旧浪潮论坛之：关注缅甸（二）

周书：

Ok, i don't see why we always have to complicate what is simple. There are situations where actions might turn out useless, yet the very belief that they are RIGHT should make us feel obliged to do something.

Clarifications:
1. the reason why i put down the us campaign website here is simply because i haven't found any other campaign sites online except a British one
2. the overseas campaigns at the present stage are indeed against the Chinese Government. Other than joining the international protest, i don't know how we can pressure our gov. through domestic politics

To be honest, already angry with my own powerlessness, seeing people talk and talk without coming down to the practical only made me angrier. And do we really have to use English among us? Especially with such long paragraphs, is it just me or this at least to some degree looks alienating and condescending?

Gill and Cho, I have to apologize for my fury. You know I mean no harm. I'm sorry if my words seem too strong. I just feel obliged to speak out my true feelings. And for others, I won't write to you in English again I promise.

Gill:

be calm, Miss Zhou
And may you grant me the opportunity to repeat myself: Nowhere did I suggest that one shouldn't do anything (especially when the "RIGHT" KIND of things to do becomes so obvious); nor that one should not "feel obliged" to do so -- let alone by reason of uselessness! I said this, that I myself feel uneasy, and just this, without implying anyone else does, or should, feel the same way.

To make myself understood I perhaps have to draw a distinction, which I hope you will see in the following (though, in order to make it sharp, the difference is inevitably exaggerated a bit): All that I'm unhappy about the campaigns of the "humanitarian" kind is that they do more good to the campaigners than to their objects; that apart from providing the strong conscience (by which I mean the conscience that is simply offended rather than feeling obliged to be so) with a means to cry out its anger, they also lend to a weak conscience (which feels it should, and hence pretends to be more concerned than it really is) the comfort that "After all I have done something," which it is not, in my opinion, entitled to.

So, if I'm complicating what you believe to be simple, this is because a weak conscience is usually more complicated than a strong one. And also because human suffering is such a mirror that if an underground man peers into it he will see not the splendor of humanitarianism but the shabbiness of a human being, of he himself. The strong conscience I have always admired (and I guess you've probably got one); but as for the weak ones like mine, I'm prepared to deprive them of all their comfort.

Then why writing in English? Well, why not -- for its subordinate clauses that can be as convoluted as one's feelings, for the extra effort one has to make in composing even a single sentence by which process one sharpens one's thoughts, for the smaller risk one runs of sacrificing logic knowingly or unknowingly to aesthetic concerns, for all these that are conducive to my present purpose? To the charge of condescension I plead not guilty.

Lastly, I wonder why you addressed your apology to "Gill and Cho"; obviously Cho is on your side. I like strong words, btw.

Sapientia:

Sorry for being absent from the discussion for couples of weeks. Well, I do think Burma demonstration is caused by non-political factors but turns out to be politics-oriented. For the countries like Burma where politics, if we understand it as participation of public affairs, is purposely to be separated from the public, discontent for non-political stuff might be good channel for the public, or the monasteries in Burma to demand beyond what they can expect from the ruling leadership.

the outbreak of mass demonstration in Burma has caused 200 casualties and it seems more strict order to strike down the protest is en route. Yol said Burma's event has gone beyond a political matter and could be transformed to a talk of what we must hold for truth. This seems to me so far still uncertain, and therefore I suggest we continue to keep an eye on the development of Burma's demonstration. Our talk over the issue could be the best way to show our concern.

旧浪潮论坛之：关注缅甸（三）