The unique pine nuts - written to the graduating classmates

Unique pine nuts

─Write to graduating classmates

Fellow students:

You will wear a graduation gown today, and say goodbye to university life in March when the spring fog fills the mountains of Du Fu. Some students said to me, teacher, write something for us, and keep a memorial. I understand your mind. Zhongda is a mountain, and the political department is at the top of the mountain. In the past three years, we have been thinking about politics, philosophy and life together in the mountains, getting along with each other and spending countless unforgettable moments. At this moment, I am going to send you down the mountain. It is both comfort and sadness.

Let me start from the tree of Zhongda. As you all know, most of them are pines. Masson pine is not eye-catching, growing on the hillside, always green all the year round, flowering is good, the result is good, no one will pay attention. Sometimes walking on campus, seeing the fallen pine nuts, I will pick up a few and take them home. Later, I read about Zhou Zhiwen, a Taiwanese writer who recalled the articles of younger classmates, saying that these people who are unknown in their lifetime are like "empty pines, not just one, but countless countless pine nuts falling from the trees, some Falling on the stones, some falling on the blades of grass, some falling in the stream, but no one will ever see, no one will hear, because it is an empty mountain." This is the truth. But I want to go deeper, even if it is not an empty mountain, even if people come and go as big as China, why have we cared about the fate of one pine and one pine. In our eyes, there is no difference in all pine nuts. One batch fell, the zero was turned into mud, and the other batch was naturally born, and it was repeated. The world won't be any different because there is more or less a pine nut.

The fate of Matsuko is also the reality of life. If I am destined to be a tens of thousands of pine nuts, who have gone through a lifetime and left without leaving any traces, what is the value of my life? If I am just a little dust in the history of the river, then everything will be attributed to nothingness. What is the significance of today’s efforts and struggles?

Every time I think about this problem, my mood is always mixed. Sometimes fear, sometimes sad, sometimes open-minded, sometimes nothing. More often, I don't want to think about it, because it is like putting people on the cliff of the spirit, and it will fall off if you accidentally. I then stepped back and asked why this problem is always lingering, always affecting the mood. Gradually, I understand that I don't really want to, because I am human, have self-awareness and value consciousness. I am so clear to see that I am alive, seeing the moment as a past, seeing myself as an independent individual walking silently on his own path. More importantly, I measure my life all the time. We seem to have a steelyard in our hearts and ask ourselves to live well every day. We carefully plan our lives, make decisions with care, and cherish all kinds of opportunities, because we know that life is only once, and life is good and bad, and happiness is not happy. We are not willing to live in nothing, not willing to spend the Chinese New Year, and there is no way to escape the meaning problem.

The problem then appeared. From the subjective point of view of the individual, my own life is everything, and it is as heavy as Mount Tai. When my life is over, the world will end. I am the center of the universe. But as long as I am far from myself, from an objective point of view, I must admit that I am only one of thousands of pine nuts. My life is over, the world is still there, and nothing has changed. My life is like a dust, no weight, and I am quickly forgotten. There are more people coming behind. This is not something unimaginable. Every time I went to the funeral parlour, I saw my dear friend and turned into an ashes, returned to the downtown area, and once again faced the crowd of laughter, I always had unspeakable scars. At that moment, I saw the weight of life and the lightness of life.

Since our life road map has already been drawn well, is there really a difference between the twists and turns in the middle?

I think we always believe that there is a difference. Yes, even if I am a pineapple that has not been seen in the deep valley, I will not accept it when I fall into the wilderness and become mud. I will not accept my life and others, and will not accept my life worthless. But is this self-deception? Are we comforting ourselves by weaving a network of meaning? I don't think so. The reason why all the meaning problems become problems is that it bothers me. After all, it is because I realize the existence of "I" and realize that "I" is living his own life and planning his own life. If I don't have a subjective point of view and only know how to look at myself from an objective perspective, I will not understand why "I" cares about myself. We must first realize the existence of "I" and find a foothold for "I" in the vast universe, and the meaning problem will emerge. Therefore, even if I am a pine nut, I don't have to look at myself for countless bigger and more beautiful pine nuts, and I don't have to feel awkward because of obscurity. I have truly experienced my own spring, summer, autumn and winter, witnessing the changes of my own face, and using my eyes and mind to appreciate everything that life gives. This kind of scent can not be replaced by others.

This affirmation of self-existence is the pillar of our living. This world is very big. There are many other lives in this world, but I can only see the world from my eyes. I can only use my body and mind to interact with the world. Only by having "I" first can we begin to think about how to live a meaningful life. But the problem is not over here. Because once you have "I", naturally there are countless others who are different from "I". Our temperament and temperament are believed to be different from each other. With the difference, it is inevitable that there will be disputes. We always treat others as our opponents and we must strive for the most wealth status power for ourselves. It is this kind of ubiquitous competitive pressure that everyone may feel the deepest when they leave school and enter social work. We don't necessarily like to fight, but we have to fight because everyone tells you that the world is an arena. Only when we can compete can we survive. Only we can affirm our own existence value. All kinds of oppression in the world, the alienation of the system, and the birth of it.

The question is, is it really inevitable that these oppressions will be alienated? Can different individuals form a society, can they not live together in a more equal and fair way? This is a question we have been discussing in the classroom for the past three years. I believe that there is tension between recognizing individual differences and accepting equal treatment, but it is not irreconcilable. The key point is whether we can combine two seemingly opposing views. On the one hand, from a subjective point of view, we realize the uniqueness and irreplaceability of the self, and the absolute importance of one's life to itself. On the other hand, from an objective point of view, we will realize that if my life is so important to me, then his or her life will be equally important to him or her. We are all human beings, we all have our own lives, and we all want to live well. In this regard, our lives are of equal importance. We do not use a person's ability to wealth, to rank people, and to measure people's value. Pushing ourselves and people, we see both human differences and the valuable humanity that people share as human beings, and thus strive to practice the politics of equal dignity in group life. In other words, we must affirm personality and encourage everyone to live freely in their own life, while caring for each other, guaranteeing equal rights and enabling people to live together fairly. This is what I often say, we should pursue an equal political freedom.

I think that people who have received college education should have such an equal concern for people. But this is not easy. Just think about it, everyone is also experiencing a lot of exams, and many of your peers are behind, in order to enter the Chinese University. Once you leave the school, the oncoming will be more intense competition. In this case, how can we overcome the differences in human beings, see the value shared in human nature, and use this as the basis for social cooperation to achieve the politics of equal dignity? In the end, what kind of system construction and cultural atmosphere are needed, can we cultivate such moral beliefs? This is a problem that we must seriously consider in living in a capitalist society.

When you go down the mountain, why do I have to talk about these issues so much? Because the problem is important. In the above discussion, I pointed out that there are two fundamental tensions in life and try to propose ways to resolve them. The first is the tension brought about by the two ways of observing life, and the second is the difference between life and the tension caused by equality. The first heavy tension affects how we live well. The second tension affects how we live together. As a scholar, you care about life and care about politics. It is a matter of life. You should not end up with a graduation gown.

Everyone should remember that last winter, after finishing the last lesson of Contemporary Political Philosophy, we took a group photo before the cracked big pine sculpture outside the United College. That big pine nuts, laughed lively and true. In my eyes, you are all unique pine nuts.

March 19, 2019

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