Chapter 21 country and city

country and city As far as human beings in recorded history are concerned, generally speaking, it seems that people often move from nature to culture, from solitude to crowds, and from stability to activity.Nature, solitude and stability are like the root of a tree and the source of water.Culture, groups and activities are like branches of trees and streams of water.If culture is far from nature, then this culture will gradually wither.If a large group loses its loneliness, the large group will gradually become empty.If the activity damages the stability, this activity will also gradually feel tired, and finally it will not last long.

The countryside represents nature, solitude and stability, while the city represents culture, crowds and activities.People in the countryside are all envious of the city, and all the countryside is gradually becoming urbanized.In life, we all want to get rid of nature and create culture, and we all want to throw our solitude into the crowd, and we all want to seek activities in stability.But there is a limit here, just as every tree does not want to grow from the root upwards, and all water does not want to flow forward from the source.But if the root is pulled out and the source is poured, the branches will wither and the flow will be exhausted.Without nature, where can culture come from?Without individuals, where can the masses come from?If there is no stability, how can there be activities?Human mental and physical strength, all wisdom and emotions, will and spirit are all drawn from nature, and grow from loneliness and stability.With these mental strength, physical strength, wisdom, emotion, will and courage, human beings can create cities, move in large groups, create culture, and keep improving and moving forward.However, if the city is too isolated from nature, the people who live in the city will gradually decline in their physical and mental strength.People in a crowd are susceptible to imitation, learning fashion, but obliterating their individuality.Occupation is unstable, and even the residence is unstable. In the activities, you will gradually feel rushed, perfunctory, reluctant, and unavoidable.Therefore, the energy is exhausted and the interest is not aroused, so I seek stimulation from the outside, looking for exciting materials, and even nervousness, mental disorders, and various cultural diseases, all of which are caused by the violation of nature and the inability to obtain loneliness and stability.

When a countryman goes to the city, he brings all his mental and physical strength, enthusiasm and blood, and uses his wisdom, emotion, will and courage to struggle and create.He can endure, he can handle it.His life is tense, aggressive, but also to dissipate energy.When a city dweller goes to the countryside, he only feels relaxed and liberated, to rest and forget.His life was withdrawn, evasive.For a while, he feels that there is no need for wisdom, emotion, will and boldness.He also no longer has to tense, struggle, and endure.But he came to rest his energy.In his solitude and stability, he will be in touch with nature again, and he will gradually recover his mental and physical strength, so that he can return to the city again.

Human beings absolutely cannot live without culture, without cities, without various activities of gathering in large groups.But what human beings cannot live without is not these, but nature, countryside, loneliness and stability.The most ideal life for human beings is to create culture from nature, build cities from villages, form large groups from solitude, and find activities from stability.If you live in a mature culture, a bustling city, a lively crowd, and established activities, it is just a struggle.Looking for enjoyment, that is just regressive.Ask about the future, and I'm afraid there will only be destruction.Want to remedy, only to return to nature, and then back to the countryside, to find another life in the lonely stability, to find a new way out.

Therefore, the greatest crisis of human culture is the rigidity of cities and group activities.The city has become rigid, and group activities have become rigid.If we seek a new life of culture, we must seek it in a complete collapse. This is a great loss of human culture.Metropolises tend to ossify cities.Strict rule of law tends to rigidify groups.In modern trust enterprises, the infinite concentration of capital power and the unlimited development of the machinery industry tend to make the various activities of industrial and commercial production rigid.This is the great hidden worry of modern culture.In the noisy and mixed metropolis with more than one million people, people can no longer feel lonely and experience a stable life.In the corporate organization where capitalism is absolutely rampant, everyone is an employee, and there is no more freedom of individuality.And combined with the use of machinery as much as possible, each employee is engaged in the status of a mechanical slave at the same time, and there is no room for individual freedom.Individuality stifles the crowd.In a metropolis where individuality is not fully suffocated, each is scrambling to find a way out, and more than a few million people gather. In the combination of strict rule of law and science, and the ruthless use of machinery, the relationship between people , will inevitably lead to various conflicts.This is the crux of the unrest in the present world.

For example, if a warrior wears a full suit of armor, he must find an enemy to fight with, otherwise he will take off the full suit, or else he will feel restless, unable to eat, unable to sleep, always wearing the armor. This pair of weapons is bound to go mad and die.In the current world, almost everything is looking for enemies to fight externally, and internally it is trying its best to get rid of this heavy armor.But we must know that because he is a warrior, he can wear this pair of heavy armor.It is not by putting on this pair of heavy armor that one becomes a warrior.Those who have not put on this pair of heavy armor are afraid of the power of the warrior, so they are eager to find a pair of heavy armor to put on, and he himself is a poor man, so he cannot sit or stand. It will be even worse if you don't eat or sleep.Its road to madness will be even faster.If even when encountering an enemy to fight, they still return to the same death, it is self-evident.

Human beings produce culture from nature, and they have the attitude of fighting against nature.However, culture must eventually rely on nature and return to nature.Otherwise, if culture is too isolated from nature, it will eventually be punished by nature and destroyed by nature.The dense metropolises of the modern world, the strict spirit of the rule of law, and extreme capitalism, no matter whether it is for individual freedom or class struggle, or even a high-level mechanical industry, are just like the heavy armor on a warrior. This burden will eventually force Seeking a decisive battle from human beings will eventually be forced to give up the burden.What is even more pitiful are those who are poor and wear this heavy armor, which is the suffering suffered by many scientifically backward nations today.This is just as if the country people did not go to the city to experience and struggle, but learned the luxury and cunning of the city people in vain.

Villagers will eventually need to go to the city, and urbanites will eventually need to return to the countryside.A nation with backward science, how to acquire science, build a new city, and engage in activities in large groups.How do urbanites adjust the problems of excessive scientific development, so that the rigid city and the rigid group life can still return to being close to nature, and make people enjoy some loneliness and stability.These are the two major problems facing modern man.The methods and ways to solve the difficulties are different.Here we need our own wisdom, our own cleverness, and no one should learn from the other, and no one should admire the other.