is essentially to divide the achievements of civilization or knowledge that mankind has achieved into two diametrically opposed doctrines until "one political party, one doctrine, A leader" totally won out.The result of doctrine replacing knowledge is that doctrine dominates everything, and directly leads to "knowledge being enslaved by doctrine", leading to the collapse and loss of the entire social knowledge system, thus entering a "state of ignorance and ignorance".In other words, it has entered a dangerous situation where the state has the power to act, but the society has no judgment and binding power.

Some people say that the "anti-rightist struggle" means relying on the leftist forces among the intellectuals to rise up and kill those intellectuals other than the leftists, and the final result is "no one victor".It should be said that, on the surface, the initiation of the "anti-rightist struggle" is indeed like "the leftists liquidate the rightists." Such an anti-intellectual disaster.It is precisely because of the intervention of state forces that the author believes that the "anti-rightist struggle" is not a "right-left struggle", but a "upper-lower struggle". It breaks through the bottom line of left-right conspiracy for social welfare and freedom. The result is the exile of knowledge by doctrine, the liquidation of a vibrant society by a superior state, and the continued confiscation of knowledge by the government after capital is confiscated.As a result, society gradually lost the soil for producing "capitalists" and "knowledgeables", and even the most daily mental exercises began to disappear.Political discourse occupies every corner of society, and people not only lose their freedom to say no, but also their freedom not to say it.When society is mechanized by the state, people become screws who only care about hard work but not harvest.Although the screw also has a head like a big-headed son, it is not used for thinking.

Fortunately, since the reform and opening up, Chinese society has learned its way back and gradually ushered in its own liberation.Under the direct influence of economic reform, social forces recovered little by little. China's reforms began in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although there were sometimes disputes between the left and the right, today, whether it is the "anti-left" of the right or the "anti-right" of the left, people gradually Reach a common bottom line that knowledge must be enjoyed by society.Thinkers are useful to the world, but they don't have to "think by need" or "think by order."From this perspective, the struggle between left and right that has emerged in China since the 1990s is a sign of China's social progress. It shows that Chinese society has gradually acquired the embryonic form of public opinion in the open market politics of the West. After the economic market, there is also a market for opinions. .

Whether it is the extreme left that breaks through the bottom line of freedom, or the extreme right that breaks through the bottom line of equality, it may lead to the "Kansas riot". "Kansas City Riots" comes from a classic line in the movie "Lucky Number" - "The so-called 'Kansas City Riots' is when everyone goes to the right, you go left." With the same logic, when everyone walks left, you who walk right will be trampled by the turbulent flow of people.Even if the direction is the same, the person involved in the crowd may also become a harmless stepper due to involuntary control, and eventually lose his direction.The tragedy caused by the extreme left and the extreme right is that countless people "go together", they all go in one direction, and finally lose their way in one direction.The fate of the individual has since been obliterated in the torrent of unity (direction).

In 2006, the author traveled in Cambodia and witnessed the unhealed dilapidation of this country and the trauma left by the extreme years.In Phnom Penh, the capital, it is not easy to access the Internet due to unstable voltage.It is often said that since the Enlightenment, the French have exported ideas containing dangerous genes to the world. For example, Pol Pot, who was deeply influenced by the French Communist Party's "Humanite" in his youth, eventually caused a bloodshed in Cambodia. Rivers of hell on earth.However, this does not mean that L'Humanité and the communism it preaches must be held accountable.France produces ideas, but not just one idea, it produces spears as well as shields.France has Robespierre, but also Hugo and Chateaubriand; there is Sartre, and there is Aron.France has never lacked extreme ideas. The polls at the end of 2006 showed that the French far-right forces won more than a quarter of the support. However, who would believe that the French today will really entrust their fate to the National Front?What really matters is that there is a full range of views in this country.Therefore, the French liberal system has never been destroyed because of supporting "one doctrine".

Obviously, the spread of communism to Cambodia and lead to the crisis of "south orange and north trifoliate" and "west wind and east madness" is entirely because there is no doctrine and power to balance it in Cambodia.From this point of view, institutionally guaranteeing that everyone can think and express freely and organize freely is the only reliable way to prevent a doctrine from trampling on the entire society. As mentioned above, in English and French, "right" also has the meaning of "right".It should be said that whether a citizen believes in the left, the right, or the middle, this is the right of the individual to choose freely.In this sense, what the "anti-rightist struggle" opposes is the right of citizens to think freely.In other words, the essence of anti-right (Right) is anti-right (Right).Today in the 21st century, people are increasingly aware that the government should not compete with the people for profit, nor should it compete with the people for ideas, so that the people become ignorant and useless. Man, this paradoxical creature!Living and walking on the land has witnessed many seemingly opposite relationships.For example, early humans stood up and walked, with the starry sky above their heads and the ground on their feet, so there was a group of "up and down" relationships here.In the specific walking process, there will be forward and backward. If you only know how to walk forward, but don’t know how to turn or retreat, no matter how good your physical strength is, you may not be able to reach your destination.Similarly, when it comes to turning, there is a question of whether to turn left or right, which involves the relationship of "left and right". If we have a little brains and can hold a little good wish, it is not difficult to find that up and down, front and back, left and right here are not mutually exclusive.Obviously, for a person, no matter whether he is forward or backward, left or right, squatting or jumping up, no matter how the direction changes or how he moves, all "opposites" will return to the level of "unity", unify into action The person - the human level.No matter which direction you are heading, people are always the starting point. In other words, the "conflict between left and right" is not only a life-and-death "contradiction", but society needs them to help and coordinate with each other.In a democratic country, no matter how much the left and the right attack each other, neither can completely replace the other.Because parliament is not a battlefield, and members of parliament do not kill people, in theory, every faction has the opportunity to make a comeback and lead the society. In a society where there are no opposing viewpoints, only harmony and following the crowd, there will be no real happiness and freedom in this society.When we talk about "working together with society" between the left and the right, we are not wishful thinking or unrealistically advocating convergence, but to stick to the bottom line of this society's pursuit of freedom and happiness, and to go beyond the left and right through sufficient debate and positive thinking between the left and the right Disputes, in order to achieve the country's upward and forward goals. Sometimes the government will step up and encourage the liberation of the mind.It should be said that everything in the world, when it comes to nature, tends to be "liberated" or free.For example, the first cry of a baby is a natural and beautiful sound of freedom.For another example, some scientists once conducted an experiment in which they buried a seed in the soil under the rubble and watered it every day, and the seed would emerge from under the rubble.Similarly, if the seeds are put into the hard skull and watered, the seeds will have amazing power to separate the skull.The belief in seeds allows us to see the power of free growth and how the spontaneous order of nature enriches the world around us. The same is true with thought.Essentially, everyone is born a free thinker.Unfortunately, at any time during the course of its growth, a person may lose the drive and vigor of free thought.Why do some people lose their natural instincts?Obviously, this is related to another human nature, that is, people have a tendency to be selfish or seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.If a person not only does not get the benefits of freedom of thought but suffers from it, he may give up the use of this endowment, preferring to keep his brain in a state of "enslaved" or "abandoned" Field grows grass. Psychologists have done an interesting experiment: Throw fleas on the ground randomly, and the fleas can jump more than one meter high from the ground.However, if you put a cover at a height of one meter, let the flea jump up and hit the cover, and hit the cover repeatedly.After a period of time, remove the cover and you will find that although the flea continues to jump, it can no longer jump up to a meter high, until the end of life.why?The reason is simple, the fleas have adjusted their jumping heights, and have gradually adapted to this situation, wishing to "grow old together" with the lid and never change.There are many similar experiments, and psychologists interpret this "flea effect" as "learned helplessness".In short, long-term accumulation of negative life experiences will cause people to lose confidence and thus lose creativity.Welch said the world belongs to the weak because the weak learn to adapt.This statement is not without reason.However, this adaptation should never be the aforementioned flea-style adaptation. From this, it is not difficult to find that the things that affect a person's freedom of thought are mainly manifested in two lids.One is the physical cover, which is the external environment, including system design, cultural traditions, current customs or prejudices, etc., all of which will affect a person's freedom of thought; the other is the virtual cover, which Like an invisible net, it binds everyone psychologically through self-limitation or "institutionalization" (the concept in the movie), making these people victims of self-discipline and "despair".This is also an important reason why some people still maintain the mindset of the 1960s and 1970s in the 21st century.On the one hand, these people cannot keep up with the trend of the times, and objectively restrict other people who are not enslaved by the "virtual cover" from catching up with the trend of the times. In view of the existence of the virtual cover and the physical cover, emancipating the mind needs to start from the following two aspects: One is at the individual level, solving the problem of "freedom of thought".This is mainly manifested in the care and construction of people's spiritual and spiritual levels.Pascal said: "All our dignity lies in thinking." Free thinking is also a part of human nature, and emancipating the mind also means the recovery of human nature.Although there is no absolute freedom in the world, everyone should maintain an "independent spirit and free thought" at any time and in any unfree environment, actively maintain the light and heat in their hearts, and keep themselves in a kind of The state of "liberation of the mind".Only in this way can he maintain a benign interaction with the environment, so that he will not lose the ability to adapt to the new environment when the environment changes positively, become a laggard in the new era, or even delay the progress of the times unconsciously . The second is to improve the institutional environment and solve the problem of "freedom of expression".Just as babies are born to cry, it is human nature to express ourselves freely.Moreover, from the perspective of positive freedom and negative freedom, not only do grassroots thoughts and ideas from the people not need to be "liberated", but they will be cautious about the compulsory "liberation" from the public authority.Thought is a spontaneous order, and in the social sphere, power cannot be overstepped.Because of this, the significance of the government's advocacy of ideological emancipation is more to build a "consensus on reform" at the administrative level to facilitate further deepening of reforms; and for the society, the hope is that the government will not set up restricted areas in terms of ideological emancipation. Furthermore, the achievement of ideological emancipation depends on the joint construction of people's hearts and systems.The best result is to make free thought a value and free expression an optional way of life. The grass looks far away but there is nothing near.The magnificence of history all stems from daily accumulation and growth.When we look back at the changes in fashion and customs in China since the farmers in Xiaogang Village pressed their bloody fingerprints, it is not difficult to find that this society has already reached the grand history of "mind liberation" called by the government through its silent efforts to moisten things. the front of the narrative.