Chapter 5 America is not our home

I have received dozens of letters from readers.The older one said: "Every time I read your article, I feel so excited and weep again and again." The younger college student wrote: "Before you become an indifferent social person, please tell us: what can we do for the mother in Taiwan?" What?" The younger one, a high school student, said, "It's useless to do anything anyway: I'm graduating from college and I'm going away, to America!" ※ ※ ※ The young people are excited and indignant, and the old people are sad and weeping. It is definitely not because my article is well written.This large stack of emotional letters should reveal two problems to those who are interested: the first is the seriousness of the situation itself; the poor living environment in Taiwan is no longer the mediocre clamor of intellectuals, but the pain of ordinary people.The second is personal powerlessness; if there is a smooth channel in this social system for ordinary citizens to express their wishes and realize their demands, they will not be smoldering to the point of exploding, and they will not need to rely on mere articles Unremarkable articles to vent his pain.

The second problem is much more serious than the first.No matter how bad the environment is, no matter how complicated the problem is, if an individual has an appropriate way to solve the problem and feels that he can enjoy it, he will always be affirmative, rational, optimistic and enterprising.On the other hand, even if the problem itself is not so bad, but a person feels that all his efforts are a dead end, and when his resentment is locked in a blocked pipe, people will explode. Six months ago, a young man who loved to read broke into the house of the woman next door and killed her with a knife because he couldn't stand the woman next door chanting sutras in the morning and evening.There is no excuse for the violence, of course, but we have to ask why: Could this murder have been prevented if the young man had only to make a phone call and the police would come to crack down on the noise?In other words, if the young man begged the police one after another but the police ignored him, and he tried to persuade the woman who was chanting the scriptures again and again but the woman ignored him; then, you say, he can move—don’t be kidding, where in Taipei can he move? Make people live in peace?So, suffering from noise day and night, with no possibility of improvement, what should he do?

※ ※ ※ After the old man Socrates was sentenced to death, he refused to escape from prison. He said: "When I am dissatisfied with a system, I have two options: either leave the country, or change the system through legal means. But I have no right to destroy it in a way of resistance." (See "Difficult Situation", February 5th "Human World") Yes, old man Su is a model citizen who follows the rules, but have you noticed that there are two prerequisites for being a good citizen: first, he has the freedom to leave the country if he refuses to compromise; Channels to change the system he doesn't like.In other words, if the Athens government neither allowed him to leave the country nor gave him a channel to reform, he had no obligation to be a unilateral citizen who followed the rules.

So what about our situation?The living environment in Taiwan is harsh, and the choice faced by Xiaomin Shengdou is the same as that of Socrates: he can leave Taiwan, but there are many practical difficulties.He can "follow legal means" to change the status quo— Do we have this legal channel and unimpeded channel? ※ ※ ※ A doctor wrote to describe his painful experience.An underground subway factory suddenly appeared in a residential area, and the noise and exhaust gas discolored the entire community.He tried everything from private pleas to public complaints, but the result was zero.This agency said that the order was incomplete, that department said it was not his family's business, and the police even said that the people who run the factory are pitiful!"What the hell is the government doing? Who is the law protecting?" the doctor asked in desperation.

Even a seventeen-year-old high school student said confidently: "It's useless anyway! I want to go to America!" Are you not worried about our future? Who caused this hopeless sense of powerlessness? ※ ※ ※ Many people might point the arrow at the government—Department of Construction, Environmental Protection Bureau, Department of Health, Police Department, etc., but I can't because my field of knowledge is extremely narrow; I don't know how to dispose of garbage, food How to control imports and how to allocate efforts to mobilize.I am not an expert, and I am not qualified to tell these incumbents how to do things.

But like you, I am a fully entitled citizen.The root of the feeling of powerlessness may be a chicken-and-egg problem; you may think that the government is to blame for the lack of smooth plumbing, but I think the reason why you and I feel powerless is that we are not small people in cities. Knowing how to fight for our own rights, we indulge those who do things for us.We are to blame. Most Chinese people habitually obey authority—anyone sitting behind a counter or desk is an authority.I saw students go to the post office to withdraw money, fill out the wrong form, and get scolded by the lady behind the glass.The student was submissive and terrified.I also saw a big man in a suit go to the district office, and the clerk in glasses rolled his eyes coldly and waved his hand: "Go, go! It's almost twelve o'clock, why are you here?"I also know that the average college student, when faced with a teacher who dismantles "rotten dirt", either skips class to escape, or agrees to obey.

When you go to the post office to withdraw money, you get your own money, and you can fill in the wrong form again. Why do students think that the waitress has the right to dictate?The staff of the district office are supposed to work before the hour, why does the big man beg him?Students pay tuition fees to seek knowledge, and they have the right to ask teachers to perform their duties seriously. Why do students not care if teachers do not do well? The so-called government—the police department, the Department of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency—is people like you and me who work hard and use tax money to hire people to do things for us.Logically speaking, when these people are not doing well, you and I should hold a whip in your hand, open your sharp eyes and ask them to improve; , We also asked him to put on a "parental official" appearance with a stern voice to scare us half to death, shrinking our heads, and then sighed "powerless"!

We don't even know who we are, and we haven't even figured out the employer-employer relationship, so why are we still shouting "democracy, ethics, and science"? ※ ※ ※ Every morning, tens of thousands of people in clean clothes pour into the train bound for downtown New York to go to work in the city.There is no heating in the carriage in winter, and the air conditioner fails in summer. It takes two steps to break down after three steps, and the fare is surprisingly expensive.But because it is a monopoly business, day after day, year after year, everyone complains, but everyone still gets on the car obediently every day.Until Steve couldn't take it anymore, he ran around every day, organized passengers, refused to take the train, and took a car instead.At the same time, as soon as the train was delayed, they went to court to demand compensation.He and the railway company "can't finish eating, just walk around".

Steve didn't feel powerless. ※ ※ ※ Antony's thirteen-year-old daughter was hit and killed by a drunk driver.Because it was manslaughter, the perpetrator was sentenced to a very light sentence, but Antony had only one daughter who could not be resurrected. This ordinary housewife began to gather the caring mothers to meet the governor. When the governor was gone, she was in the reception room. Here I sit from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon without lunch.After two years of hard work, the law on drunk driving was amended, and the police road inspection system was tightened.Other mothers, perhaps, kept their thirteen-year-old daughters.

Antony didn't feel powerless either. ※ ※ ※ I don't have the stamina of Steve and Antoine.Life is in a terrible hurry, and in the rush to reform society, I lose the time to enjoy life.Most of the time, I would rather be like the lonely Thoreau, looking at clouds, mountains, and buffaloes and herons in the fields.However, instead of being a big man, we can always be a little man of some use, right?A small individual, like you, like me, can still shine.It will be difficult, yes; there will be sacrifices, yes.However, you cannot say "impossible" until you have tried it yourself!You can't talk about "powerlessness" until you have worked hard.Ask Steve, ask Antoine.

It is not shameful to talk about "moral courage", and it is not superficial to talk about "social conscience".Baptized by existentialism and war, modern people are proud of being complex and pessimistic, and proud of being deep and indifferent; just be a simple but sincere person!All it takes is a little courage and innocence.If you do a little more today, we will have one less seventeen-year-old saying: "It's useless anyway, I'm going to America!" America, after all, is not our home.