I must be very lucky
Posted: 10 Nov 2021, 19:59
No, I did not win a lottery. As a matter of fact, I do not think there is such a thing called luck. There are countless coincidences in nature and human beings' potentials that many people equate these coincidences to luck. That is at least how I have been thinking about them.
Then again, there are moments of enlightenment that I consider my lucky moments.
One of my lucky moments of enlightenment was about a dozen and a half years ago when I saw a picture that was taken in rural Ethiopia in 2004. The picture shows a cultural ritual. Observing the ritual closely is enlightenment about the genesis of the rule of law over the sheer power of spears. Reckoning with the power of the rule of law over the sheer power of spears meant the birth of democracy. That is how I understood and continue to understand what that picture shows.
That meant taking a journey back in time to some ancient time to its genesis. I have yet to come across anyone who knows when that occurred for the first time in history.
My other lucky moment of enlightenment was after I came across a documentary called Greece: Secrets of the Past. The documentary talks about the birth of democracy in ancient Greece some 2.500 years ago after its seafarers borrowed ideas from elsewhere. According to the documentary, there is a clear stamp on the time when democracy got its foothold in ancient Greece.
As if to continue my moments of enlightenment, I stumbled upon an interview on TV that Ray Suarez did with Professor Stephen Greenblatt about the latter's book that documents how Thomas Jefferson studied ancient Greece's democracy and incorporated it into the Constitution of the United States. After watching the interview, I bought the book and read it. It is titled The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.
If I didn't have those three moments, I would fail to make sense of the American democracy that has been struggling over the last several years.
Never before this time did I ever imagine that there may be public officials in the U.S. that are funded by taxpayers that have an organic propensity to put themselves above the rule of law. I am sure that I am not alone in making this suggestion because there are also others making the same suggestion publicly.
By definition, the birth of democracy changed the hierarchy of power from individuals down to society to people, a constitution, and public servants. Therefore, this historical shift of paradigm is the fruit of the birth of democracy.
I felt that I was getting a glimpse of history before the paradigm shift when I was watching the campaign of Donald Trump, the stunner of Hillary Clinton, for President of the U.S. I still remember how stunning the result of the Presidential election of 2016 was for many people, including me.
Just a few days ago, I felt that I got another moment of enlightenment when I sensed a discernible analogy between human beings' anxieties with electronics and fire.
I do not know if anyone knows when flames of fire were first discovered, used, and managed by human beings. However. I can imagine the anxieties felt by its earliest users.
Electric currents were discovered some two hundred years ago. Electricity and electronics now light up countless homes around the world. I seem to sense that anxiety over it has been getting a grip on a group of human beings. This is not the point here.
The analogy I seem to sense between human beings' anxieties with electronics and fire appears to be another travel back in history in order to understand the evolutions of righteousness, generosity, hospitality, nobility, and virtue. To the extent that any discernible analogy can be drawn by serious social science scholars, the time travel into the past can be exhilarating. It felt so for me. Then again, what is a better way to experience it than throw oneself in the middle of those beings that electronic anxiety has got a grip over?
If one rises out of it and asks if there is any motivating virtue for electronic anxiety, I am not sure one could get a satisfactory answer. Virtue is far from irrational anxiety. Material is vice, not virtue. Generosity is because it is transient.
Is it possible for this new anxiety to evolve and find the sensibilities in righteousness, generosity, hospitality, nobility, and virtue? Time will tell.
Some people may consider the thought process of getting ahead and staying ahead virtuous. The Americans who fought for independence from the British Empire have invalidated it. China is now competing against America to invalidate it. That thought process is invalidated doesn't mean that other thought processes aren't valid. Democracy actually reveals the thought process that is valid.
Even though I have little idea about how diplomats interact with one another in private, the following is how I think of one between a Chinese diplomat talking diplomatically to an American diplomat, who could be Hillary Clinton herself when she was Secretary of State.
Chinese Diplomat (CD:) We have heard that thing about getting ahead and staying ahead.
American Diplomat (AD:) We take pride in that.
CD: You know that there are more than four Chinese for every American?
AD: Of course.
CD: Asia is also in our backyard with even more people, you know?
AD: That is right.
CD: We can also go to Africa, you know?
AD: To colonize it?
CD: The Africans have fought to stand independent and for independence, you know?
AD: That is also right.
CD: So, we are coming to compete with you and take turns in getting ahead, you know?
AD: Why should we allow it?
CD: We were ahead when we invented fireworks, you know? That thing you use when you celebrate your independence from the British Empire, you know?
AD: Why do you keep saying you know?
CD: I am using America's trending English to please you, you know?
AD: That doesn't mean I like it.
CD: I thought you would, you know?
AD: Don't assume that I know. It is annoying. Just tell me what you want to tell me.
CD: I will do that Madam/Sir.
That is a digression into a perceived sort of conversation between an American and a Chinese diplomats. However, it may be helpful in the attempt to find virtue out of electronic anxiety.
Then again, there are moments of enlightenment that I consider my lucky moments.
One of my lucky moments of enlightenment was about a dozen and a half years ago when I saw a picture that was taken in rural Ethiopia in 2004. The picture shows a cultural ritual. Observing the ritual closely is enlightenment about the genesis of the rule of law over the sheer power of spears. Reckoning with the power of the rule of law over the sheer power of spears meant the birth of democracy. That is how I understood and continue to understand what that picture shows.
That meant taking a journey back in time to some ancient time to its genesis. I have yet to come across anyone who knows when that occurred for the first time in history.
My other lucky moment of enlightenment was after I came across a documentary called Greece: Secrets of the Past. The documentary talks about the birth of democracy in ancient Greece some 2.500 years ago after its seafarers borrowed ideas from elsewhere. According to the documentary, there is a clear stamp on the time when democracy got its foothold in ancient Greece.
As if to continue my moments of enlightenment, I stumbled upon an interview on TV that Ray Suarez did with Professor Stephen Greenblatt about the latter's book that documents how Thomas Jefferson studied ancient Greece's democracy and incorporated it into the Constitution of the United States. After watching the interview, I bought the book and read it. It is titled The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.
If I didn't have those three moments, I would fail to make sense of the American democracy that has been struggling over the last several years.
Never before this time did I ever imagine that there may be public officials in the U.S. that are funded by taxpayers that have an organic propensity to put themselves above the rule of law. I am sure that I am not alone in making this suggestion because there are also others making the same suggestion publicly.
By definition, the birth of democracy changed the hierarchy of power from individuals down to society to people, a constitution, and public servants. Therefore, this historical shift of paradigm is the fruit of the birth of democracy.
I felt that I was getting a glimpse of history before the paradigm shift when I was watching the campaign of Donald Trump, the stunner of Hillary Clinton, for President of the U.S. I still remember how stunning the result of the Presidential election of 2016 was for many people, including me.
Just a few days ago, I felt that I got another moment of enlightenment when I sensed a discernible analogy between human beings' anxieties with electronics and fire.
I do not know if anyone knows when flames of fire were first discovered, used, and managed by human beings. However. I can imagine the anxieties felt by its earliest users.
Electric currents were discovered some two hundred years ago. Electricity and electronics now light up countless homes around the world. I seem to sense that anxiety over it has been getting a grip on a group of human beings. This is not the point here.
The analogy I seem to sense between human beings' anxieties with electronics and fire appears to be another travel back in history in order to understand the evolutions of righteousness, generosity, hospitality, nobility, and virtue. To the extent that any discernible analogy can be drawn by serious social science scholars, the time travel into the past can be exhilarating. It felt so for me. Then again, what is a better way to experience it than throw oneself in the middle of those beings that electronic anxiety has got a grip over?
If one rises out of it and asks if there is any motivating virtue for electronic anxiety, I am not sure one could get a satisfactory answer. Virtue is far from irrational anxiety. Material is vice, not virtue. Generosity is because it is transient.
Is it possible for this new anxiety to evolve and find the sensibilities in righteousness, generosity, hospitality, nobility, and virtue? Time will tell.
Some people may consider the thought process of getting ahead and staying ahead virtuous. The Americans who fought for independence from the British Empire have invalidated it. China is now competing against America to invalidate it. That thought process is invalidated doesn't mean that other thought processes aren't valid. Democracy actually reveals the thought process that is valid.
Even though I have little idea about how diplomats interact with one another in private, the following is how I think of one between a Chinese diplomat talking diplomatically to an American diplomat, who could be Hillary Clinton herself when she was Secretary of State.
Chinese Diplomat (CD:) We have heard that thing about getting ahead and staying ahead.
American Diplomat (AD:) We take pride in that.
CD: You know that there are more than four Chinese for every American?
AD: Of course.
CD: Asia is also in our backyard with even more people, you know?
AD: That is right.
CD: We can also go to Africa, you know?
AD: To colonize it?
CD: The Africans have fought to stand independent and for independence, you know?
AD: That is also right.
CD: So, we are coming to compete with you and take turns in getting ahead, you know?
AD: Why should we allow it?
CD: We were ahead when we invented fireworks, you know? That thing you use when you celebrate your independence from the British Empire, you know?
AD: Why do you keep saying you know?
CD: I am using America's trending English to please you, you know?
AD: That doesn't mean I like it.
CD: I thought you would, you know?
AD: Don't assume that I know. It is annoying. Just tell me what you want to tell me.
CD: I will do that Madam/Sir.
That is a digression into a perceived sort of conversation between an American and a Chinese diplomats. However, it may be helpful in the attempt to find virtue out of electronic anxiety.