In an article reviewing the Norwegian dramatist Ibsen, Hu Shi wrote:
"The root cause of life's great illness is the refusal to open your eyes to the real situation of the world. Obviously, it is a society of male thieves and female prostitutes, and we prefer to say that it is a country of sages and ceremonies; it is obviously the politics of corrupt officials; we must sing praises and praises; obviously it is an incurable serious disease, and we prefer to say that there is no disease at all! But they do not know that if they are to be well, they must first admit that they are sick; if they want to be politically good, they must first admit that today's politics is really bad; if they want to improve society, they must first know that today's society is really a society of male thieves and female prostitutes! ”
This article was published in the June 15, 1918 issue of the "New Youth" magazine, when Hu Shi had just returned to China for a year, at the age of only 28, and the object of his criticism was obviously the Republic of China, which had just been out of the monarchy for seven years, and although it had entered the Republic of China, many people still had the ideas of the Great Qing in their heads. And these words are also of reference significance to us today.
In psychology, there is a term called "ostrich mentality", which means that when facing the difficulties of reality, it is not to actively solve problems, but to escape. Just like an ostrich, burying its head in the sand and exposing its body to the outside does not solve the problem at all, and the effect can only be to cover your ears and steal the bell.
From the perspective of a country, in China's history, when it was strong and prosperous, it was often inclusive, with both civil and martial arts, and foreign envoys and merchants exchanged endlessly. At the time of weakness, it always went to close its eyes and listen, and the introduction of the Ming Dynasty's policy of banning the sea basically declared that China began to lag behind the West in an all-round way.
During the Qianlong period, in 1793, when the British envoy Magalni visited China to expand commercial relations with the Qing Dynasty, the first industrial revolution was in full swing, and Qianlong was concerned with the etiquette of Magalni kneeling on one knee, which greatly annoyed him. Finally, Qianlong arrogantly declared, "The Heavenly Dynasty is rich in products and omnipotent, and originally did not use foreign goods to communicate with or without", and refused Magalni's request for trade.
By this time, less than 50 years had passed since the Opium War. Magalney wrote in his diary: "The Chinese Empire is like a first-class battleship that has been destroyed. In his eyes, China, known as the "prosperous qianlong dynasty", was a luxurious court, the people were poor, and the arrogance and arrogance of the upper and lower levels were only superficial, and later history completely verified his observations.
At the time of the Opium War, Lin Zexu, a patriotic general who claimed to have opened his eyes to the world, also seriously misjudged the British army because of the lack of news. He wrote to Daoguang, believing that the British army was stiff and would be inconvenient to move after landing, "except for guns and artillery, the attacks and stabs were not skillful, and their legs and feet were wrapped and ended tightly", and the land battle could definitely be won, but the result was that the Qing army was defeated again and again. Some Qing generals even thought that the "foreign devils" were afraid of dog blood, and with this clever trick, they would be able to break the enemy.
With such a closed eye and listening, its failure is certainly inevitable.
Later, under repeated beatings, the Qing court sent envoys to Western Europe, such as Guo Songtao, who believed that the customs of European countries were like the chinese legend of the prosperous Yao Shunyu era, and the Qing Dynasty at that time was reduced to "Yidi". The Qing officials who went with them all admired the social atmosphere and political status quo in European countries, and it was only then that Chinese truly opened their eyes to the world. Unfortunately, in the 1870s, when they returned to China, they were immediately framed and reported as "heresies", and the Qing court continued to choose to be ostriches.
The above history is to argue that what Hu Shi said is targeted, and the perverse actions of Yuan Shikai and Zhang Xun prove that what Hu Shi said is true, so that people with lofty ideals at that time finally realized that people must be enlightened in their thinking.
And the current situation of a country is ultimately related to people's vision and insight. It is true that there are not only dark aspects in society, there are always two sides of the same body, and daqing certainly has a good side of the years.
But whether it is a person or a country, only by looking at the problem comprehensively can we not make a wrong judgment because of the blockage of the news.
The same is true to us today, there are many deficiencies in society, you can live in the bath of positive energy. But please don't attack those who reveal the real reality, what they say is not the so-called "negative energy", but the other side you don't see.
Everyone doesn't like bad information, they don't like the misery and tragedy of the world, but those things are real, but you are lucky that they did not come to you.
Choosing to be an ostrich does not avoid the dangers that may come, but may make the dangers even greater.
Only when we open our eyes and face the real world can we be a real person, make real decisions, and write real words, and can a country really go strong.