Wildfire Collection: Thirty Years Anniversary Edition

Chapter 6 Starting from "2" ([-])
Mother who had syphilis

Originally published in "China Times Human World" on January [-], [-]

This is a quote from Yu Guangzhong's poem to express how bad the environment in Taiwan is in my mind, but it also attracted strange abuse for me, saying that if Taiwan has syphilis, then you "Long Yingtai is an international prostitute."

My father became uneasy. One day, he said to me very carefully, daughter, don’t forget that I told you that I saw disobedient people covered in sacks in the middle of the night, tied to stones, and thrown into the sea. up.

I replied, don't worry, Dad, I'm just talking about "picking up trash".it does not matter.

Among the piles of letters from readers, I found a letter from Bo Yang, praising and encouraging the young author of "Wildfire".I thought to myself, what a generous senior.

One evening, I went to watch the sunset in Tamsui with a Swedish friend.When the river is at low tide, the dense garbage is exposed in the black and greasy sludge.After finally finding a place far away from the garbage, as soon as I sat down, I saw this fluffy, five-year-old boy staring at us, then turned to the smaller child holding a doll, and said in a very immature voice: :
"Sister, I can listen to English, this foreigner is saying that Taiwan is not very progressive..."

I froze - because my blond friend didn't say a word.This little boy is making up stories, but what kind of stories he made up!Is the inferiority complex of the Chinese nation already this deep?This child is only five years old!
The fiery sun sank on the other side of the garbage, and I left the Danshui River silently.

And someone actually said: Taiwan is not as bad as you said!
How bad does it have to be to shock you?
In Germany, I saw snow-white wild swans swimming in the Rhine River, bright red poppies smoking high beside the road, and laughing children in the forest looking for mushrooms and berries.

In Italy, I saw naked girls swimming in the cold and transparent lake, old women sitting and chatting under the vines, and traffickers dancing on the sandy beach shrouded in moonlight.

In Greece, a small town surrounded by mountains and rivers like fresh water, I watched fishermen spread pebbles on the seawall, drink and sing in the sparkling light; star-like wildflowers bloomed violently on the barren mountains.

In Turkey, I met gypsy women in floral skirts carrying baskets full of flowers, selling along the ancient stone roads, and children with plump cheeks rolling around on the hillside.

When I returned to Taiwan, I went to see the mountains——I saw peeled green mountains.Suddenly a large piece of green was sunken, the sand was dug away, and the red soil and gravel were exposed naked.The mountains in Taipei County are full of scars, like a mangy dog ​​with ringworm and rotten hair, more like a woman who has been raped...

I go to see the water.I heard that there are snow-white water birds in Guandu, which is true, but the surface of the water is densely covered with a layer of garbage, and the thin feet of the water birds cannot find a place to perch.Laughing children waded through the black, foul-smelling water to catch water bugs.

Someone actually said: Taiwan is not that bad!

In order to earn a few cents more, some people resell the contaminated syringes and inject the virus into the bodies of healthy people.In order to enjoy material things, some people manufacture fake milk powder, knowing that it may kill thousands of babies.In order to evade responsibility, after causing an accident, someone turned around and aimed at the person who fell to the ground and moaned again.Our children sit in classrooms and let the gas blow them down.Our friend was blinded by bogus wine.Our brother was hit by a car and broke his leg. He limped to school on crutches every day.And we ourselves eat and drink all kinds of chemical toxins calmly, breathe dirty air, and live cowardly among the overbearing vehicles.

How bad can it be before you're surprised?
In "Chinese, why aren't you angry" (November [-]) and "Is it useless to be angry?" "(December [-]th) was published, I heard that some university and middle school teachers distributed articles to students as classroom discussion materials; some people copied the articles and sent them around;Every day my mailbox is stuffed with letters from readers, including teachers, plumbers, students, soldiers, and hairdressers... Two of them are particularly sad:

——Our hometown, Taiwan, used to have beautiful mountains and green waters, but now it is used as a place to rest. These people don’t intend to take root, rest for a while, and leave when they are strong enough.How do you want them to love the country and the land?
——The living environment in Taiwan is so poor today that it makes people want to walk away.However, the Chinese who have seen the suffering finally have such a place, enjoy a little bit of life without hunger and war, and really want to cherish it; however, our environment has deteriorated to this point, which is very distressing.

I really don't understand why our environment is so damaged.When people were poor, they chopped down the doors and burned them to keep warm. In other words, 30 years later, Taiwan would have been "prosperous", so why are they still digging holes everywhere?What's more, this "house" in Taiwan is not ours yet - we are just passers-by for generations, and generations after us will come to live here.No tenant has the right to have the roof ripped off, the floor hollowed out, and the walls blackened, because there will be other tenants coming in the future.Taiwan is a small island, and we have to leave it to the next generation.Where do we have the qualifications, where do we have the right—in order to earn a few cents more now, we frantically and obsessively pursue the so-called "economic growth"—to rampage on the land temporarily leased to us by Heaven and Youde, and turn the green hills Destroy, muddy the green water, poison the soil?What will people do in the future?The Chinese are not short-sighted and selfish to the point of having no sons or grandchildren, right?
The poet said: I was born with syphilis, and she was still my mother.Taiwan is my mother who gave birth to me; dirty, ugly, and morally corrupt Taiwan is my mother who gave birth to syphilis.You say that Taiwan is not that bad, I think you are dreaming; you say that people who study literature should not bother with such mortal trivialities, I think you are numb: I sit in the study, tortured by the noise; eat a meal , there is a danger of poisoning; if you go out on the street, you may be hit by a car; if you walk into nature, you will not see a piece of pure land.Is there any "learning" more important than "life" itself?The reason why I write these "trivial things" again and again over the gate wall of my dense college is because for me, Taiwan's environment—natural environment, living environment, moral environment—has become so bad A moment of life and death.I, there is no way to continue to be a high-level intellectual who stands on the sidelines.

So I reach out, eager to make contact with you.I am a university professor, and you may be a noodle shop owner, an elementary school teacher, a bus driver, or a car repair worker with greasy hands; in daily life, you and I are both "small people" with exactly the same needs—— Quiet environment, clean community, orderly streets, civilized neighbors.There are many problems that we ordinary people have to rely on experts, such as the scientific method of landfill and the management of soil and water conservation in mountains and forests.There are also many people that I have no ability to influence or educate, such as the boss who kills with a knife or Awang who secretly throws garbage (they don’t know how to read supplements?!).But ordinary people can still do a lot of things: When an expert is not doing his best, you have to supervise him, criticize him, and tell him: if he can't do it well, replace it with someone else.As for Ngawang, if he throws it away alone and ten ordinary people pick it up, our streets and alleys will still be clean.Taiwan's environment cannot go down one step further, and if one step is dropped, it is likely to be lost forever.

This afternoon, I was walking among freshwater fields and saw a pure white egret standing gracefully on the back of a jet-black buffalo.The buffalo was rough and clumsy, with heavy hooves moving back and forth in the swamp.With the endless sky behind it, it leisurely eats the green aquatic plants at its feet; it doesn't know the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the footprints of the past and present.The wind was blowing gently, I stared at the ridge for a long time, and my heart was full of gratitude: I am grateful for the existence of this buffalo, and I am grateful for the existence of this egret and aquatic plants.My mother had syphilis, but at least she wasn't dead, and there was hope for her recovery.Since I don't want to abandon her, I must face up to her virus, stand up and wash off her rotten and smelly skin.

On the first sunny day of the new year, I will go to Datun Mountain to see the abundant miscanthus.There will be a big plastic bag in my car; I will pick up the trash along the mountain road and take it away.On the first sunny day of the Chinese New Year, you may take your students or three or four friends to Chengcheng Lake, Flame Mountain, or Xiuguluan to find a little wildness; maybe you are also willing to take a big plastic bag and pick up the flowers empty cans.At the moment you bend over, maybe I am also bending over, if we meet at the corner, let's say hello!
Perhaps this year's Taiwan is really a little cleaner, quieter, and more harmonious than Taiwan in [-].You, come to the appointment!
难局
Originally published in "China Times Human World" on February [-], [-]

People say that on the day there was a "Wildfire" column, the retail sales of "China Times" were tens of thousands more.I feel like dancing on a tightrope.I don't face the media, most readers still think that "Long Yingtai" is an old gentleman.

There are many non-party magazines in the market, and some of them read very thoroughly and speak very sharply.But it can only be circulated underground, and they are intimately attached to each other in small circles.I don't think this is the most efficient way.

"Difficult Situation" is the beginning of "Strategic Writing".In the words of Socrates: "When I am dissatisfied with a system, I have two ways: either leave the country; or change the system through legal means."

"Difficult Situation" is the first article in "Wildfire" that prepares to positively "deconstruct" the authoritarian regime.What I was thinking about was: How to prolong the time as long as possible so that those in power do not realize your danger, and use the most beautiful and lively vernacular to impress the most people?After writing an article, I will check it again: Do you understand the driver or the vegetable seller?

This has become what Yang Du called "kitsch", yes, every piece of "Wildfire" is "kitsch".

There is an old man named Socrates, you probably don't know him.

He is 70 years old!Deep sunken eyes and a white beard.I have been locked in prison for several days; the day after tomorrow, when the ship returns, the execution will be carried out.This morning, when he just woke up, there was a little light through a small pane of glass, a very Greek sky.

Crito is a rich old friend who has exhausted his eloquence, begging old man Su to escape from prison. "The money is on me," he said, "what's more, if you die, who will take care of your children?"

But old man Su was very stubborn, he said solemnly:
"It's certainly unreasonable for the Athens government to sentence me to death by 'demonizing the public'. But if I break the legal system of Athens by escaping from prison, it will be tantamount to punishing others with their 'evilness' and making myself wrong. You have to know that two evils cannot make one good.

"When I am dissatisfied with a system, I have two options: either leave the country, or follow the legal path to change the system. But I have no right to destroy it by rebellion. Let the Athenians kill me! I would rather die a sufferer than live a rebel."

Old man Su swallowed the poison with his head up and died. The yellow liquid flowed down and stained his beard.

There is another man named Thoreau who likes to be alone. When he was 30 years old, he built a wooden house by a forest lake by himself, and worked by himself.Once, a barbecue fire was built in the woods, and it almost burned half of Concord's woods.

That evening, while taking a walk, Thoreau was taken to prison for refusing to pay taxes.He believed that the government used the money he paid to support wars (Americans bullying Mexicans) and black slavery, which violated his personal conscience, and he took immediate and rebellious actions to resist what he thought was a wrong legal system.

"When faced with an unreasonable legal system, should we blindly follow it? Or should we obey it temporarily, and at the same time slowly follow the legal path to reform? Or resist immediately to resist and destroy this legal system?"

Thoreau asked, and his answer was justifiable:
"Blind obedience is the lowest level of stupidity, don't think about it. It takes too long to seek a way to reform. How many days do you have in life? It's not that you have enough to eat and have nothing to do. You don't have to think about it all day long. Life is alive. For living, not for reform. So the best way to deal with an unreasonable system is to resist it immediately."

Thoreau didn't enjoy himself; he slept excitedly in the prison overnight, and was redeemed the next day by the kind-hearted old aunt who paid the taxes on his behalf.However, 100 years later, in the ancient and impoverished East, a man named Gandhi went all out and brought thousands of people to "immediately resist" an unreasonable system.

New York, which has a clear love and hate, has also recently produced a character.Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, the very quiet and delicate Gez was sitting in the night train, eager to go home and take a hot bath.Four young black boys surrounded him and asked him for five yuan.Everyone in New York knows that the next step for five dollars is probably five holes in the head.The guy with the scar on his face put a gun to an old woman's neck just last month and snatched a gold chain.

But what about the quiet Goetz?There is no police to protect, no passengers dare to help - should he, as old man Su said, be a law-abiding victim, or as Thoreau said, be a law-breaking rebel?To put it another way, should he allow these four people to beat him up, stab him twice, and then report to the police, or should he take out all the weapons in his hand to attack the enemy and make himself a law-abiding criminal?
Gotz, wearing glasses, stood up in the rickety car and said:
"I'll give you five yuan each!"

He fired five shots in a row.The one with the scar was hit in the spine and half paralyzed. He is only 19 years old this year.Goetz, on the other hand, waited at home for the court to pronounce his fate.

There is also a Chinese, you may not have heard of it, Zhang Xiguo.When he got into a taxi, the evil driver not only took a detour, but even got out of the taxi to fight.Dr. Zhang, a senior intellectual, rolled up his sleeves and confronted the driver in the street.

Mr. Police, representing the legal system, came, but he thought that fighting should not be done. If it was his turn, the driver should be injured, and then he should be charged with injury.

In other words, if he was stabbed to death by a flat drill, then the widow would go to court to sue him for murder, and everyone would be happy.

When a system is unable to protect individuals, do individuals have the right to protect themselves?
As far as the basic principles of the rule of law are concerned, we cannot tolerate individual "enforcement".If everyone refuses to pay taxes, if everyone takes up guns and kills the "bad guys" like John Wayne, if everyone rolls up their sleeves and fights, we might be back to primitive times , Everyone relies on their own sharp teeth, and the fittest survive.The reason why the rule of law is important, we say, is that it secures even small individuals with weak teeth.

However, if the existence of "law" is for "individuals", why do "individuals" often sacrifice for "laws"?For Thoreau, the existence of the government is to protect the rights and interests of individuals, but when he is fighting for personal rights and interests, the government has to punish him instead.For Goetz, he protected himself—achieved the purpose of the "law", but at the same time violated the law.Only that old man, Socrates, simply gave up on himself and sacrificed himself, so he lived in peace with the law.

When the so-called "rule of law" has become a huge and rigid grid, locking every "person" made of flesh and blood into a small grid, does this law violate the original intention of its original purpose?When a policeman asks the common people to let the villains injure them before reporting the crime, have people become so "civilized" that they forget what "civilization" is for?
That's why I'm afraid to talk about "patriotism" because I know that when the masses become fanatical about "patriotism," this "country" will become a big hat that will crush many less fanatical individuals to death.To talk about patriotism, I would rather go up the mountain alone to pick up garbage.

(End of this chapter)