On America and the Pursuit of Freedom

For most ordinary people in this world, the various grand decisions made by those great figures who hold the reins of power are always something remote and unfathomable. Their most basic demand of "politics" is that they don't want themselves, nor do they want others, to inexplicably become sacrifices in some great and righteous campaign, to have bombs delivered to their homes in the middle of the night for the sake of some supremely lofty goal.

Yet there are some who do not fall into this category. These people always fancy themselves as having a level of sophistication above the common herd, and we must of course acknowledge this. For their eloquent proclamations declare that the roar of advanced weaponry and bombs falling at midnight are actually an extraordinary and immense happiness! Should anyone feel bewildered by this, they must be short-sighted, hopelessly stupid, deceived by the media, and thus extremely "fanatical."

For those places where bombs are about to fall, they are full of anticipation, expressing "congratulations" and "envy" with the utmost sincerity. For those unlucky souls who have already perished or are about to perish under the bombs, one explanation is "the price of freedom." They are especially fond of shamelessly demanding to know why others don't go to Iraq to defend Saddam. Yet if you ask them to go to Baghdad themselves to taste "the price of freedom" alongside the Iraqi people, to experience the days they so "congratulate," not a single one would go. This is exactly the kind of people who sit tens of thousands of miles from the war, pontificating all day long about "liberating the Iraqi people."

Afghanistan, of course, is also a target of their "congratulations" and "envy." The Taliban were certainly dictators, yet the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who had managed to continue their lives even under Taliban rule did not, after September of that year, stay home to await "democracy and freedom" descending from the sky. Instead, they flooded toward the borders, becoming refugees. Don't the Afghans understand war better than you? I fully believe in the joy of the Afghan people when the Northern Alliance—previously driven out for corruption and incompetence—returned in the posture of victors. This was the joy of a people, tormented under the suffering of war, finally getting a chance to catch their breath! But was this joy because of the beginning of the bombing, or its end?

I don't oppose the attack on the Taliban, because that war can be seen as self-defense and counterattack. But please, spare us the talk about bringing happiness to the Afghan people!

But the Iraqi people—what monstrous crime have they committed? Kuwait itself has already signed agreements with Iraq. This country is currently not waging war or making war threats against any foreign nation. It has not occupied a single piece of foreign territory. Not one of its neighbors feels threatened; not one supports war. The fact is that the only one who feels enormously threatened and issues war threats against foreign countries every day is the world's most powerful nation, America itself. In the major European countries that just held elections, voters didn't feel any threat either, to the point where opposing the war became a condition for winning. Do all these people love Saddam? They simply detest war even more! Only hysterical lunatics believe that the only way to express their love for "democracy and freedom" is to endlessly agitate for war.

In 1999, America, together with Bin Laden, supported the terrorist organization known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, and after bombing countless people to death without ever touching a hair on Milosevic's head, when the Yugoslav people voted Milosevic out of office themselves, China's brilliant minds issued their verdict: the Yugoslav people should go thank America!

In South Korea, former presidents later became prisoners, and the current president was once a target of imprisonment and assassination. Among the hands that now cast ballots in every election, how many were once hands that fought against military police, hands stained with blood—this is the regime that America "protected"! Yet when Korea's youth exchanged their own blood and their own hands for democracy, what did China's brilliant minds think? Their insight, of course, was ten times superior to everyone else's. Naturally, they righteously lectured others to go thank America!

The Yugoslavs kicked out a leader that America opposed, and they should thank America. The Koreans fought for decades against a dictatorship that America single-handedly propped up before finally driving them out, and they should also thank America. So it turns out that wherever America has waged war, once democracy is eventually achieved, everyone must thank America! This is the logic upon which so many Chinese people claim to fight for democracy and freedom!

The reason democracy is necessary is precisely because there is no savior in this world, no perfectly virtuous political group worthy of unlimited trust. To worship an idol, to attribute everything to "our Lord," to enthusiastically "praise the Lord" every day—that is not democracy, but precisely the extreme opposite of democracy. The pursuit of "democracy and freedom" in China has been reduced to one single thing: putting lipstick on the hypocritical, ugly, and filthy dealings of international politicians while singing hymns of praise. Look at what a wretched state it has been degraded to!

The facts prove that the remnants of the Red Guards and the Boxers are indeed still breeding and multiplying. Their method of fighting for their "faith" or "ism" remains the same: find an individual or group to worship as an incarnation, revere them as divine, and defend them. Then smugly declare "I am pursuing democracy and freedom." Anyone who dares show disrespect to their idol must be "opposing democracy and freedom." In terms of thinking patterns, there has indeed been zero progress.

The life and death of the Iraqi people is not the primary concern of the Chinese people. However, unless this congregation-style thinking is eradicated, there is no hope of truly achieving democracy and freedom in China or in the hearts of the Chinese people. Today they follow the fashion of pursuing democracy and freedom, and end up equating it with some foreign country. Tomorrow, in another era, when some other concept or "ism" comes along, they will surely enshrine yet another idol. All we can say is: their sentiment is pitiable, their actions are tragic.