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Newspaperman Liu Yadong A
Source: Vision Focus
Author: Xiao Gongqin (Professor, Department of History, Shanghai Normal University)
Professor Xiao Gongqin
The progress of human culture, especially the progress of values and ways of thinking, is actually quite slow. The cultural concepts formed by a nation in the course of a long history often have strong historical inertia.
The traditional "world order" cultural psychology, for a long time, has been accumulated as people's unconscious and subconscious, after the country is re-strengthened, it will be reactivated, from the "suspended animation" state, a change to a real state, and in some people malignant expansion. The formation of a cultural "back-to-ancestor phenomenon".
Here, you can give an example, in 2017, a publishing house published a book "The Source of Civilization and the World of Datong" written by a doctoral professor in Hunan. The author of the book actually claims that after his research, the ancient Sumerian civilization, the ancient Egyptian civilization, the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations were all created by Chinese immigrants.
The author also openly claims that the ancestors of the Germans and the French were all evolved from the people of ancient China, and even the English and The British originated from the Yingshan Mountains in western Hunan Province, and even the Japanese, Koreans, and Southeast Asians all originated from this place. The author thus asserts that all civilizations in the world originated in China.
I thought that this kind of nonsense that violated basic historical common sense was someone else's dream, and no one would believe it, but what I didn't expect was that it could actually be written and published as a book, and it was also welcomed by quite a few people, some people claimed, "This view can improve the cultural self-confidence of Chinese", and some recommenders also praised the book and said, "China has advanced for ten thousand years, lagging behind by one hundred and fifty years."
Two hundred years ago, the "tianxia-centered view" actually jumped on the paper again, which shows that the cultural concept of tianxia-centrism has been activated again and caters to the blind arrogance that exists widely in society.
Be wary of arrogant nationalism
In recent years, a trend of vain nationalism marked by a "powerful country" has once again prevailed in society. Why is it that after the national strength becomes stronger, there will be a resurgence and expansion of arrogant nationalism?
From the perspective of social psychology, because of Chinese has been bullied by the great powers for a hundred years. Intense grief has been holding back for more than a hundred years.
So some people think that now that China has risen, China can express the emotions we have suppressed for a hundred years anywhere and at any time. In a considerable part of the population, especially among young people, there is a group mentality that has long suppressed the sense of humiliation and is cathartic through high-pitched and passionate means.
In fact, this sentiment has already appeared in The Chinese people more than twenty years ago, when China's economy has just entered the take-off stage, and the publications of "China Can Say No" and "China Is Not Happy" in 1996 and 2009 represent the debut of this high-profile nationalist trend.
They advocate that China should "do business with a sword" in the world, and they put forward, "We must manage much larger resources in the world than we have now, manage economically, guide politically, and lead the world" and "The allocation of resources in the future: whoever is stronger has the final say."
These high-profilers regard "harmonious society" and "peaceful coexistence" as "scholars' talk" and "theory of misleading the country.". In their view, human beings are not a "community of destiny" that coexists in harmony, but "there is you without me" and "you die and I live".
These books emphasize the Machiaviari doctrine of "you are a rogue, I am a rogue", and in order to achieve the goal of self-proclaimed "lofty", any means can be taken by any means.
"China Is Not Happy" was distributed in millions of copies in a short period of time and was enthusiastically endorsed by a considerable number of young readers. The emotional and passionate nature of historical sadness, like a handful of dry firewood, can easily be stirred up among the Chinese people.
How is this cultural phenomenon viewed? This is like a 16-year-old child who has entered the development period, just grown some muscles, feels that he is an adult, always has to compete in the village, show the strength of his muscles, in this child's mind, lack of mature wisdom to interact with people, and seek to make the willingness of the villagers to recognize, far stronger than the real consideration of vital interests.
Cold-blooded ultra-nationalists
If it can be said that more than ten years ago, the cultural psychology of the "center of the world" and the nationalism of the great powers have had a tendency to be combined, then at the same time that the cultural psychology of the traditional world order and the psychology of national arrogance are combined in China, another factor will be infiltrated, that is, the ultra-left ideological trend in the era of great turmoil in the past ten years has become active again among some people in the folk after many years of female ambush.
In the past four decades of reform and opening up, the ultra-left ideological trend has been seriously criticized at the rational level of our nation, but its deep-seated factors, including its way of thinking and values, are still dead and not rigid, and will be stubbornly expressed from time to time.
An example can be given here. Not long ago, when there was a serious epidemic in India, hundreds of thousands of people were infected with the new crown virus every day, and tens of thousands of families suffered from the loss of relatives every day, however, in China, some people happily put together photos of Indians burning corpses and burning fires, in stark contrast to the photos of the fire when Chinese rockets rose.
This is naturally widely criticized and condemned by the public. Even the publisher himself admitted his mistake and withdrew the photo. However, there is an Internet celebrity professor at Fudan University who came out to satirize it harshly, saying that those who criticize and condemn the photo incident are all hypocritical virgin.
Shen Yi
The professor's ruthlessness and callousness to ordinary people in the suffering of the epidemic in India is truly unbelievable. However, his cold and extreme remarks can still get the praise and support of a large number of netizens. What is the reason for all this? As long as we understand the potential influence of ultra-left thought, we will understand.
The transition from the "class theory" of ultra-left ideology to ultra-nationalism is actually an easy task. Because the common denominator between the two is that they are dominated by a sense of moral self-superiority and do not regard the other as human beings, they can be crushed at will.
From the "H guards" in China in the past decade, the rebels' "shoot and kill" of the "class enemies", to the "wolf warrior" Internet celebrities who are "far from being punished" today, in fact, it is only one step away. Their values and way of thinking are highly isomorphic.
This is why there are so many inhumane and cold-blooded ultra-nationalists in China today.
Why do such strange nationalists appear among China's younger generation of scholars? Why are they still warmly welcomed by young netizens like "giant babies"?
In fact, it is easy to understand that the Chinese of the older generation have experienced the impact and reflection of ten years of turmoil, forming a kind of "post-disaster" human enlightenment, while some of the younger generation of scholars have never suffered this kind of suffering, they have not been enlightened by the humanistic education of the school, and they lack the "disaster enlightenment" of the older generation.
They will be oblivious to their self-perceived "national strength" imagination. The seemingly "political correctness" of ultra-nationalism has made them famous, left and right, fame and fortune, so why not enjoy such a business that only makes money and does not lose?
In the populist wave, it is easy to be a "hero" of internet celebrities who are applauded by millions of people, but it is necessary to get rid of the attraction of applause and Lilu, live with conscience, remain rational and calm, and always put the long-term fundamental interests of the nation first, rather than like the Xianfeng Emperor in those years, in the dangerous situation where the enemy is strong and we are weak, and the soldiers are approaching the city, still disregarding the fate of the society and coveting the pleasure of the moment.
To do this, it requires humanistic cultivation, rationality and calmness, wisdom, and the knowledge of true knowledge from history.
Once the cultural psychology of the "center of the world", the subconscious of the ultra-leftist ideological trend, and the arrogant nationalism are combined with each other, the intensity of these three will be disastrous for our nation.
More seriously, in the digital age, this triad would put Chinese risk falling into the catastrophe of populist ultra-nationalism over the next decade.
It should be emphasized here that this kind of nationalism will be strengthened by the environment of online virtual space.
This is determined by the characteristics of the network world, the network will continue to further superimpose homogeneous information, the information of network users will continue to solidify repeatedly, forming a "stratosphere effect" wrapped in layers of original ideas, the network elite will think that they are most widely supported by the supporters of "justice", they live in their own "information cocoon", they live in the "conceptual fruit shell" they have created, but they think they have mastered the "truth of the universe".
Populism in the Internet age, with more serious consequences than square populism, will force human common sense rationality to be marginalized in public space.
On the one hand, it is the smug network "wolf warrior" of the people, and on the other hand, it is the "giant babies" who have never been baptized by humanistic education and have grown up in the "information cocoon".
The two have a natural affinity, and they echo each other, and the former uses arrogant and high words to satisfy the latter's illusory pursuit of the meaning of life.
The latter provides a steady stream of public opinion support to the former. Make the former famous, enjoy vanity and applause.
The former is becoming more and more overwhelmed, and the latter is becoming more and more intoxicated. The two sides sing peace with each other and reinforce each other in an attempt to influence public opinion and decision-makers, which is very dangerous for the future of a nation.