Chapter 28 Eating and Drinking Democracy——A Study on the Spiritual Origin of "Internet Coffee"

Karl Popper said: "Human history does not exist, what exists is the history of all aspects of human life." The democratic process of a society also includes the progress of various lifestyles and life concepts. Due to the close connection between democracy and social life, when we investigate the formation and development of democracy, we have to pay attention to the minutiae that grow in daily life, and what this article focuses on are those that many grand narrative theorists do not understand. I would like to mention the "eating, drinking and drinking" that is actually affecting the progress of human civilization.

It is obvious that democratic practice is not just about establishing a simple voting system and completing the so-called "intermittent episodes" of the democratic spirit on this basis.Democracy is not only a system, but also a way of life, way of thinking and spiritual temperament. The Chinese are used to summing up their civilization with "a long history".Like many civilizations around the world, the drink has an equally long history.Not to mention that the theory of evolution believes that human beings are gradually transformed from water. Looking back at the civilizations recorded in history, all the ancient civilizations that once flourished in the past all chose water to live in.

Water is the earliest drink of human beings.With the development of civilization, water has been given meaning continuously.In China, in addition to the memory of the flood, such things as "defending the mouth of the people is better than preventing the river", "goodness is like water, and virtue can carry things", "water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it", "crossing the river by feeling the stones" and so on. It proves that water is closely related to the progress of civilization.As for the "While the weak water is three thousand, I will only take a scoop to drink", it also shows that in the eyes of literati and inkmen, "water" is "the vast sea of ​​people".

Tolstoy once questioned why people refuse to be sober in "Wine, Sex and Life"-drinking is to suffocate one's conscience.Undoubtedly, Chinese history is full of alcohol. Among them, there are both talented scholars and beautiful women who can't get on the boat or bed, and there are also self-exiles like Liu Ling in the Wei and Jin Dynasties-drunk all day long, like a village cadre, He also asked people to carry a hoe and follow behind, and ordered "bury me when you die." Why are people willing to drink for pleasure?American writer Tom Standage made a detailed analysis of this in his book "History in Six Bottles".Take wine as an example. According to Standage, the reason why this kind of drink is popular is that it is a homogeneous substance. As long as the wine is in the same jar, everyone gets the same.In this regard, it has an advantage over fish.

Obviously, this easy-to-share feature makes drinks a natural passport to enter public life.At the same time, this openness and fluidity means that once someone doses the drug, all drinkers are poisoned.From this, it is not difficult to understand why people will have a public spirit of "helping each other in the same pot" and "sharing blessings and suffering together" when drinking together.Perhaps it is for this reason that "Liangshan heroes" at all times and in all over the world have to drink big bowls and open champagne to celebrate when they engage in "humorous underworld".Although the chairs have already been assigned the level of seating, everyone feels that they are equal when drinking.

Today, various beverages including coffee, tea, wine, and cola can easily reach every corner of the world.As mentioned above, the function of drinks is not limited to quenching thirst, it also participates in human social life as a complete meaning system.When anti-globalization activists knocked down Coca-Cola, a symbol of "American power," it is not difficult to see what kind of cultural connotation the drink is endowed with.They converge into invisible rivers, floating and sinking in society, witnessing their own destiny. Aeschylus said: "Bronze is the mirror of appearance, and wine is the mirror of thought." Obviously, the ancient Greeks were more fond of wine.In their opinion, only savages drink beer.However, when it comes to the way of drinking, the ancient Greeks and Romans, who also loved wine, had two completely different attitudes.

The social reception of the ancient Greeks was a kind of gathering similar to a modern salon, where people gathered to drink, debate in groups, and showcase their talents and positions.The homogeneity and equality of wine and people's convention to get wine from the same container undoubtedly gave the social reception in ancient Greece a certain democratic character. Socrates, who is said to be an eloquent drinker, frequented such social gatherings at the time, and was able to stay sober when everyone else was drunk.Plato thus praised him for being able to find truth through wine without being enslaved by it.However, in Plato's view, more people do not deserve to enjoy fine wine.He opposes democracy in the middle, and believes that putting too much power in the hands of the people will lead to anarchy, and more people "drink less and get drunk" and do not deserve to enjoy the wine of democracy-and only dictatorship can change this anarchy , to restore social order.

The Romans once lamented that they conquered Greece, but were defeated by Greek culture.This sentence is somewhat exaggerated.Obviously, although they inherited the custom of drinking wine from the Greeks, they did not inherit the democratic spirit of the Greeks.After replacing the Greeks as the hegemony of the Mediterranean, the Romans quickly divided the wine into different ranks.The social reception of the Greeks was an equal forum. People discussed philosophy and life while taking wine from common containers; while the Romans built ladders for people of different status at the banquet, and everyone soaked water in their own bowls. Wine, no more communal shakers.At the same time, the wealthy master will also bring servants to show his status and identity.

Some people may say that wine is a good thing.However, in the Roman era, this "good thing" that could have been shared by the world led to completely different results due to differences in procedures.This difference inevitably reminds people of the "Yin Yang Pot" invented by the ancient Chinese.The appearance of this pot is no different from ordinary pots, and it is also regarded as a public container at banquets.The difference is that the inside of the jug is divided into two halves, so that one half can be filled with fine wine and the other half with poisoned wine.Here, "Yin Yang Pot" is more like a metaphor.People regard "drinking the same wine" as a kind of equality, and even cry with excitement. However, under unreasonable systems or artificial arrangements, any seemingly equal things may be destroyed.If the fine wine contained in the "yin-yang pot" is poisoned, those who have never tasted the "democratic fine wine" may suffer "secondary persecution": they are not only poisoned by "fake democracy" physically, but also They will even come to the conclusion that "democracy is poison" mentally, and flee the scene in a hurry.

Compared with the various styles of the rational age, our life today seems a little mediocre, at least in terms of the invention of beverages. Before the seventeenth century, Europe was dominated by beer and wine.However, the good times didn't last long, and they were quickly abandoned by a new era-coffee became the best drink in the rational age.In the words of a British observer: "Coffee makes the outlines of the European countries gradually clear." In 1667, Thomas Jordan wrote in "News from the Coffee House", "If you are a man who seeks wisdom and joy, if you like to inquire about news, like people from all over the world-like the Dutch, Danes, Turks and Jews alike, so I recommend you a place where news is all-encompassing and all-encompassing: go to a coffee shop and listen to it-everything is true there . . . Anecdotes about mice, so many things in ancient and modern times, are all in the cafe."

From the seventeenth century onwards, more and more customers gathered in European cafes.They talked business and politics, exchanged ideas and knowledge.In order to attract customers, some shopkeepers deliberately posted recent product prices, stock prices and sailing schedules on the wall, subscribed to foreign publications for customers to read, and customers could even read brochures just printed from the printing press. It is intriguing that after the advent of cheap postal services in London in 1680, coffee houses became an important place for people to receive and send letters.Every cafe has its own regular customers, just like we surf the Internet at home today, they usually visit several times a day, drink coffee, listen to people talking about big and small things, and sometimes check their new emails.There is no doubt that the coffee shop has laid out a social blueprint for us: this new world that is constantly being joined by strangers.If a government official has witnessed in his diary; in a coffee shop, you can freely talk about profound philosophies or complicated life stories, but you can never predict who you will meet in the next second, and what will be heard. In fact, many famous thinkers wrote their books in coffee shops.For example, Adam Smith completed most of the chapters of "The Wealth of Nations" in the "Great British Cafe", and would take them out for discussion with everyone.At the same time, the cafes active in Paris also became an important source of enlightenment.It is well known that Diderot did most of the work of compiling the Encyclopedia in the "Cafe Regent" in Paris.Unlike the British cafes, which were free to talk and chat, the French cafes at that time were free to enter, but there were many eyes and ears of the government hidden inside.People had to learn to swallow their anger until the day when the French Revolution came under the cloud of darkness and some activists raised their pistols and stood on the cafe tables and shouted: "Take up arms, citizens, take up arms!" Of course, it wasn't all smooth sailing for coffee to take over Europe. After the Armenian Paka Rossi opened the first coffee shop in London in 1652, the booming business soon aroused strong protests from local tavern owners.Soon, the stranger was driven away.And just as London's coffee houses were blooming everywhere, some well-known scholars and commentators joined the opposition camp, accusing them of killing people's fighting spirit.More women complained that coffee engulfed their lives: their husbands were "fruitless like deserts" due to drinking too much coffee. The rise of any new thing will touch the interests of some people, and the resistance of the latter will inevitably provide some kind of shelter in public opinion for the perverse actions of the dictator.Obviously, the complaints of the citizens of London are in the arms of Charles II. In 1660, the thirty-year-old downcast was successfully restored with the support of the people gathered in the cafe.However, the keen king soon noticed that the opposition led by the Puritans "conspired for rebellion" in the cafe from time to time.Like all power addicts, Charles II, who once relied on coffee houses to ascend to the throne, knew how to do this, so he used a political trick we might call "crossing the river and tearing down the bridge" to try to close all the coffee houses in London. To avoid your own road to success being painted by "careerists". Charles II's "preparation for danger in times of peace" explains to a certain extent why those "revolutionaries" who started their careers by rebellion once they are in power, their suppression of potential opponents is often more sinister and intensified than the hereditary king.People will never forget that just a few hundred years later, in order to prevent the seeds of scholars from taking root and breaking through their own rule, Pol Pot, who were also scholars, trapped and killed countless Cambodians at home and abroad. Undoubtedly, the cafe in the rational age is more like the cultural prototype of the Internet in the 21st century.In today's world, it's hard to imagine a government with the audacity to block the Internet.However, in December 1675, Charles II really risked the world by issuing a proclamation banning coffee houses.However, as soon as this announcement was announced, it immediately aroused opposition from the whole society.Because after more than 20 years of development, the coffee shop has become the central place of London's social life, commercial life and political life. In this way, this ban became a dead letter.Although Charles II was a king, powerful and powerful, he had to bow down in front of a few coffee beans. This may be what we usually call "the situation is stronger than people".An official statistic shows that by the end of the seventeenth century, there were more than 3,000 cafes in Britain, and the population of Britain at that time was only 600,000. "A storm in a teacup!" Montesquieu once remarked in the eighteenth century when he heard of political unrest in San Marino.In his view, the turmoil in San Marino, a small country with a population of just over 10,000, is insignificant to the situation in Europe as a whole.However, for a country in transition, the "storm in a teacup" is often the beginning of a dual revolution in life and thought, which should not be underestimated - careful people can even hear the voice of an old era being destroyed. It is undeniable that the history of human civilization is also a history of democratic development.People often mistakenly believe that those great era changes in history are only due to the "historical dating" and "one-night romance" of several heroes of the era.However, the development of civilization is a systematic project after all. It is not a lazy person sowing seeds, which can be completed overnight.Just like democracy, whether you like it or not, it happens and ebbs and flows through years of eating, drinking, nagging. Looking back at Chinese history, people may wonder why tea, which is also refreshing, is a rare commodity in Britain, but the Chinese used them to exchange for opium.Regarding this point, we may be able to find the answer from signs such as "Don't talk about state affairs".In the dark age, "don't talk about state affairs" is just a "war sign" when a society is powerless to resist.Fortunately, history will eventually cross the quagmire. The popular "Internet coffee" has finally given all backward countries the opportunity to relive the myriad of European cafe cultures in the 17th and 18th centuries. "Internet coffee" is like a drink that nourishes the spiritual life of Chinese people. If some scholars sigh: "The country is mine, why should I not talk about state affairs?" Today, when we look back at the transformation of Britain, France and other countries, it is not difficult to find that the democracy and freedom on the dining table, which emerged from the cafe culture, will expand spontaneously along the existing logic as a kind of ordered civilization.Any freedom may grow from the dining table to every corner of social life—from the dining table to the desk, from the kitchen to the square.Don't you see, isn't the shape of Brazil's parliament building today a piece of bread with a pair of bowls and chopsticks? The era of transformation must go through a process of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.When the old ones are gone and the new ones are not built, it is inevitable that there will be a crisis of value identity.In this sense, cafes have made great contributions to European countries that were in turmoil two or three hundred years ago.On the one hand, cafes liberate people from the old rituals and systems of life, so that everyone may become the last straw that crushes the old system; on the other hand, the public life built by cafes makes those thoughts Or souls who have lost their temples are not homeless.The café became a hub of social life, a bridge between public and private life.Just like the Internet that blossoms in China today, it is theoretically open to all citizens. It is not difficult to find that whether it is a traditional coffee house or the current Internet coffee house, the rules established by it are essentially a contract for an open society.Here, an important principle that people should abide by is to keep their social status out of the cafe.For example, those cafe owners who are engaged in the "business of the Enlightenment Movement" have repeatedly stated: "Whether they are aristocratic gentlemen or business people, we welcome all. Your concern. Your Excellency, you can take your seat casually, even if a nobleman arrives, you don't have to get up and retreat." Lewis Cosey pointed out in the book "Idea Man" that the most important significance of cafes is to remove hierarchy and form new standards in contact with each other.Before the coffeehouse era, standards were set by aristocratic or religious elites, and those who obeyed decisions were relatively isolated and could not discuss and test these standards openly.However, when everyone gathers in a coffee shop, people no longer just quietly insist on their own opinions, but also form a group opinion through free debate and make decisions from it.If people enjoy daily interactions across origin, rank, and status, they must also respect each other's views and develop the art of listening "on this basis to form a gregarious and tolerant attitude that respects the ideas of others, fills gaps, and bridges differences." It is precisely because of this kind of integration and reorganization that when many people are worried about the disintegration of the Chinese value system in the past, or are at a loss because of the fetters of reality, others choose a relatively optimistic attitude—— A process of changing society is brewing in the silent self-drinking, and in the place where the coffee is fragrant, virtual or real, and in the ups and downs of countless keyboards and cups, people can hear the pulse of an era.