Lian Yue, a well-known writer.
He's done a lot of things and written a lot of articles. But what he will probably remember in the future is probably not his work, but his dramatic shift in values in recent years.
Lian Yue has published a number of emotional Q&A collections, and in a 2009 interview, "Even if only 10% of Chinese men can reach Lian Yue's level, the happiness of Chinese women can take a big step forward."
Image source: NetEase
On September 23, 2021, Lian Yue published a public article about his attitude towards "having children", which caused a heated discussion. This is mainly because his attitude today is diametrically opposed to that of the past, surprising and even shocking.
In the public account, Lian Yue posted an email exchange with a netizen. Netizens asked him if he wanted to have three children as an "ordinary family".
Lian Yue replied:
"The more you are like you, the more you self-evaluate as an ordinary family, the more determined you must have three children." 」
After that, he went from the second law of thermodynamics to "three lives and all things", and gave four reasons, which seem quite eloquent.
As a result, a netizen with a heart found his attitude toward having children in 2013, when he wrote:
"I've always been a Dink, quite simply, I can't think of any reason to have children. If you agree that the child is a free man who owns his life, then almost all the reasons for having a child can be rejected."
He also wrote:
"Children are not meant to fill your regrets."
Dink is an abbreviation for "Double/Dual Income, No Kids", which refers to a family in which both parents have income but choose not to have children. Pictured here is a poster for the 2011 film D.I.N.K.s, which tells the story of a freelance writer who became the leader of the regional Dink movement.
Image source: IMDB
In just a few years, Teacher Lian Yue's attitude towards giving birth to a child has undergone a 180-degree change, which is really a bit confusing.
It's hard to imagine a person with a front foot saying that "any reason for having a child can be vetoed" and then on the back foot giving a whole bunch of reasons to suggest that someone else have a child.
A person can become a "Dinkist" himself, but at the same time ask others to "firmly have three children", logically speaking, there is no problem, it is a little lacking in morality.
Of course, people's perspectives may change with experience, time, circumstances, and other factors. However, this time, there are too many logical inaccuracies in the reasoning that Teacher Yue taught, and there is also a lack of logical transitions between him and his past ideas.
In other words, it is a bit of an insult to the reader's intelligence.
Lian Yue supported the birth of a third child, giving a big premise: citing the second law of thermodynamics as a pillar to support his views.
For the average reader, this premise is quite intimidating, and it is easy for people to be suddenly overwhelmed by the sudden concept of tallness. But in fact, I'm afraid even Teacher Yue himself didn't quite understand what this law meant.
The second law of thermodynamics, referred to as the law of entropy increase.
What is entropy?
The concept originally came from the 19th-century physicist Ludwig Boltzmann to describe the process of consuming available energy.
Ludwig Boltzmann (1844-1906), Austrian physicist and founder of thermodynamics, developed statistical mechanics and explained the law of entropy increase with statistical concepts. The picture shows Boltzmann's tomb, inscribed with the entropy formula.
Image source: Wikipedia
If there are two objects, one with a high temperature and one with a low temperature, the heat will be transferred from the high temperature object to the low temperature object, and eventually it will be consumed.
Entropy describes such a process.
An increase in entropy means a state of disorganization, disorder, uselessness, silence, and vice versa, a decrease in entropy.
This process is not limited to the physical world in later generations, but often goes beyond the scope of thermodynamics to describe human society.
For example, if someone builds a castle on the beach, it certainly can't be there forever, but it will gradually disintegrate over time. For in nature, the state and possibility of disorder are far greater than order.
Derived from this premise, the universe will eventually fall silent, and no matter how much human beings want order, it is impossible to reverse this ending.
Teacher Lian Yue has a point of reasoning, that is, "human progress is a process of entropy reduction."
However, he is mistaken for another thing: human beings do favor order and favor an increase in antagonistic entropy, but this in itself does not reverse the increase in entropy as a whole.
Physicists have proposed many theories against the law of entropy increase, including the famous Maxwell's demon, which, along with Zeno's turtle, Laplace and Schrödinger's cat, is called the "Four Sacred Beasts of Physics".
In order to have children, people need to eat something and use something. After these things are eaten and used, they become garbage and return to disorder. This is actually a process of entropy increase.
Therefore, during the period from birth to growth, a child is indeed always seeking order and trying to reduce entropy, but in fact, the overall entropy is still growing.
For parents, when they give birth to children, human beings will perish sooner or later, and the universe will be silent; without children, human beings will perish sooner or later, and the universe will also be silent.
Therefore, from this point of view, having children or not is essentially a personal choice, and there is no "entropy reduction" cause.
Lian Yue proposed on the official name of "entropy reduction of the great cause".
Image source: WeChat public account "Lian Yue"
Taking a step back, even if human beings do have a "great cause of entropy reduction", it does not mean that everyone must contribute to this great cause. There is no necessary logical connection and obligation before and after this.
Taking a step back, even if there is a "great cause of entropy reduction", everyone must contribute, and having children is not the only option.
If we retreat to the end, there is really a "great cause of entropy reduction", everyone must also contribute, and having children is the only way out, then how should Teacher Lian Yue, as a Dinkist, treat himself and explain his Dink thoughts? How to explain the past one-child policy?
This premise of Lian Yue's article can be described as full of logical loopholes, more like hanging a sheep's head and preparing to sell dog meat under the sheep's head.
Sure enough, under the mysterious theory of increasing entropy and decreasing entropy, the four reasons given by Lian Yue after that were even more chaotic.
Four reasons given by Lian Yue.
First, Lian Yue said that now the policy and biological instinct are consistent, so having children benefits and is happy for themselves and the country.
The logical problem here is that what benefits oneself is not the same as what must be done, and biological instinct is not the same as being happy.
Even more ironically, this sentence has to make people wonder why past policies and biological instincts are inconsistent.
Second, Lian Yue said, the government's policies will gradually favor more fertility and create a better environment for them.
Nor is it logical to deduce that people should have more children.
Third, Lian Yue said, medical advances have made the risk of having children less.
This is also the same as the above article, which cannot be deduced to have more children. And, by that logic, medical advances could also make human lifespans longer, thereby supporting fewer children.
The fourth point is even more absurd, Lian Yue said that more outstanding people will appear if they have more children.
He may not have noticed that having more children may also produce more mediocre people, or adding more cheaters, gangsters, murderers...
Lian Yue's suggestion was so flawed that it not only insulted the reader's intelligence, but also slapped his past self with a loud slap.
But why did he do that?
As a well-known writer, Lian Yue obviously created a "IQ paradox" for himself: with his IQ, he would certainly not believe these things he wrote, and with his IQ, he should not write these things.
But he wrote it, and he still showed that he was convinced.
The truth, then, is likely that he himself does not really believe the reasons he gives in favor of having a third child, and he has no intention of convincing the reader. If any reader believes it, it is a windfall.
What is his real purpose?
Who does he want to believe that he really believes this statement?
I'm afraid only Lian Yue himself knows this.
In the movie "Creed", released in 2020, future human beings have achieved a time-space reversal by reducing "black technology" through entropy reduction. The picture shows the scene of the "rollover" in it.
Image source: avpasion.com
In fact, looking back, compared with his current words, Lian Yue's past views on fertility were more logical and educational, and he once said:
"Whether to be born or not, to have more or less to have is a personal choice, we should respect it, and we should not ask and dissuade others from thinking that we are more correct than others."
"Don't ask, don't dissuade yourself from thinking you're more right than others," the words are loud and clear.
Now Lian Yue should probably learn from his past self.