At the beginning of the new year, everyone is predicting the future. In fact, all the answers about the future have long been written in the past. Under the sun, there is nothing new.
On July 30, 2021, at the Shanghai Planetarium, images of the sun stood out in the dark pavilion. Photo/Visual China
Today's slowness is because yesterday's fast.
Today's melon is because of yesterday's hammer.
Today's reverse volume is because of yesterday's inner volume.
Today's clarity is because of yesterday's filth.
Some words are getting cold: traffic, celebrities, rice circles, capital, algorithms, training courses, high energy consumption...
Some words are getting hot: COVID-19 vaccine, carbon neutrality, metacosm, common prosperity, North Stock Exchange, double subtraction...
In this era full of uncertainty and full of all possibilities, we are moving forward in the fog with trepidation and ideals. The wild elephants of Yunnan go all the way north, looking for their own Eden and utopia, and they are not us?
"The world is small, don't talk about elephants." / "Elephant" wheat
The 21st century is a golden age for China.
China embraces globalization, opens up China's speed, creates Chinese miracles, contributes to the "new four major inventions", and becomes the world's second largest economy, Shenzhou flew to the Heavenly Palace to continue mankind's journey to explore the universe. China, from the edge, has entered the center of the world stage.
At 0:23 on October 16, 2021, the Long March 2F Yaoxi carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft was ignited and taken off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. /Visual China
We have witnessed the legend created by technology and the Internet. We strive to be strong and upward, through self-struggle to achieve class counterattack; we participate in public expression, pursue rationality and constructiveness, and strive to become part of the intellectual elite. However, the epidemic has brought lockdown and isolation, the era of great changes has brought economic stalls, populism and anti-globalization, fanaticism has replaced reason, narrow-mindedness has replaced tolerance, idols are disillusioned, and elites are falling.
In the early morning of April 11, 2020, epidemic prevention volunteers at Shanghai Pudong Airport. /Visual China
Everyone wants to restart everything and find the antidote to the epidemic and heal the body and mind. We sing nostalgic golden songs again and again, and every song sung to yesterday is actually an antidote dedicated to today.
What would happen to the world if everything could be restarted?
When we look back at the road traveled in the first 20 years of the new century, we look at the rise and fall, integration and division, globalization and anti-globalization, elitism and populism... We want to seek an answer, what kind of world does China need? What kind of China does the world need? How can China export oriental values and seek world recognition?
Everyone is looking for the antidote.
Nations are looking for an antidote to restore global mobility and order and to re-establish mutual trust and mutual assistance.
Society is looking for an antidote to move up class, smooth out the rift, and achieve common prosperity.
Cities are looking for an antidote to economic growth break through the real estate curse and gain new momentum.
The company is looking for an antidote so that the new youth refuse to lie flat and shine in an environment full of opportunities.
The individual is looking for an antidote so that he doesn't have to exhaust all the strength of life just to live.
Passengers who are buried in processing information on their commute. /unsplash
Maybe one day, humans will evolve into humanoids. In Kevin Kelly's view, the next 30 years will be "a never-ending fusion of man, machine, and nature." But we do not want to be a consumer animal in a materialized society, but to get rid of the deep boredom and emptiness and find the true meaning of how a person should live.
Yes, this century is still very long, and we must be "optimistic optimists", optimistic about the world, optimistic about China, optimistic about Chinese, optimistic about the future of "the beauty of each other, the beauty of beauty, the beauty of the United States, and the unity of the world".
No one can accurately predict the changes in heaven and earth. The fate of the individual is unpredictable, the might of nature is difficult to resist, and no one knows where the collective desires and actions of human beings will take themselves.
But human beings are still predicting and imagining, constantly deducing new futures. Verne predicted the plane to go to heaven, the human landing on the moon, Daniel Bell predicted the unexpected arrival of the post-industrial era and the Internet age, and many predictions became reality, and the future of the time is now a past or contemporary history.
The future is unknowable, but the hope is always there. /"Auspicious Ruyi"
In the face of an uncertain future, everyone expects security, happiness and a better life. The anticipation of the new year, the prediction of the distant future, cannot bring these things immediately, but they can urge us to study and see the world deeply, improve our vigilance against environmental, demographic, and resource issues, and inspire the way forward for the future.
In the face of an uncertain future, we are increasingly certain of the preciousness of everyday life. We hate the barrier of the virus and hope to go out at any time; we don't want to look at each other every day, we want to return to the line and hug each other; we are tired of the inner volume, and we want to live easily.
What to do in the face of an uncertain future? Only by returning to common sense, returning to reason, returning to daily life, and learning to "choose a high place to stand, sit flat, and walk wide."
We still believe in the future, and as John Lennon said, "Everything will be good in the end." If it's not yet, then it's not the end."
On the first day of 2022, I wish you a Happy New Year and may you be treated tenderly by the world!
Proofreading | Yang Chao
Welcome to share to the circle of friends
Reproduction without permission is prohibited