Source: official account: kaishen diary wechat ID: changtalk
I have an idea that one of the reasons behind the popular saying “don’t pay attention to grand narratives, but pay attention to specific people” on the Chinese Internet in recent years is that it is increasingly difficult for the west to create grand narratives. This was not the case during the cold war.
Otherwise, it’s hard to understand how such a stupid script can have so many voices on the Internet. Grand narrative itself is the combination of many specific people, or related to many specific people.
A dead person is a specific person, with a voice and a smile. As a fellow, we should feel the same way. If we don’t go to the hot search, everyone may be the next one; But the death of one million people is a grand narrative. What does it have to do with me.
In the face of covid-19’s dynamic zero clearing, mountain fire and grand large projects, do you think that the real people of insight in the west do not expect their own countries to have such cohesion and organization? That’s not what they said during the cold war. That’s not what they said when they landed on the moon.
Thirty years after the Soviet Union left, there was a great deal of literary and military activity, and liberalism was rampant. Now we can’t find a grand narrative with real vitality.
In fact, whether it is the history of human civilization or the history of the construction of new China, the personal destiny of ordinary people is closely related to the grand narrative. From the rags of 70 years ago to the modern life today, the improvement of living standards experienced in this process is almost all closely related to the grand narrative. The so-called “attention to specific people” is mostly used to decorate the skeleton and flesh built by the grand narrative.
Facing blind mountains and blind wells, the so-called “caring for specific people” can not be said to be meaningless, at least it is also at a loss. The real solution to the problem is the roaring trains and steel tracks, the increasing number of factories outside, and the resulting employment opportunities.
Apart from that, why can the foreign gangster of Ningbo University who has just been sentenced to death, such a social scum, obtain a high premium in the third world countries that is completely inconsistent with his own value? Isn’t it because of the projection of the resources plundered by the “grand narrative” for hundreds of years at the cultural and psychological levels?
Whether it is the West that is powerless in the face of covid-19 in 2020 or Russia that is mired in Ukraine in 2022, I am somewhat surprised. Because before that, I still had some residual impression of the mobilization and execution of the two giants of the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war.
Why did individualism not exist in the past and rarely in history, but can it prevail in the modern era? This is because individualism actually needs resources very, very, very, very much. You want to live in your own way, don’t look at anyone’s face, follow your sexual orientation, want to live a comfortable personal life, and want to live alone without dealing with anyone. All these require huge resources to be provided by individuals in society. The consumption of a single restaurant must be higher than that of a collective canteen. In the past, it was the same for people to form a large family. When resources were insufficient, they had to hold a group to resist various risks. Was it because they were stupid and didn’t know that individualism was better?
Ironically, the huge resources needed to maintain an individualistic and liberal life are precisely created and supplied through grand narratives.
“Survival is a kind of luck, which was true on the earth in the past, and it is true everywhere in the cold universe now. But I don’t know when human beings have had an illusion that survival has become something easy to get.”
For a long time, he took modern life as a matter of course, and even used postmodernism to erode the foundation of modern life.
There can also be grand narratives, which is the greatness of this country and nation, because it means the possibility of change. It can be said that at this moment, the essence of earth civilization and the representative of human spirit are here.
Those who are no longer capable of grand narratives (or just want to promote their own pseudo grand narratives), but still occupy the microphone speakers, can not do it themselves, but do not forget to slander those who can do things. They also occupy the voice of the world and are doing their best to pull down those who can do things and “coexist” with them. But it’s nothing. It’s been 70 years since it was smeared as the representative of evil. It’s estimated that it will not be impossible in another 10 or 20 years. However, social existence ultimately needs to break through the old social consciousness.
“If there are really other people and societies in the universe, it’s also very good. The bystanders can see clearly the merits and demerits of the future, but some people will really comment on them.”
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