My Spiritual Homeland: Selected Essays of Wang Xiaobo

Author: Wang Xiaobo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-02-01
Features: Have you ever been told that there are some more important things in life worth standing out and being experienced? When I was young, I read George Bernard Shaw's play Major Barbara, and one scene left a deep impression on me: Industrial tycoon Mr. Andreev met his long-lost son Stephen and asked him about his interests. This young man had no talent in science, literature, law, or anything else, but he claimed to have one strength: the ability to discern right from wrong. The old man harshly criticized his son, saying that this was something even scientists, politicians, and philosophers found difficult. How can you know nothing but discern right from wrong? When I read this passage, I was only in my early twenties and immediately resolved that I would do anything in life except become someone who could discern right from wrong without any other skills. For this reason, I became part of the silent majority. The people I knew when I was young only grasped some superficial (and to say the least, absurd) principles and thought they knew everything, making arbitrary judgments about the world, which ultimately harmed the entire world. Only when I reached the age of forty did I realize that Shaw's perspective had its biases; but that's a story for another time—regardless, Shaw's remarks served as a antidote for the shallow and arrogant. Shaw said discerning right from wrong is difficult because these moral issues are all within the realm of ethics. As the saying goes, "What is poison to one person is meat to another"; one person's gain is often another's loss...