Chapter 22 The second part of the Three Dangerous Words Chinese-style idealists in the flourishing age

In China, tens of thousands of people have experienced the era of wild ideals, and have been baptized by idealism. Even if their ideals later turned into nightmares and disillusioned, many generations lost their ideals, but they did not cast aside idealism. Fang Caodi and Wei Xihong grew up in such an era.Perhaps they themselves do not realize that no matter how the times and environment change, they still retain the strong idealistic personality traits formed in their adolescence.When an ideal is disillusioned, even if they do not immediately pick up another ready-made ideal to replace it, they will continue to search and pursue it.They are not realists, opportunists, careerists, hedonists, compromisers, nihilists, or esotericists.They are unspeakably Chinese idealists.

Therefore, even after more than 60 years since the founding of the Republic, China must still be a big country of idealists—China has a large population base, but the proportion of idealists is small, and the actual number is still astonishing in other countries. Think of all the jailed and monitored human rights lawyers, dissidents, democratic charters, civic organization leaders, self-organized political parties, public intellectuals, whistleblowers about wrongdoing, and underground church preachers, Probably all hopeless idealists of version 2.0. No society can be completely devoid of idealists, let alone China today!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . It is predictable that Fang Caodi and Wei Xihong hit it off and met each other later.They have too much common language and experience.More importantly, after two years of searching alone like madmen, they finally proved that I am not alone. When Lao Chen introduced them to each other, they could tell at a glance that they were of the same kind.They consciously analyze why they are always sober and lonely when other people around them have an indescribable sense of happiness and a slight high.Fang Cao said that the US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in mid-2009 that asthma drugs such as Singulair, Encolate and Zileuton could cause depression, anxiety, insomnia and even suicidal tendencies.Perhaps many asthma medicines used by Chinese people have the same side effects.People who take asthma medication have a harder time getting high than normal because of their medication, and are therefore more awake.Xiaoxi said that this is strange, because the effect of anti-anxiety drugs should be the opposite. The drugs stimulate the brain to secrete more serotonin and norepinephrine, which makes people excited, so people who take drugs like her should not I can't feel the hi of others at all.She said that she saw reports that those anti-anxiety drugs that can change mood have surpassed blood pressure-lowering drugs to become the most prescribed drug in the United States. Adding over-the-counter drugs, anti-anxiety drugs are now the most commonly used drugs in the United States.In fact, many Americans do not really have depression. They just look for anti-anxiety drugs because they are in a bad mood, lack of energy, and lack of energy in doing things.From this, Xiaoxi wondered if many people in China were taking anti-anxiety drugs at will, so they were high all day long.Fang Caodi pointed out that no matter how common anti-anxiety drugs are in China, it is impossible for everyone to use them. Today, the phenomenon that needs to be explained is why almost all the people are high, but so few people are sober.

The two had been sharing their feelings for the past two years on the way back to Beijing from Henan. Lao Chen could only listen in, until the Cherokee driven by Fang Caodi returned to the village where Miaomiao and Zhang Dou lived in disgrace. Xiaoxi's voice sounded very familiar to Zhang Dou, and Xiaoxi felt as if she had met Zhang Dou before, but they couldn't remember where they met. In the evening, Zhang Dou and Miaomiao pitched a tent in the yard, and gave up their room to Xiaoxi, while Fang Caodi added a folding bed to Lao Chen in his own room. Xiaoxi has already said that she is willing to associate with Lao Chen, but it will take time to get used to it, implying that she does not want to move to live with Lao Chen right away.Fang Cao said that Xiaoxi can live in Miaomiao's room for now, and when the weather is cooler, he and Zhang Dou can build another house for Xiaoxi to live in.Old Chen thought that Xiaoxi didn't want to live with him for the time being, which didn't mean he wanted to live in the village forever, but Lao Chen didn't urge Xiaoxi to make a decision immediately, and thought that during the transition at Miaomiao Zhang's house, Fang Caodi would chat with her , and can avoid the government's eyeliner in the city, it might not be a good arrangement.

It is difficult for an outsider like Lao Chen to predict how powerful and fighting spirit Fang Caodi and Wei Xihong, two long-lost Chinese-style idealistic comrades, collide together, and a young and strong Zhang Dou will explode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . After talking with Fang Caodi and Zhang Dou in detail, Xiaoxi slowly recovered some of the memories of the first day.On the day when the urban areas began to go to work after the Spring Festival holiday on the eighth day of the first lunar month, TV, newspapers and the Internet uniformly reported the news that the world economy had entered a period of ice and fire, and everyone suddenly felt that disaster was imminent.On the Internet and on mobile phones, various rumors came in waves like a roller coaster.At the beginning, everyone was still criticizing the hyperinflation in the United States, and the US dollar depreciated by 30% at one time, which caused the Chinese to lose a lot of hard-earned foreign exchange reserves.Then he said that a large number of factories in the south were shut down, and farmers could not return to the cities to work. The Chinese economy is really going to collapse this time.Following news that gold rose to $2,000 an ounce, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets fell to their daily limits, and Xinjiang and Tibet were under martial law.All of a sudden the market atmosphere changed drastically.Commuters are starting to head home, traffic is in chaos, and the gossip is ramping up.By the afternoon people responded by snapping up food and daily necessities.

At this time, Zhang Dou also added that he and Miao Miao also bought cat and dog food everywhere for the first time. Fortunately, they did so, because after the cat and dog food went out of stock that day, it took more than a month for the supply to resume. Any system, if everyone does the same action and only has positive feedback but not enough negative feedback, will collapse.This is the case with the panic buying of daily food items. At the beginning, everyone just expected the price to rise, and if there is stock, they will stock up at home. It is also strange that official media such as CCTV and Beijing TV are all broadcasting the chaos around the world, but no one comes out to say something soothing about the sufficient supply of domestic food and daily necessities.Fang Cao said that it is impossible for the government to react so slowly.Both he and Xiaoxi felt that something was wrong, and there must be another reason.

Xiaoxi remembered that in the afternoon, she kept calling the scholars and media people she knew, wondering what could be done, whether we should get together to discuss, but the other party was busy buying food to take care of the family, and no one had time to discuss and deal with it. plan.In the evening, Xiaoxi and Sister Song decided not to do business, closed the shop and went home.The situation on the way home was similar to that after June 4th in 1989 and during the SARS period in 2003, when there were very few people and vehicles.Both of them were carrying food from the store, and a rider passed Sister Song from behind and snatched a Chinese cabbage in her hand.

Rumors are flying all over the sky at night, mobile phones, the Internet, and TV are on and off, and the sirens of police cars, ambulances, and fire engines are constantly sounding, but there is no curfew.In the yard, someone organized a security team by themselves. After the next day, Xiaoxi still couldn't think of it, and whenever she thought about it, she broke into sweat, had a headache and wanted to vomit. All I know is that one night Xiaoxi came home and yelled: "Severe beating again, more severe beating, staying up all night, talking to himself, and early the next morning in the yard cursing the Communist Party, the government, the neighbors, and the court." It's bullshit, it didn't take long for him to become unconscious, and he was already in a mental hospital when he woke up.This is what Xiaoxi's mother, Sister Song, said after she was released from the mental hospital. Xiaoxi herself didn't remember it at all. The strange thing is that when Xiaoxi asked again after a while, Sister Song said she didn't remember.

Fang Cao said that he was in Guangdong at the time, and the anarchy lasted for seven days.In the past six days, the people had been terrified. They had heard that other places were in chaos, but the place Fang Caodi passed by was actually not that chaotic. It's just that as an outsider, he was always suspected and questioned, and his life was difficult.On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, he fled to a place where the three provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Hunan meet, and lived in a farmer's house. Later, he said that the fourteenth day of the first lunar month was the most terrifying. There were incidents of beatings, smashing, looting, and burning in the town. A large number of residents heard that the county town was safer, so they went to Flee in the direction of the county seat.Many people have repeatedly received a text message: "I just got news from the highest authority, it's messed up and out of control, everyone take care."

Over the years, many people have asked, will China be in chaos?Will it get out of control?Where is the flashpoint?Fang Caodi traveled all over the western region, and he also visited the Central Plains and other regions. He kept telling people, don’t worry, there is no connection. There are small disturbances in China, but there will be no major disturbances. The incidents are all regional and will not spread to the whole country. . But during those seven days, the common people across the country felt like they were in purgatory, and one day was too long. By the seventh day, they could no longer bear it and were on the verge of collapse. It was conceivable that the bad guys were even more eager to move, and people fell into great fear, almost reaching a state of mass hysteria.Apparently, Anarchy is next, anarchy, a life-and-property war of all against all.Everyone's only hope is that the state apparatus will be dispatched soon.

Fang Caodi also thought that if the situation did not improve, China would really be in chaos. On the eighth day, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, a small column of the People's Liberation Army came to the town and was warmly welcomed by the people. Zhang Dou added that he had indeed heard so.On the 15th day of the first lunar month of the year before last, PLA troops entered the city to restore order. This time, Beijingers came out in full force to welcome them.In the afternoon, the public security, armed police and army jointly announced the start of a crackdown.Zhang Dou didn't have a Beijing hukou, so he didn't dare to run around, so he hid at home for three weeks. Xiaoxi thought, could it be that she also went to welcome the People's Liberation Army?Then he was really crazy.It was probably in the afternoon that I heard that the crackdown was going to be severe again, so I got emotionally upset and made a big fuss the next day when I got home. Fang Caodi told Xiaoxi that when the crackdown began, anyone suspicious would be arrested. He was reported by the villagers, arrested at the Public Security Bureau, and handed over to a six-member team for a quick and severe trial. The young female judge only saved her life. That night, Xiaoxi cried a lot as if feeling her life experience. The crackdown in 1983 and the PLA tanks entering Beijing in 1989 to suppress students frightened her, filled her with frustration and doubted her own choices and abilities.But today, she felt rejuvenated.During this period of time, from debating old cynics on the Internet, expressing her views on current affairs, to defending farmers' rights in house churches, to hearing Fang Caochang's justice from a young female judge, Xiaoxi felt that she also It became more and more determined, as if I finally found myself. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fang Caodi or Xiaoxi, whose idealism is more radical?The answer is Xiaoxi.What is radical?The classical meaning of radical is the root, to find out the most essential root of things.Fang Caodi has a simple sense of justice to do justice for the heavens, coupled with his persistent personality, driving him to search for the missing month unremittingly.Xiaoxi's sense of justice is actually more abstract and conceptual.The socialist and internationalist education that Xiaoxi received when she was a child made the words equality, justice, friendship and mutual assistance engraved in her heart with light.She doesn't know the hypocrisy of the Communist Party.In college, she studied Roman and Napoleonic law, which returned after the Cultural Revolution. In the 1980s and 1990s, she accepted the baptism of enlightenment rationality and values ​​​​such as freedom, democracy, truth, and human rights. Romanticism and rationalism left behind The deep brand is a typical idealism of contemporary Westernized Chinese intellectuals. Although there are many blind spots and internal limitations, we know that Xiaoxi is more radical, and she is a steadfast radical. Just think about it, what supports Xiaoxi to live on the fringes of society after suffering so much in the past few years?We read that she was the hostess of intellectual salons in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, in those years she mainly listened to other influential figures and seldom expressed her own opinions.But after the intellectuals reconciled or were harmonized with the government in the past two years, Xiaoxi has risen against the wind, never stopped fighting alone, expressing opinions on the Internet without hesitation, and fighting with reason. This process forced her to clarify her thoughts. , and express it in a reasonable way, because the opponent is unreasonable and expresses it in emotional, rhetorical, aesthetic, populist and even violent language.The more she writes, the calmer she becomes, and her mind becomes clearer.So, let us not have the illusion that she is still the court clerk who has a sense of justice but is fragile, or the hostess of the salon with a free style and Petofi Club style, or a dereliction of duty who can't even manage her son. Mom, or a crazy woman running around like a frightened bird.She's now an obscure but genuine public intellectual, though she wouldn't think of calling herself that.This is her armament, her career, the breath she lives on, her loveliness and hatefulness.She is willing to live a life of hardships and endure humiliation, just to get closer to the truth.