Text / Beacon Tower
Freedom is one of the three cornerstones of value in modern society (three cornerstones of value: independence, freedom, and equality). Regarding freedom, there are countless special works and related works since the Renaissance, and I only want to talk about the feelings of freedom in view of the life feelings of the people around me.
The French Enlightenment thinker Rousseau said, "Man is born free." "It shows that freedom is an innate attribute of human beings. In real life, everyone yearns for freedom, and everyone has learned a poem by Pei Duofei since childhood: "Life is precious, love is more expensive, if it is for freedom, both can be thrown away." "It can be seen that freedom is important to man.
Ordinary people's understanding of freedom is to do whatever they want. Of course, in most cases, the idea is to remove bad behavior. If we can really limit the scope of "doing whatever we want" to only doing good things and not doing bad things, this explanation can also be justified. However, human behavior involves not only the individual, but also in most cases others and the collective, because everyone lives in the group, and the behavior of the individual is closely related to others and the collective, which is why Marx defined the concept of man as "man is the sum of social relations."
It is precisely because of the characteristics of people's group life that they are closely related to each other, with the continuous progress of society, people's interpretation of the concept of freedom and the definition of free behavior have gradually entered a comprehensive and deep point. In view of the importance of the basic values of freedom, the interpretation of freedom in modern society involves the politics, economy, culture, and system of a certain society, as well as the content of human rights and obligations in that society.
The promotion and promotion of freedom in traditional Chinese society is extremely weak, except for a very small number of thinkers such as Li Zhen (Ming Dynasty thinker, 1527-1602 AD) who advocated freedom, from the official to the academic circles, they are based on hierarchy and etiquette, educating and controlling the people, compared with the Western society since the Renaissance, the gap is vastly different. Judging from the anti-traditional works of art, the so-called freedom is owned by the high-ranking officials and nobles such as the emperor and the prince, and the common people do not have much freedom. In the understanding of ordinary people, the emperor is the supreme ruler of the world and can do whatever he wants; the high-ranking officials and nobles can get what they want, and they can get what they see; although the local rich people do not have the scenery of the emperor and the high-ranking officials and nobles, they can also dress and eat and get away with it. And is that the case? A "Yongzheng Dynasty" is dedicated to the emperor's suffering; a "Hai Rui Dismissal", that is, when a high official cannot eat enough; and a "Martial Arts Transmission" is to praise the rich man's diet and food for private schools. These stories are all true events recorded in the history, and most of them are still based on them, indicating that the ordinary people's imaginary understanding is still quite large.
In fact, people who understand history know that the life of emperors and dignitaries is certainly much better than that of ordinary people, but it is impossible to do whatever they want, their status is high, and their responsibilities are also great, and most of the time they should be stronger than the self-discipline of ordinary people, otherwise it will shake their ruling foundation and social status. If ordinary people can do food and clothing without worry, other things can not care about it, but have more freedom.
The concept of freedom in modern society is guided by the idea of natural human rights and premised on the concept of social contract, which establishes connotation interpretation and behavioral norms based on modern democracies and society under the rule of law, and its core embodies the rights and obligations of individuals in state and social life. From the moral level, it means that individual behavior (including speech) cannot endanger others and the collective (to distinguish between new ideas, new scholarship, citizens' opinions and suggestions and frames, slanders, and attacks); from the legal level, it means that "the law can be prohibited without prohibition", except for the things prohibited by the current law (of course, good law that conforms to the legislative process premised on natural law), all others belong to the freedom and rights of individuals. Precisely because of the complexity of the meaning of freedom in modern society, in 1903, when Yan Fu translated the famous book "On Freedom" by the British thinker John Mill, in order to prevent misunderstanding, he determined the title of the Chinese book as "The Theory of the Boundaries of The Rights of the Group", which means that the book is written as "the boundary of rights between the collective and the individual." In fact, the concept of freedom in modern society defines precisely the different elements of rights and duties between the state, the collective and the individual.
China's Constitution has clear provisions on the rights and obligations of all citizens, but the work of popularizing the law has been carried out for decades, and there are still not enough people who can seriously read it. In today's society, economic development is advancing by leaps and bounds, and if everyone can fully grasp the content of citizens' rights and obligations from the knowledge, morality and law, the overall quality of society will inevitably have a great improvement. It's just a pity that most people are ignorant and understand, and when they encounter problems, they only complain more and think less, and they can't fundamentally understand the true meaning of freedom.
For example, a topic that many people often talk about today is to miss the life of the people's commune era, thinking that although the life was relatively tense at that time, the material and cultural life was not rich, but everyone was the same, production was managed, the distribution was very average, there were no rich people, and there would be no starvation, although they ate coarse tea and light rice, wore patched clothes, slept in Xiba Tukang, but their hearts were comfortable. Now that the economy is developed and life is richer, the pressure and pain in the heart are increasing, which is really puzzling.
It can be said that this topic is universal, not necessarily from the political standpoint to give analysis, most people are just talking about their own real feelings. In fact, for our Chinese, this feeling is indeed true. In different social environments, poor days are quite comfortable, and rich days have burdens, how did this paradox arise?
This must start from the old concept of traditional Chinese society. As mentioned earlier, in traditional Chinese society, the discussion and pursuit of individual freedom is not obvious, and if we want to talk about freedom, it is also the freedom of the emperor and the dignitaries and nobles, and the freedom of the state collective, and the common people dare not talk about freedom. "Those who commit crimes against us strong men will be punished from afar," referring to the state and the nation, not individuals, and individuals cannot express such a meaning. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, authoritarian control and national oppression were even worse, and individuals had even less freedom rights and room for activity, until they turned all the subjects of the yangyang countries into "targets for public display and numb spectators."
The chronic absence of individual rights has also made personal obligations a burden. Some scholars believe that the reason why many people behave selfishly in social life is not that they do not have a collective consciousness and a good heart, but because of the long-term lack of civil rights. Without rights, obligations become a burden, and people are reluctant to take the initiative to take them. This judgment is an accurate conclusion in accordance with historical facts. Because there is no concept of personal rights and obligations, many people's moral and legal awareness is not very clear, and they have to consider themselves first when things happen, coupled with the cultural habits of small peasant economy and society, people's concept of personal dependence is very strong. The so-called "relying on parents at home and friends outside", although they participate in public society, what is deeply rooted in their thinking is personal dependence.
The concept of personal attachment is reflected in the life of the individual, that is, the attitude of unconditionally following and appreciating the life of the nobles, causing gangs and gangs, sometimes for the interests of small groups, to dare to violate and trample on state laws, which is the cultural root of the problem of large-scale corruption; the concept of personal dependence is reflected in the governance of the country, which can easily lead to a large number of factions and hegemonic parties, which is the personnel root of the warlord scuffle at the end of the dynasty. From the perspective of personal life, with the personal attachment relationship to the upper-class figures, the survival and development of the individual will be guaranteed, the promotion will be carried out, the wealth will be taken care of, and the difficulties will be solved. But for the state and society, it is a great destruction, and it will eventually be repaid to everyone. Therefore, modern society has made clear provisions on the state system, political system, morality, law, and the rights and obligations of citizens, so that the traditional personal dependency relationship can be broken and a fair and just democratic society ruled by law can be established.
Understanding these truths, we will know that in the forty years of reform and opening up, Chinese has entered a new era of prosperity and prosperity, and for these achievements, everyone has made arduous efforts, and to maintain these achievements, we must continue to make arduous efforts, and if we want to achieve new results, we must make greater efforts. In addition to adhering to this common sense, we must also realize that with the progress of society, the rights of individuals have increased, and the corresponding obligations and responsibilities will also rise and increase simultaneously. In the era of the people's commune, the affairs of the state and the collective were now entrusted with individual autonomy, and everyone must learn to plan his own life, do his own work, and be a good master, and the burden and pressure have certainly increased. At that time, Mr. Chen Yinke demanded that every Chinese should have the "spirit of independence and the idea of freedom", not only requiring people to break the feudal despotistic shackles that weighed on their heads and fight for individual rights, but also to let people have the courage to take responsibility and shoulder the burden of building a free and democratic society. Freedom, of course, breaks the shackles on everyone, allows individuals to have the rights that citizens should have, and at the same time, also gives corresponding obligations and responsibilities to individuals, which is why many people feel that "life is richer, and people's hearts are more tired".
Freedom is by no means synonymous with "do whatever you want", it is the cornerstone of the value of a democratic society ruled by law, and it is a new form of life that modern people must pursue; it includes both the rights that individuals should have and the obligations that individuals should fulfill; the content of free life is not immutable, but constantly leaps with the progress of modern society; it gives human society a rich connotation, which is worth each of us to study it diligently, practice it, and strive to achieve the continuous improvement of freedom; past and today, The pain and effort we have paid for it, and the pressure we feel under the traditional concept, is the price we pay for freedom; and only by constantly paying the effort and price can the spirit of freedom gradually enter our bodies, so that our minds can be raised, our souls can be sublimated, and finally we will walk out of a bright road of democracy, freedom, and equality!
(Note: The picture is from the network)