The Problem of China

羅素於1920-21年旅居中國一年，回英後寫了“The Problem of China”。


"The Chinese have discovered, and have practiced for many centuries, a way of life which, if it could be adopted by all the world, would make all the world happy. We Europeans have not. Our way of life demands strife, exploitation, restless change, discontent and destruction. Efficiency directed to destruction can only end in annihilation, and it is to this consummation that our civilization is tending, if it cannot learn some of that wisdom for which it despises the East."
羅素對中國文化的評價高得離奇，沒讀過的不易相信。


"Western Europe and America have a practically homogeneous mental life, which I should trace to three sources: 1) Greek culture; 2) Jewish religion and ethics; 3) modern industrialism, which itself is an outcome of modern science. We may take Plato, the Old Testament and Galileo as representing these three elements, which have remained singularly separable down to the present day. From the Greeks we derive literature and the arts, philosophy and pure mathematics; also the more urbane portions of our social outlook. From the Jews we derive fanatical belief, which its friends call "faith"; moral fervour, with the conception of sin; religious intolerance, and some part of or nationalism. From science, as applied in industrialism, we derive power and the sense of power, the belief that we are as gods, and may justly be the arbiters of life and death for unscientific races. We derive also the empirical method, by which almost all real knowledge has been acquired."


"Comparing the civilization of China with that of Europe, one finds in China most of what was to be found in Greece, but nothing of the other two elements of our civilization, namely Judaism and science. China is practically destitute of religion, not only in the upper classes, but throughout the population. There is a very definite ethical code, but it is not fierce or persecuting, and does not contain the notion of sin."


"The typical Westerner wishes to be the cause of as many changes as possible in his environment; the typical Chinaman wishes to enjoy as much and as delicately as possible. This difference is at the bottom of most of the contrast between China and the English-speaking world."
那是民國時期的中國，如今中西的差別已不多。


"Shortly before I left China, an eminent Chinese writer pressed me to say what I considered the chief defects of the Chinese. With some reluctance, I mentioned three: avarice, cowardice, and callousness. Strange to say, my interlocutor, instead of getting angry, admitted the justice of my criticism, and proceeded to discuss possible remedies."
誰說老外不理解中國國情？

兔年願望

閲讀的速度太慢，喝酒的速度太快，今年的願望是加快前者減慢後者，達至我的Pareto Optimality。

閲讀

少時沒有閲讀的習慣，畢業前所讀過的課外書恐怕只有金庸及古龍。離開校園找工作的那一年，才醒覺自己的諸多不足，然後讀了《李天命的思考藝術》，自此閲讀便與吃喝拉撒睡同級。


知識的探求是"moral obligation"，直至目前爲止，閲讀仍是唯一最有效途徑。後悔少時沒學好中英文，所以絕不容許女兒重蹈覆轍。


智商是先天，可改變的不多；小朋友天生好奇，不要窒礙便行；語文能力將會是教育的唯一重點。好奇心加高速閲讀，learning machine是也！