Patriotism

Friday night has been and will always be the best time of the week. I swear.

Third week in Shanghai. Today I took a long walk to wander around the city, ate some food and brought home takeaway. Mommy please believe me I am not an otaku.

This week’s topic has long been set since last week. It triggered me when I saw my classmate Stacy talking about how much she loved her country and that she wont let anyone to divide it. She even quarreled with people on Facebook too. I did see nothing but a disaster there. People have been talking about the severe innocence level of young Chinese. I didn’t believe it at all before. But now I do. It’s pathetic but true.

I don’t actually know what patriotism means, nor do I think I have the weight to judge anything. In fact I feel pretty sorry for myself when I don’t dare speak out any opinions about my country. This is not because I am afraid of the gov surveillance, but because of the fact that I don’t see myself have any facts or evidence to provide objective views. Issues like Taiwan or Hong Kong or even Syria are heated topic people like to talk. But due to information asymmetric and the government block-out, I have no access to those facts and I don’t think I am able to provide any opinions here, which, by itself, is pathetic.

There’s a saying in the first episode of the Newsroom when Mac asked Will, “Is government to instrument of good, or is it just man for himself?” Interesting question. For me, I do love my country, not for its ideology. I don’t have any preference for communism honestly. But I do love the culture, food and people here, because these are actually the things with which I grow. It separates me with anyone else in the world. It shapes what I am today. Those political issues are actually just the game for politicians. Yes it may have serious long-term effects on our country. But selfishly speaking, it doesn’t do any good or bad to us now, not to mention the fact that we are blocked from those valuable information that helps me see through right or wrong. I honestly think there’s no point arguing that because we don’t know the facts. However, we can build up a logical deduction that will help us know which of the facts are the evidence we need to generate our views. For that, we need history, philosophy, law and a lot of knowledge. We need to build the way to see things correctly, but not the opinion directly.