Why do we have to have children? By the material level of the small peasant economy: property is too expensive, prices are too high, and wages can never catch up. At the sociological level: feeling that the system lacks justice and not wanting to play along with a forced smile anymore. Only at the highest level of Buddhism in Eastern culture, people should not be born in the first place if they want to pursue the almighty, and they should find a way to escape permanently and not have to come back. The reincarnation of being born as a human being is already a disaster.
Western philosophy also has a different path of interest. EM Cioran, a 20th century French philosopher of Romanian descent, wrote a very vivid book called “The Trouble With Being Born”, which is similar to Dazaiji’s “I am sorry to be born as a human being. I’m Sorry” by Osamu Dazaiji, which has the same shocking effect.
Zioran begins by saying that the greatest regret in life is coming into this world. Once a person is born, the greatest loss is the loss of death. To suffer the interruption of 70 or 80 years of irrelevance. Imagine: you are watching a very exciting soccer game, and at the climax the referee suddenly blows the whistle to announce halftime. But you don’t want to accept the intermission, you don’t want to go to the toilet, you don’t want to buy a drink, you want to watch the whole thing in one go. And to be born and to come into this world, for this distinguished minority of professional spectators, is this one sweeping halftime.
That’s why Zioran said what attracts me is the “other country”, and I don’t know what that is. (What attracts me is elsewhere. And I don’t know what that elsewhere is.)
Shakespeare said that a short life is just a short dream-like bubble surrounded by a dark and endless sleep. This is another convergence with Zhuangzi’s belief that “only when one is born can one die, and only when one dies can one be born” and that “there is nothing that is not the other, and nothing that is not the other”. Life and death, the other and this, right and wrong, are all relative and equal. Being born is called “being born” when one is on the other side of eternity, which transcends space and time, and accidentally slips and crosses the boundary and falls to this side. At first glance, it looked like a Disney park with flowers and greenery, but after a closer look, it turned out to be a purgatory.
The next generation in the neighboring area is reluctant to be born, perhaps only at the level of materialistic dialectics of materialistic society: if born as a male, there are basically three kinds of encounters: one is the son of a corrupt tycoon or illegitimate son, but he wins at the starting line and can be sent to a British boarding school, which is paid to British imperialism. The second is the son of farmers in Shanxi, into the city to work for Foxconn or Nike Tesla factory. This is to work as sweat slaves for the U.S. empire transnational capital. The third is the awakening, do a little pink, but there is not enough money to immigrate to Canada Britain Australia, so the indignation for the boxing bandits. Born down to these three, are not much fun.
If it is a female, basically also three kinds: the upper is a TV station beauty anchorwoman. The next is what industry, you can guess. The middle is the mediocre square dance mom. If all three have money, are buying French Italian brand names, as is the tribute to the white European imperialists who had slaughtered the Chinese for the Eight-Power Allied Forces.
Could it be that a hundred years of arduous exploration, explore and explore, to me as the extinct generation, do not reproduce, finally found the ultimate right path of the nation? According to Chinese and foreign philosophers, the answer seems to be Yes.
Recent Comments