Robinson Crusoe is a book I read many years ago, in fact, I heard about it when I was young, and I only read it more than a decade later, and it is still very shocking. The plot of the book is not very clear, but it is clearer that Robinson meets the man-eater and prepares to eat "Friday", and he saves "Friday". What if they were going to eat him (Robinson)? It is certain that you will resist to the death, lose and be eaten, win or even eat the other party.
After all, in the rules of this primitive society, you have to be flexible. Because this is not Britain, a relatively civilized modern country, but not just the law of the jungle, the simple law of the jungle, this is the real food. There are still cannibal tribes in the rainforest, so what can be done? It would be impossible to educate them to be civilized, so difficult that hope was almost zero. They are against rapid evolution, they only want to slowly and step by step. So the process is very long.
For example, if you Chinese to Africa, according to local customs, you can take four wives, as long as you adapt to this rule, you will be very happy, and even reach a deal with the local upper class, become a vested interest, and even become a member of the ruling class landlords and officials, such as the Chinese chief. Returning from a civilized society to a semi-civilized society requires courage and unimaginable benefits.
It is no wonder that many people go to Africa and other backward regions to pan for gold, because there are business opportunities, because there are huge differences between regions. A commodity is expensive here, but it is cheap there, so it has the value of a merchant, and then it forms profits and even huge profits.
What is the Law? Don't be dogmatic, don't stick to stereotypes. The Dharma is only the means to achieve the end, and the Dharma, why is formulated, and must not forget the original intention because of the Fa. What is the purpose of our enactment? Interests, that's the starting point. Departing from the starting point of interest consideration, there are hooligans. We tend to fall into dogma, the law for the sake of the law. In order to protect the interests of the people, if the law runs counter to it, it should be abolished, amended, and then implemented.
What does Robinson illustrate? Specific problem-specific analysis. As an Englishman, he went to the island, which was equivalent to a foreigner going to a foreign country, and should adapt to the laws of the local primitive society. It's even possible to eat people, which is a helpless thing to do unless.... You have the right to eat people, and you have the freedom (possibility, obligation) to be eaten. Appears "equal".
But Robinson did not eat people after all, and prevented "Friday" from eating people, and succeeded, he lived well, he survived the most difficult step by wisdom and luck, step by step to success. After many years on the island, he was lucky enough to meet the ship and returned to England, back to civilized society, the life he was familiar with. In fact, many modern explorers have entered the mouth of the tiger, into the mouth of primitive people, and made food.