終身學習系列之一: Lit2Go

我老講孔子的壞話,講到算得上是儒家價值體系中大逆不道,罪該萬死的境界,雖然我常說孔子有的話不能聽,我同時也必須承認,孔子有的話不能不聽,例如下面這句:"幼而不孫弟,長而無述焉,老而不死,是為賊".

長而無述為什麼是賊呢?孔子傳神地表達一個概念,就是我們個人的知識是在很多前人累積的基礎上開始發展,所以我們有責任把在他人身上得到的良好知識與觀念,或者自已領悟的知識與人分享,如果不去散播真實的知識,只取而不施,這跟賊有什麼兩樣?

子曰:"友直,友諒,友多聞",直和諒我不能自誇,但是我自己真正做到多聞,部落格上的嬉笑怒駡,褒貶捧諷就是讓造訪此地之人,或有所得.終身學習系列是吾道一以貫之的體現,獻給我認識及不認識,見過,沒見過,或許將也不會再見面的朋友們.

Lit2Go (http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/index.htm) 是本系列的第一棒,這個最近發現的絕妙好站,免費提供無版權英文有聲書,MP3可以走到哪,聽到哪.有的還有PDF讀本,又讀又聽對英文學習很有幫助.這個做法和讀英文電影對白是一樣的道理,不過電影主要是學口語,典雅深入掌握一門語言的精髓,文學還是不二途徑,例如Lit2Go就有Stephen Crane的The Open Boat,這本小語啟蒙了當代中國小說家余華.還有巨匠馬克吐溫,及英文奠基者莎士比亞的著所.所以Lit2Go絕對有經典的讀本.同時介紹一個有聲故事的Blog:http://freelistens.blogspot.com/.

為賈樟柯惋惜: 二十四城記

賈樟柯是深具潛力的中國導演,作品主要關注社會底層的市井小民,在社會結構變遷中的種種掙扎,困惑,痛苦,生活中不是沒有快樂,但快樂是這群人手中握不住的流沙,作品具體而微的展現這個社會階層生活的形形色色,賈樟柯饒富哲學意趣的"世界"是最好的代表.

新作"二十四城記"卻敲了賈樟柯一記喪鐘.賈樟柯用寫實記錄片的手法敍述一個個虛構的故事,這等同於用寫實散文外瓶,裝虛構小說的酒,這犯了藝術的大忌,處理不好形同詐欺,和陳水扁的書沒有兩樣.賈樟柯雖然不至於玩火自焚,但卻走火入魔,如果他的下場和玩形式主義走火入魔的王家衛一樣,就太不值得了.

Give America a Break

Obama attempts to break the American from the old habits, values, behaviors with new ones which is coined into the words "Obama style".

This is a huge social engineering only possible at a time of crisis when people are aware and willing to take actions to change. This historical chance just rightly falls in the hands of Obama who advocates change all along the way from the Congress to White House. How and what has and will "Obama style" change over the past 100 days?

100 days are definitely not long enough to draw the whole picture of his presidency but it is long enough to depict outline of it. Thus, some parts are clear and some are still murky; some are successful, yet some have to be judged by time.

Economics is the murky part clouded with the uncertainty of the financial system mired in the power struggling between Capitol Hill, White House and Wall Street. Obama seems underestimate the setback from the Wall Street which will definitly pose a negetive effect to the bail-out negociation with Congress aftermath, which simply means a long economical recuperation rather than a bounce wihtin one or two years. This prediction is buttressed by the fact that Obama fails to overhaul the bank system, head-to-toe, soup-to-nuts. The time is not yet gone but trickling away. Obama needs to try harder.

His willingness to listen wins lots of goodwills abroad. The amicable atmosphere in the Fifth Summit of the Americas is a flashing sign. This opens enormous opportunities for mutual and regional cooperation for the United States. Obama is smart but it is just a start. Only when the conflicts of interets brought onto the table will we actually know the diplomacy philosophy of Obama. One thing worth notice is that his choice of Hillary Clinton as the Secretary of States may reflect one facet of this ideology. The United States is willing to listen now when friends are needed, yet adamant on its interests when friends are not listening.

What is clear is that Obama opens the ears and eyes of America to listen to and see the world. He, like a shepherd, leads and exhorts America to take the responsible action on enviromental and financial responsibilities neglected for decades. He strikingly sets a break by his style to American from the old to the new.

Oui, toi! Un incurable romantique : Luc Besson

Luc Besson is a hardcore romantist from his first movie "Le grand bleu" to the latest film "Angel-A". Age transforms Luc Besson from a young, passionate romantist to a sophisticated middle-age one in the outside. Inside, he clearly transmits an age-unchangble message to us :"Movie is good, and so is life."

Maybe Luc Besson just loves movie as much as his love to life. Movie, from the beginning to the end, is his belief about life and life is good. The inside puerile and forever-young Luc Besson is exactly the sophisticated angel in the black-and-white film "Angel-A", mastering the evil of the world, yet plays all the way to make this world more coloful and exuberant. Luc Besson inspires me to change the national motto of the United States: "In God, We Trust" to "In Angel, We Love".

中國文化假面之五: 死亡

子曰:"未知生,焉知死",用意是要人們活的踏實,但就這麼一句話,堵住千百年中國文化對死亡的討論.生命就像一枚銅板,生和死是銅板的兩個面,只注意生而不注意死,只是偏頗地看待生命.

確實死亡之後如何,現在對人類是未知,但我們至少可以關注人要怎麼死,人可以怎麼選擇死.歐洲,特別是中北歐,是全球人文思想最先進的地區,安樂死快成為歐洲國家的普遍共識.這很好,也很正確,人無法決定自己的出生,但連人都無法決定自己的死亡,就太慘了.安樂死將死亡的權利回歸個人的手上,死得安靜又有尊嚴,這是很正確的做法.

不是每個人都適合活著,也不是每個人都想活者,人生的苦痛往往只有自已才能體會,外人都沒有權利插嘴.人生不是不可能走到山窮水盡的地步,此時選擇安靜地退場,不是道德是非的問題,而是個人對自我生命的選擇而已,我認為一個社會懂得尊重人尋死的權利,這個社會才懂得尊重人求活的權利,一個社會如果只是偽善地歌訟生命的價值,勸導人不要自殺,其實這個社會不會真正懂得如何尊重生命,也不會提升社會整體的快樂.尊重死和尊重生是同一件事,兩者並不對立.

安樂死在美國都還是禁忌,在我眼裡,美國大眾人文思想實在太保守,人文思想的落後與偽善,對一個國家或地區的發展不會有正面的幫助,即使強大如美國者,也不例外.
Photo: Diamond Skull from Damien Hirst.

肚子決定腦袋

黑貓白貓論,是鄧小平對經濟改革開放活靈活現的名言,或許鄧小平靈活腦袋是來自於胃的影響.

鄧小平1979年出訪美國曾說:"在歐洲,法國菜是最好的;在東亞,中國菜是最好的",食物果然是多元文化體驗的捷徑,留法五年,法國菜深深地影響了鄧小平.毛澤東和鄧小平相反,毛主席只愛吃辛辣的湖南菜,歷史證明不懂生產力的毛澤東確實是個大老土,只懂得關著門搞,搞得民不聊生,腦袋僵化.

左派有一個說法:"基礎決定結構",意思是社會的生產模式或技術會決定社會的結構或意識型態,例如漁獵採果的覓食,形成部落,農耕是封建國家基礎,資本工業形成民主議會的社會型態.就個人而言,可能也有這麼一套基礎與結構的關係,就是肚子決定腦袋.

廣東人什麼都吃,果然香港及廣東最沒有意識型態的困擾,什麼錢都賺.臺灣老喊著要國際化,事實上胃都沒有國際化,怎麼談得上腦袋的國際化?

鄧小平又說過:"吃食堂是社會主義，不吃食堂也是社會主義",鄧小平的吃,吃出了他的哲學,也吃出了中國一片天.

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

[Note: This list of Einstein quotes was being forwarded around the Internet in e-mail, so I decided to put it on my web page. I'm afraid I can't vouch for its authenticity, tell you where it came from, who compiled the list, who Kevin Harris is, or anything like that. Still, the quotes are interesting and enlightening.]

• "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
• "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
• "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
• "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
• "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
• "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
• "The only real valuable thing is intuition."
• "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
• "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
• "God is subtle but he is not malicious."
• "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
• "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
• "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
• "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
• "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
• "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
• "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
• "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
• "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it."
• "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
• "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
• "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically."
• "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
• "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
• "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
• "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible."
• "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
• "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
• "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
• "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater."
• "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."
• "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
• "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
• "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
• "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
• "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
• "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep."
• "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead."
• "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
• "Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
• "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?"
• "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
• "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
• "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
• "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
• "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
• "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
• "The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
• "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
• "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
• "One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
• "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
• "He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder."
• "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
• "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

Copyright: Kevin Harris 1995 (may be freely distributed with this acknowledgement)

http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~cheshire/EinsteinQuotes.html

An Unpretentious Philosopher: Karl Popper

I think one quality that sets apart the great philosopher from the others is the capability of using plain language to convey profound ideals to common people. Karl Popper is just one of the masters.

Reading Karl Popper's books is a joy. His ordinary language trinkles the extrodinary ideas into our minds. His book "All Life Is Problem Solving" shows you his ideas about science, history, and science of politics with a language that I think even the high school students can easily understand.

One more thing we will understand at the end of reading his book is that the way to truth is paved by unpretentiousness.

Publisher: Routledge 

Publishing Date: July 19, 1999

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0415174864

ISBN-13: 978-0415174862

Hard Times for Americans and Espeically for Him: Timothy Geithner

It takes wisdom to calm down in hard times.

The AIG bonuses ignited the fury of American populace. The total amount of the bonuses is around 165 million, which is 0.1% of the bailout for AIG. The problem is not about math but psychology. At this hard time, some people screwed up the economy and still could get the money from tax payers. Thus, most hard-working people feel relatively ripped-off. Thus such fury is undertandable.

The fury transformed into a political problem. Most people placed their blame on the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, for failing to prevent it in advance. Timothy Geithner may be a good technocrat but not a good politician according to his poor performance over foreseeing and quenching AIG crisis. He set himself into the calling of stepping down.

To step down or not, that's a question. But that is not a simple question for Geithner alone. The American have to calm down and think what's the consequence of that. Geithner has a background at Wall Street, thus knows the know-how of the financial system. This crisis need an insider to solve it not a scholar in academia. Dealing a crisis is just like a fierce battle that change the commander in chief in the crusial time may deteriorate the situation. That is definitely not what we want.

Putting aside the emotion and focusing on the bigger picture is what's needed for the Americans right now. That's the real issue.