Monday, January 07, 2008

不說鬼話,不說神話,只說人話



上引句是余英時 (Yu Ying-shih) 在傑出 華 人 系 列 節目中說的。 In addition, professor Yu also made use of a central theme in Hayek's Fatal Conceit to support his claim that it is dangerous for someone to think that society can be changed according to one's wishes.

3 comments:

Kempton said...

Thanks for linking to this wonderful RTHK program.

With the massive destruction of Chinese culture during the Cultural Revolution, it was understanding for Prof. Yu to feel depressed and even considering his beloved "old China" a part of history, as something he can only commiserate in his own memory.

Allow me to reply to Prof. Yu's claim that "it is dangerous for someone to think that society can be changed according to one's wishes" with this video,

"Heres to the crazy ones"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvn_Ied9t4M

It will be a sad world if we don't at least give our best shot to try to change the world.

P.S. I love that special touch of seeing the Go master Mr. Lam. I've enjoyed my games of Go when I was much younger.

Plume said...

I think you misunderstand whom Prof. Yu refer to when he talk about "it's dangerous for someone to think that society can be changed according to one's wishes"(your translation). Prof. Yu blamed at the politician like Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, who twisted the societies by military power and propaganda. They were completely different with the person shows on the video you refer to.

Kempton said...

Thanks Plume for your take. In the video, possibly because of editing, Prof. Yu's view seemed to be general and not specific to the likes of Mao or Hitler.

Now, if one thinks deeper, and I meant only as part of a level-headed discussion. How to you know that we are dealing with Lincoln and Gandhi, or Mao and Hitler?

Lincoln was hated by the Yankees, Gandhi was no buddies of the Brits or the ruling class in India. And many people were mesmerized by Mao and Hitler when the history was happening.

In my humble observation, since we (the human race) can't tell with absolute certainty if our "immediate and live" judgment of Lincoln, Gandhi, Mao and Hitler can 100% correct (we have no luxury of hind-sight here), shall we do nothing?

I submit not. We can only try our best. And try we must.

Thanks for an interesting discussion.