Chapter 9 Pork Knee and Democracy
Children nowadays are so enviable. A friend of mine has a 3-year-old child who loves to watch an animation series about a group of small animals playing around. Every time there is an accident, it’s not a dog being crushed by a door. Heads were thrown, two ducks were thrown by the Ferris wheel, fell on the fence, and splattered blood on the street-the final ending, without exception, must be that the little animals died happily and enjoyed themselves.Even though I'm old, I still enjoy watching this cartoon, and that little thing is like an idiot who couldn't find his way out of joy. After watching it, the whole world shouted: "The elephant is dead, the elephant is dead!" It's like As if his father was dead.If this situation is seen by people who love children, they must say that this kind of cartoon has destroyed the child's heart, but I don't think so.Children's nature is to seek happiness. Their IQ is basically zero, and they don't understand humor, but they can perceive funny. Although funny is low-level, it can bring endless joy to people.If we have to ban this kind of funny, I think the second thing is to ban this kind of cartoons. First, we must legislate to prohibit children from thinking like children.
In contrast, the child's predecessors were too miserable.For example, when I was a child I used to think that the funniest book in the world to read was a bad book called Stories of Famous Foreign Poets.According to the book, the famous poets didn't care about the nonsense of literary creation at all, they were all as firm as the apostles, and their thoughts throughout their lives were neither women nor rhymes, but how to resist the bourgeoisie.The book says that Byron was a passionate warrior who went to Greece to export the revolution, but it is not clear that the grandson is actually a terrorist; the book also says that Shelley was very popular with the ladies and was rejected by the bourgeois literati. He framed him, but never mentioned that he was having an affair with his sister-in-law.In a word: It was very pornographic, violent and vivid, but it was made particularly harmonious by this broken book.
One year, I went to a village in the Northeast. An older sister accompanied me to visit the "Ethnic Customs Exhibition Room" in the village. When I saw a few pieces of "galaha", she said, "What kind of shit!" Things to play with, now I can't help but feel sorry for myself when I think about it.This "broken thing" is actually the knee bone of a pig, sheep or cow. It was a traditional toy for Manchu children in the early days, and later became a treasure in the palms of children in the entire Northeast.If cultural relativists heard the emotion of this eldest sister, they might accuse her of lacking respect for the value of the cultural traditions of the nation.I think respect is okay, but it’s not fun if it’s not fun.My grandma is a Manchu. When I was young, she and her sisters also tried to let me play pork knee bones. Fortunately, God blessed me. At that time, I already had a black iron children's air gun to compare with, so I rushed out with the gun Surrounded by old ladies, they ran into modern civilization.
The meaning of tradition is to mark where we come from, but it does not mean to indicate where we are going.The historian Toynbee said in "Historical Research": "History can help us enlighten wisdom and understand human beings, but can it predict the future? No, it can affect the future and it does not mean prefabricating the future." Compared with knife historians, I certainly believe in this one.Another person who doesn’t respect cultural traditions enough is the writer Nabokov. Once a reporter asked him what kind of world he would most like to live in. He didn’t say the nonsense of living in an old house by the water. Instead, it said: "In the cloudless world of the future, there will be soft pipes connecting the buildings." In my understanding, Toynbee's words are called sincerity and returning to common sense, and Nabokov's words are called chic Heroic—yes, tradition is elegant, but that’s your elegance, and I won’t pee on your pot.
Their words are, of course, personal opinions, but all conventions are also opinions.I agree with the above two, there is no special reason, at most it is "I like it".But I think this "I like" is too important, it comes from human nature, simple and invincible.
Is what we have experienced, what is filled in this life, all based on human nature?I dare not think so.It is well known among us that the longer a person lives, the more false knowledge he learns.It will take me a long time to set things right just for the bad teachings given to me by "Stories of Famous Foreign Poets". Then the various fallacies we have immersed in over the years, such as schoolwork, company politics and even ethics Value, etc., can we clean it up on the day we die?
Therefore, the judgment of right and wrong cannot be entirely based on our unreliable knowledge.No matter what it is, first see how the children treat it before making a judgment, basically it won't be too wrong.For example, is democracy a good thing?I don't think it should be a problem.How to build democracy is of course a complicated issue, but whether it is necessary or not is not. The basis of social evolution lies in the simplest human nature-if you don’t give a child the right to choose his own life, he will be lifeless; Give him the right to speak, and he will call you a "big bastard" behind your back.Democracy is good for children, just like air guns are good, there is a natural law behind it.We can live like idiots when we don't find out that it's a law of nature, but then we don't want to live like that anymore.
It's been so long, but the core is nothing more than four words: the heart of a child.Jia Baoyu's innocence is to insist that innocence is beautiful, and the adult society that is forced by things is very fucked up. People don't let him think so, so he ran to become a monk.For me, the situation is much the same.When we were young, we were happy when we saw an air gun, and depressed when we saw a pig's knee bone. Then when we grow up, if someone says to you, "Young man, you have to consider China's national conditions", or bring some yellowed rice Acting as if you are expensive, then even if we don't directly say "fuck you!", we should know in our hearts: this is a dirty trick.If this guy is not too stupid, he must be trying to get rid of Sister Lin in your heart and force you to become a monk.
Don't forget, no matter how sophisticated and complex the modern democratic system is, it is fundamentally in the same line as Lao Tzu's "absence of sages and abandonment of wisdom".Good civilization always respects children, while bad civilization tends to suppress innocence.Since giggling is the most valuable life for children, the world would be a better place if it were accessible to the general public.