Messages from “A Tale of Two Political Systems”

China & democracy

The article is extracted from Eric Lee’s TED speech seen from below

Story 1 : All human societies develop in linear progression, beginning with primitive society, then slave society, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and finally, guess where we end up? Communism! Sooner or later, all of humanity, regardless of culture, language, nationality, will arrive at this final stage of political and social development. The entire world’s peoples will be unified in this paradise on Earth and live happily ever after. But before we get there, we’re engaged in a struggle between good and evil, the good of socialism against the evil of capitalism, and the good shall triumph.

Comment : That was the meta-narrative distilled from the theories of Karl Marx. And the Chinese bought it. We were taught that grand story day in and day out. It became part of us, and we believed in it. The story was a bestseller. About one third of the entire world’s population lived under that meta-narrative.

Story 2 : It also claims that all human societies develop in a linear progression towards a singular end. This one went as follows: All societies, regardless of culture, be it Christian, Muslim, Confucian, must progress from traditional societies in which groups are the basic units to modern societies in which atomized individuals are the sovereign units, and all these individuals are, by definition, rational, and they all want one thing: the vote. Because they are all rational, once given the vote, they produce good government and live happily ever after. Paradise on Earth, again. Sooner or later, electoral democracy will be the only political system for all countries and all peoples, with a free market to make them all rich. But before we get there, we’re engaged in a struggle between good and evil.

Comment : The good belongs to those who are democracies and are charged with a mission of spreading it around the globe, sometimes by force, against the evil of those who do not hold elections.

Based on the two stories…

Multiple parties fight for political power and everyone voting on them is the only path to salvation to the long-suffering developing world. Those who buy the prospectus are destined for success. Those who do not are doomed to fail.

But this time, the Chinese didn’t buy it.

Conclusions

“We live in the dusk of an era. Meta-narratives that make universal claims failed us in the 20th century and are failing us in the 21st. Meta-narrative is the cancer that is killing democracy from the inside. Now, I want to clarify something. I’m not here to make an indictment of democracy. On the contrary, I think democracy contributed to the rise of the West and the creation of the modern world. It is the universal claim that many Western elites are making about their political system, the hubris, that is at the heart of the West’s current ills. If they would spend just a little less time on trying to force their way onto others, and a little bit more on political reform at home, they might give their democracy a better chance. China’s political model will never supplant electoral democracy, because unlike the latter, it doesn’t pretend to be universal. It cannot be exported. But that is the point precisely. The significance of China’s example is not that it provides an alternative, but the demonstration that alternatives exist. Let us draw to a close this era of meta-narratives. Communism and democracy may both be laudable ideals, but the era of their dogmatic universalism is over. Let us stop telling people and our children there’s only one way to govern ourselves and a singular future towards which all societies must evolve. It is wrong. It is irresponsible. And worst of all, it is boring. Let universality make way for plurality. Perhaps a more interesting age is upon us. Are we brave enough to welcome it?”

I am “Made in China”

Normally, it seems embarrassing to acknowledge that I forget how to approach certain original Chinese expressions or words. How could that be? Unbelievable, right? However, a phenomenon goes the other way around, that is, an increasing number of youths come to mix words from English, French, Japanese, Korean or among others with their native language in order to “show-off”–How international I am?! Largely, it can be explained as the occurrence of words like “Francophone”, “Sino-English”, and etc. to say “sorry” for troubling others’ misunderstanding of our communication. In short, this is a real phenomenon and I do feel it in my daily life.

For certain, it might signify that you have been well educated in school or you have a broader horizon, at least in terms of “internationalization” of languages. However,  the more I realize the fact, the urger I feel the need to come back to “primary or junior high school” to polish my mother tongue. Personally, it’s a little bit of shame to abandon my symboles as a Chinese, for instance the Chinese language or basically common cultures.

Today in the course of Strategy, the Professor illustrated some strategic ideas of “change” issue in organisations based on Chinese culture. Interestingly, he approached this case with a Chinese word, “Crisis” in English, and “Wei Ji” in Chinese, which is composed of two characters. The first one “Wei” means “Danger” whereas “Ji” signifies “Opportunities”. In my view, that is exactly what the Chinese cultures’ intelligence about. As from this example, it is not hard to see how the Chinese’s psychology towards the world and the mentality in face of tough situations. As in psychological disciplines, each coin has its two sides, so does the illustration of the Chinese message:

First, all the things all around us are in a developmental stage, which can be referred as “Changes”.

Second, as things are changing, the so-called negative side can be turned around to the other side, a probably positive and favorable side, which can be simplified as a moving and changing circle.

Therefore, it is quite easy to realize that the Chinese culture is really profound, predictive and broad as well as profound.

Actually, it was definitely after this course I began to reflect the phenomenon of “nationality or culture” recognition issue. Certainly, being international could not be a serious or shameful matter. On the contrary, thanks to the globalized trend, the world is flatter, bringing about many challenges as well as opportunities–a double-sized coin! In this case, it is favorable to enlarge our horizons and be aware of different cultures and habits. But what does matter comes to the maintenance and preservation of our native cultures and languages as they are the roots of our international identity.

I have heard of a story from an alumnus who once did an exchange program in Japan. On an occasion, he played piano in front of the Japanese classmates who really outperformed and were more skillful than he was in terms of technique. But at the end of he show, the classmates came to tell him how gorgeous he was and they had never heard of that melodic song before. So what did he learn from that piece of story?

As he said, thanks to the Chinese song, he realized that recognition came from our origin–the rooted cultures. In simple words, the things which are more national are  the things recognized as real “International”, which are the keys to show who you are, how you can be like this, and why you are so different. That is the real key to open a door towards another side of the world and make ourselves really connected with others.

In the end, I would say: I am really proud of being “made in China”. That is who I am and why I am like this.

You know, the feeling of self-recognition before being recognized by my fellows is cool! Hope you feel the same as I do.

“Devil is in the details” or “God is in the detail” ?

In Chinese, we have a word-by-word translation, that is “The details decide you succeed or you fail”. But in English we have two versions:

“Devil is in the details” and “God is in the detail”.

As non-native English speaker, to be honest, I feel the trouble of accepting the first version as it seems far away from the original meaning of what I would like to express in my mother tongue. Which one is preferred as a translation?

No idea to make a multiple choice!

Naturally, I prefer to have “God” in the detail rather a “devil” even though I am not someone who believe in something, seriously speaking.

But why it goes in this way? I doubt that personally I tend to have more words in my vocabulary that indicate positive meanings than vice versa. The reason applies also to the ways of living: I tend to have more and more connections with those who are positive and energetic. I develop my hobbies such as reading, jogging, painting or among others which are healthy, mentally or physically. The power and force to approach optimistic things and people around us seem like the rivers flowing from higher to lower level or like the destiny of Newton’s apple–falling down to the ground. It is really hard to say “No” or get rid of the attraction of beautiful things.

Interestingly, I saw a graph showing the time of the usage of the two expressions. It tells something.

It seems to tell a story line. Historically, “God is the details” wins greater population than the other one. But objectively, the preference of one over the other might not be explained by one word. Discussions and debates have been taken around the usage of the expressions. As a matter of fact, some religious reasons might lie behind the rationale as some would probably think the diction
“devil” is a little bit offensive. While the supporters of using “devil” declare that it simply means the details of a solution are often more difficult to resolve than the the broad conceptual issues. “Devil” refers to the level of difficulties as its metaphor lies there.

Personally, my preference for the “God” version tells some original and natural desire and pursuit of some stuffs, whatever they are.

Mathematically wrong, spiritually correct: 1+1=2+n (n=inspiration)

I have two ideas to share!

Yesterday I watched a few speeches delivered by brilliant speakers who are some sort of creators of ideas or who can be regarded as “devil in details” seekers. They are great people in the sea of daily chores. That is what I agreed yesterday. However, one day passed away, I changed my minds somehow not simply on the issue whether they are great or not, but more on the question–How could it happen that I change my opinion and think differently as things did not change at all?

Backing to a few minutes ago, I was sitting in front of the screen, and going through the videos. As this was the second time to watch the speeches, I did not concentrate quite well on what and how the speakers were delivering. Instead, my minds started to run far away from the contents and I even googled something else and five new sites popped out simultaneously. I’m not a superwoman and neither do I have a super brain to program such different tasks at the same moment, but I did do in that way.

I post this question here as I think this is largely not a unique case on me, but can resonate others’ similar experiences and feelings: Have you ever tried to attend a course while have your Facebook opened. Or in a round-table like classroom when the person in the first row is chatting on Facebook, the students behind are like “uninvited audiences” or “spys” just poking theirs noses into the animated dialogue, while the professor is talking seriously.

Definitely, it happens!

Actually, I realize that the distraction that hampers me to class the priority of my concentration is one of the greatest troubles, making me fail to enjoy the full quality of others’ ideas. It reminds me of the times in school or in a conference as well as in some occasions I am having a conversation with others. The troublesome distraction from the big issues diminishes the quality of exchanges of messages, both inputting and outputting information. Therefore, I am likely to downgrade the quality of others’ performance or ideas in cases that I fail to be fully involved in the communication process. In this case, it would be my fault not others.

Another thing I would like to share is from this experience I figure out the importance of time management. It’s not a commonplace or platitude, but something matters in each second of our life. I failed to concentrate on one issue because I made a choice to invest my energy and time into another issue, signifying weighing for choice A and against the infinite possible choices of B, C, D…. I am putting myself in the situation of undertaking the opportunity costs of saying ‘no” to the other possibilities. This is time management, or time prioritization, or I’d say, make self-disciplined choice to maximize the added value of time constraint.

Time management is a strategic game. This is an idea inspired by a Self-discipline Strategist Rory Vaden who conducted a TED speech titled as “How to multiply your time”. As Rory mentioned, “time management is not only logical, but emotional”, which can be best exemplified with the idea–“Procrastination on purpose” is a modern time management strategy. This idea illustrates that we can emotionally choose to procrastinate task B and take actions on task A on purpose. I think it is a great idea because procrastination has been systematically regarded for such a long time as a symbole of poor time management. But this time, it is not.

In the end, let’s come back to this title, “one plus one” ideas have been put here to say: hey, I am thinking can you give me more your inspirations after reading this?

Welcome for sharing and discussing.

We are what we believe in

“I think, therefore I am”, said Rene Descartes when questioning the philosophical origins and conflicts of existence. While I take it here as the wondering of the causal effect relationship reasoning: Who I am is largely determined by the way we think of ourselves. It can be regarded as the power and secrets of “self-recognition” or “self-definition”.

Just as the messages announced by Carrie Green, a brilliant woman who is definitely a practitioner of this belief: our destiny is determined by the choices we’ve made. And the power of controlling our thoughts to empower us rather than being controlled by the thoughts really counts.

Why does it go like this? As has happened in the daily life of each of us, the decisions we have made or would like to take go after our original motivation or desire. Our minds send a signal to our brain system to weigh and value the issue, and see whether it is worthy to invest time or energy or something else for our dedication. Objectively and realistically speaking, our time, energy, and other “investments” are like limited resources and are tended to be distributed in their best positions so as to enlarge the largest utilities. Given this fact, after our brain received the message or we say a certain decision, we are prone to take action to make it happen or deny the “proposal”. Personally, our minds in going through all the process of decision making work somehow like the manufacturing value chain of production.

Therefore, our thoughts go quite before our real actions. During this continuous progression, we ouput the “thoughts”, materialize them, package them and finally transport them to the destinated places. The quality of our production, actually, has been largely determined at the very beginning of the production stage since it requires a planned budget of our dedications such as time, passion, efforts, feedback and among others. It is why we say that we are what we believe in.

Whether you realize it or not, our thoughts are listed on the top of the pyramid to decide the quality of our actions and the quality of the results. In this matter, it has powerful influence on the degree of our self-fulfillment and happiness.

So, it counts definitely a lot to program positive codes to help us build up confidence so as to have a good start of our “action value chain”.

Journey of life: a poem by Slyvia Chidi

The journey of life begun

That fateful day I was born

My eyes opened up blissfully to the sun

My soul, heart and brain emerged as one

Behold my journey had begun!

This little child in time has grown

Yes! Time has flown, time has flown

A lot has been learnt on my very own

Life has been a mystifying journey

With every up and down

With tears and laughter

With hate and love

With stupidity and wisdom

With enemies and friends

But even in my journey of frustration

I have found a means of celebration

In my toilsome exploration to my fateful destination

Tick tock, the clock goes on

Minute by minute, then hourly

Month by month then yearly

Tick tock, and in my journey

I have searched, questioned and answered

Whilst walking painfully along many paths

Sometimes requesting protection

Seeking from above immunization

When hit by obstacles in locations

But I am still on this journey

Shaking hands with the sad and merry

My passion for life which was once raw

Is now confined within the Almighty’s law

For life’s journey itself never ends

Once you have reached the end of each road

Uplifting off your entire cloggy load

Be it in a hot summer or a winter’s cold

Behold! A new journey will unfold

You can be my teacher

“If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.”                                                            

—-Confucius 

On the road of life, anybody can be my teacher. Put in another way, anybody else  can teach you something to help you realize something, even in case of unconsciousness.

Just wandering through websites, I noticed of out a sudden that there was a blogger who was passionate about personal progression and psychological issues. Out of curiosity, I clicked some articles which interested me a lot and felt a sense of “greatness”. I mean, the author’s spirit of dedication and fulfillment. I can see thinking, meditating and sharing come to one man, giving him the power to really express himself while on the road of helping others to progress simultaneously. That seems to be the point of greatness, as far as I am concerned.

At this moment, the happiness of finding a “teacher” on the other side of the world grants me much more power and inspiration to do something meaningful and follow my heart, even though I have never run across him or talked to him. But what’s the matter? Wherever and whenever we are, anybody could come out of our road and pass by, and they are probably somebody who come to you and help you realize something and then each of us continues to march on our own pathways, either parallel or crossed at the fork of a road in the future. Who can tell?

Isn’t it an amazing experience?

I don’t know you, but You can be my teacher, You!

Yesterday is history, today is a “present”

Having looked through my previous blogs, I realized that although the moments I failed to post new articles, there could have certain viewers passed by, who might have certain interests on my stories or ideas. On the one hand, I am delightful to have some readers. On the other hand, I feel a little bit sorry for not updating that frequently. The reason for having this kind of feeling comes to the facts behind the logics:

Hypothesis 1: Yesterday’s efforts (Input)=Today’s harvest (Output)

Scenario 1: I feel satisfied with myself.

Under this situation, continuous progression is likely to be an illusionary word in my dictionary. And the vicious cycle is easily to be ignored–it is going on and on and on and day-by-day.

Hypothesis 2: Yesterday’s efforts (Input) to Today’s influence =0 (zero)

Scenario 2: I feel a strong need and desire to start doing something meaningful.

Contrarily, under scenario 2, I see one thing for sure. Following with this hypothesis, it is just like the depreciation of the “assets” accompanied by less “output”, symbolizing less production to set off the consumption of resources: either time, or other efforts. Consequently, life is withering. As I can imagine the worse situation and the reality, the dissatisfied sense can remind me of flaws and push me forwards.

Therefore, I think yesterday should be a historical word. Turning a new page, marching ahead, treating today as a present to value it and make something work like it could be.

Perseverance counts more, an idea from Seth

Here is a piece of inspiration from Seth:

“Abbey Ryan has painted a new painting every day for 8 years.

Isaac Asimov published 400 books, by typing every day.

This is post #6000 on this blog. (site: Seth’s blog)

Writer’s block is a myth, a recent invention, a cultural malady.

More important than the output, though, is the act itself. The act of doing it every day. When you commit to a practice, you will certainly have days when you don’t feel like it, when you believe it’s not your best work, when the muse deserts you. But, when you keep your commitment, the muse returns. When you keep your commitment, the work happens.

It doesn’t matter if anyone reads it, buys it, sponsors it or shares it. It matters that you show up.

Show up, sit down and type. (Or paint).”

Thank you for this piece of idea and inspiration.

All is well, thank you

Good morning to you,

Every morning, when I open my eyes, I tell myself:

“It would be a great day, just like a blank white paper with 100 % chances and probabilities to create, design and organize it! It would be my day.”

Honestly, I have never imagined that what I believe can be that true. And it was definitely coming out when I was bearing this sort of spirit in minds today: A great day–I gonna learn a lot new things, challenge myself, meet great people, and probably another day find out my Mr. Right (not for sure at least today).

Sometimes, I am so grateful for what have happened and what’s going on around me (even at the very beginning things do not seem to be that “friendly- and easy-going”) that I could barely calm down to contain my happiness. Thanks for my families and friends; thanks for troubles, challenges, and “enemies”; thanks for everything, even the air, the sky, the sunshine, the rain, the wind, and ALL–the rest of the world. Thank you all!

Thank you, Good evening!