``Je pense donc je suis" --- random thoughts about democracy

 

1. I remember one discussion with a western friend about the decision making process with a democratic approach versus a meritocratic one.   It seems to me that people hold it self-evident that democracy is the ultimate optimal solution to our modern society.  So I was wondering, "Is democracy necessarily the best? " As we know, sometimes, the populist could possibly be manipulated in certain way in politics just to gain upper hands.   I asked him, "What if the democracy gives us a wrong solution?  In this case, won't the meritocracy be preferrable? " 

 

The friend pondered for a second, and said, "The idea about democracy is not about always making the right decision.  The core of democracy is that eveyone has a chance to express their own views, and each self-expression is respected during the decision process. " 

 

It was like lightning to hit me.  So democracy is not my naive perspective of seeing the world merely as right or wrong, good or bad, black or white, "if you are not with us, you are against us. "  Mismakes would probably incur in a democratic process, but the resilience of the system empowers it with the capability of self-correction and self-recovery in case of error or mistake. 

 

2. A piece of excerpt from Zbigniew Brzezinski ``Second Chance"

 

``The notion that the solution to the dilemma confronting America is to impose accelerated democracy in the region is equally misconceived.  Democracy historically has emerged through a prolonged process of enhancement of human rights, first from the economic and then to the political, first among some privileged classes and then on a wider scale.  That process in turn entails the progressive appearance of the rule of law, and the gradual imposition of legal and later constitutional rules over the structures of power.  In that context, the adoption of free elections leads progressively to the emergence of a system of rule based on fundamental notions of compromise and accommodation, with rules of the game respected by political opponents who do not see their contest as a zero-sum game. "  

 

--- Zbigniew Brzezinski ``Second Chance" 

 

This piece reminds me of the historic materialism in Marxism: "Material determines the mindset. The economic foundation determines the upper configuration of the society. " 

 

The point I appreciate most, from my understaning, is that democracy can not be intactly imported from others and become an automatic solution to all our problems.  If we want democracy, if we want this approach to our problems,  we can not just sit there and expect others to provide us with democracy readily enjoyable on our plate, we have to go through the growing pain to earn it.  It takes progressive efforts of continuous learning and self-check to prepare us in the mental level individually and societal level collectively, to slowly but effectively shape our way of thinking and the institutionalized mechanism of the society.  

"Speaking in musical terms, light blue is like a flute, dark blue is like a violoncello, sill darker it is like the wonderful sound of contrabass, and in a deep and solomn shade the sound of blue resembles the sound of an organ. "

---- Kandinsky

It took me a long while to finish reading Kissinger's "White House Years". The first motivation for me is to reread the history about Nixon's visit to China in 1972, and the diplomacy of Chou En-Lai.

 

Compared with the young energetic Clinton we see in the book "My Life", Kissinger is more of a guy from academia. The way he was writing, the wording and sentence patterns have a strong academic flavor. It is said that "we are shaped by our experiences". It also shows the trace on Kissinger in his book. The deeper he got involved in real matters, the more divergent he seemed to be from his naive academic friends.

 

In his book, Kissinger is the one who always illustrated the political event from the power balancing of the whole world. Once put into such a perspective, the ideas become salient in a big picture. The way he illustrates compromises involved all the time in negotiations between governments, as well as between different parties inside one government, ring the bell to me. It is really a fun to read his negotiation with Chou En-Lai. The two great people in diplomacy have a chance to show their insight and courage in a philosophical scale, yet also work the detailed practicalities. The touching part is when both parties involved began to show the sparkling of wisdom in the process, both begin to understand and appreciate each other. Hilary said in her book "Living History" that the world politics are more influenced by the personal relationships between the government head than it seems. In 1972, the history happened because of the rebalancing of world power, but the ice-breaking between China and the US is surely shaped by those people who got a chance to put their personal experience in those specific moments in history.

 

The loneliness exuded occasionally in the book is a little surprise for me in the beginning. The way loneliness is imposed on people by the happenings around us, and also by our inner selves. Nixon's lonely yet courageous character is glowing here and there throughout the whole book. Kissinger's tone also exudes loneliess on occasions, toward the end, the taciturn tension between Kissinger and Nixon seems to add to each other's lonliness even more. Maybe that is the price attached for the opportunity to be able to live and shape history. Clinton also expressed the kind of loneliness in his book describing his White House Years. 

Reading two of the Clinons' books: Hilary's "Living History" and Bill's "My Life" is an interesting experience.  An amusing thought I had is about the titles: Hillary was describing more about her life while writing the book "Living History", whereas Bill was describing more about historic events under the name of "My Life". :-)  Is this the difference between from Venus and from Mars, somehow?  

Iris Chang: The Chinese in America: a narrative history

Marion Hilliard: Women and fatigue: a woman doctor's answer

Bill Clinton: My life

Herman Wouk: Nature's way,

Herman Wouk: The Winds of War

Cecil Helman: Culture, health and illness

 

余秋雨： 笛声何处

ANE: 好山好水好花儿

徐晓： 半生为人

After seeing some discussion about Herman Wouk on cchere.com, I became curious. I searched in the library, and found half a shelf of Herman Wouk. I admire the author for the humor, the command of English. He rephrases history in a way of telling a story, full of warmth, colorfulness and liveliness. You can almost visualize him wink behind those pages. It makes me smile.

 

As one of my favorite writer WANG Zengqi has said in his seminar, a piece of works would be the creation from the writer as well as the reader, therefore, it is finished not immediately after the author finishes writing, but finishes when the reader finishes reading it.

 

It must be fun to imagine the amazement, the laughters, the lightening understanding from the reader when creating a piece of story.