Wildfire Collection: Thirty Years Anniversary Edition

Chapter 29 Wildfire 20 Years (8)
"What?" "Ridiculous!" "Ignorant!" "Ridiculous!" "It's even more ridiculous!" "God God!" "Oh! Oh! My Lord!" "Oh!" "Who are you insulting?"...

Seeing these testimonials that I don't remember writing, I recalled that when the "wildfire phenomenon" spread, I was so eager to choose to be on the same side with you, no, I would rather choose to be firmly on the opposite side with your enemies mood.

Therefore, I suddenly understood the source of power hidden in the "wildfire phenomenon" back then.Long Yingtai, in one respect, you were a lot like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the American civil rights movement—you were both good at bringing out the worst, cruelest, and roughest sides of your opponents.

In the 60s, Dr. Jin learned the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi and advocated the movement of peaceful non-resistance.Nonviolent, but also not cooperative.King's proposition seems to be peaceful, but to be honest, the progress and process of the civil rights movement is not peaceful at all.

What really awakened American society and faced up to the issue of equal civil rights for blacks was actually the harshness, cruelty and roughness exposed by southern whites.The progress of the nonviolent movement was actually driven by provocation to the violence of southern white racists.Dr. King deliberately selected the most notorious white sheriff to go to the town under his jurisdiction to hold demonstrations.The frantic white police officers swung sticks and beat unarmed blacks who did not resist or fight back; wolf dogs brutally attacked peaceful blacks who were ready to die for justice.Such images, spread through newspapers and new televisions, have shocked ordinary Americans. Although they are all white, they cannot be willing to be the same kind of southern sheriff; even, because they are white, they even more want to Try to distance yourself from such a violent and inhuman Southern sheriff.

Your approach, your strategy, is of course different from Dr. King's, but obviously one effect is the same. "Wildfire" has attracted the counterattack of the system against you. "Wildfire" and the existing conservative system confronted each other into two camps with clear banners in that critical era in Taiwan.The confrontation between you and the system is so stark that everyone in society is asking, "Which side am I going to be on then? Which side am I going to be on?"

In order to deal with you, to destroy you, as those "Youth Daily" articles showed, the system raised its stick and unleashed its wolfhounds.At that decisive moment, many people who didn’t necessarily agree with you at first were offended by the face of the system. They, no, we, became very clear in their hearts-it was impossible to continue to support this kind of unreasonable and stupid The current system should not allow this kind of crude contempt and chill to continue to control our lives.

The "wildfire" ignited the anger of the system, but unexpectedly, the ferocious appearance of the angry "system" attracted even greater and irrepressible anger from the masses.Fight fire with fire, fight the fire of irrationality and stupidity with the fire of justice.

It may not be all caused by "Wildfire", but the whole society of that era erupted a fierce emotion that was indeed in sync with "Wildfire"-we should not bear it any longer!

"I have endured enough, why continue to endure?" This is the core message sent by "Wildfire Collection"; "How can you be so cowardly, and continue to endure things that are obviously unbearable?" This is you The most powerful and effective provocative rhetorical strategy when writing "Wildfire Collection".

Indeed, it could not be tolerated any longer.I remember that in February [-], at the same time that "Wildfire Collection" was published, I wrote a novel about "February [-]" titled "Fireworks", in which there was a passage about my own grandfather The real process of murder.During the holidays when I was a soldier, I hid in the empty officer’s dormitory, crying while writing. At the end of the novel, I made a shy and quiet scholar suddenly realize: “I can’t be so afraid anymore!”

The novel ends with such awareness.That was all I could think of at the time, the only way to survive in the face of historical tragedies and the authoritarian system.When I wrote the novel, I didn't think of "wildfire", but looking back today, yes, "I can't be afraid like this anymore!" It was the admonition of "wildfire" and the collective enthusiasm that was surging in that era.

Many years ago, on other occasions, I deliberately emphasized that Long Yingtai's greatest strength is "simple and courageous".I guess you may have been hesitant about my description?However, if you really understand the connotation of "simple and courageous", you should be relieved!

The "stupid" in "sincere" is the classical original meaning of Confucius' saying in "The Analects of Confucius" that "one can attain wisdom, but one cannot attain foolishness".Many smart people have already seen through the absurdity and crudeness of the authoritarian system for decades, but smart people have also seen through it at the same time, or they think they have seen through the hugeness and ubiquity of the authoritarian system.Smart people have also heard or watched what happened to those who once stood up to criticize and challenge the system in the past.Smart people can only get one answer: the worse the system is, the more terrifying and indestructible it is, so let's be patient!

Endure the situation where there is no freedom, especially the freedom of thought and value, and make good use of the little space left by the system for freedom of action.Smart people believe that if you challenge the freedom of thought and value, you will probably lose even the little bit of freedom of action that remains, which is not worth it!

The "simple and courageous" Long Yingtai didn't know that much, and didn't think that much, so he used common sense language that ordinary people can understand to expose the hypocrisy of the system.This kind of courage needs the support of "stupidity" that others do not have. In other words, only when a person does not know that his behavior is brave, and when he has no intention of becoming a martyr, he will show a sense of righteousness.Righteousness.

It is your righteousness that makes the system in a hurry; it is also your righteousness that makes the system disgraced.You are so confident that you compiled the article about besieging you in other people's "Youth Daily" into a book, and it was widely circulated.

Looking at "Wildfire Episodes", I think of a weirdo in American journalism and criticism, and a book published in [-]. The weirdo is HLMencken. It is a collection of articles cursing Mencken.

Mengken loves to swear, and his writing style is mean and sharp. The swearers are always swearing, and it is not uncommon to be scolded. The strange thing is that this old man is like you, Long Yingtai. The famous publisher must also publish such a book that scolds him.

Mencken’s motivation for compiling and publishing that book is very strange—he wants to leave evidence to prove how much these “ordinary” Americans hate him, so that future generations will not forget and think that he is the same as his contemporaries. Americans are as bad as bad.

Mencken is so proud that he must draw a line with his own society.Did you also feel a little bit of this kind of pride when you published "Wildfire Episodes"?
Mencken's pride has a background and a history.He lived at the turn of the century, when American cities were expanding rapidly, and a large number of people who originally lived scattered in the countryside gathered and crowded to the cities to seek life and opportunities.Urban life has not had time to let this group of people get rid of the monotonous values ​​shaped by the narrow life in the past. These people in turn use their monotonous values ​​to judge the city and then change the city.

Mencken was born and raised in the big city of Baltimore. He received an education that emphasized European culture. He believed in Nietzsche's "Superman Philosophy" the most. He also engaged in news work that required constant contact and reporting on the latest changes in the outside world. , these conditions made him and the group of newcomers especially out of place.

In Mencken's eyes, the "ordinary" American is a closed, stubborn, blind bumpkin.Mencken first joined the magazine Smart Set and later found a partner in American Mercury.These two magazines, along with Vanity Fair (founded in [-]) and The New Yorker (founded in [-]), are so-called "smart magazines" (Smart Magazines) , it is clear that the "hillies" should learn to be "smart", see the city, see the culture, and see the vast and rich world outside.

In [-] the critic Edward Willson half-jokingly stated that "more than half the university publications in the United States are trying to look like the American Mercury." Even if it didn't really make the American "hillies" smarter, at least it successfully established a standard of civilization, a model of "smartness". College students who want to show off their "smartness" will naturally obey the "American Mercury" style and spirit, too.

Mencken was not a lovely man.No, Mencken was a terribly annoying man.Arrogant, arrogant, elitist, and even unbearably racist.And yet, at that particular point in American history, someone so unlovable set up a model of loveliness.In today's popular language: Mencken and those "smart magazines" let America "connect with the world."The United States has transformed from a backward, vulgar, self-righteous society far away from the civilized world of Europe to become the new center of civilization in the twentieth century.

Like Nietzsche whom he admired, Mencken was lonely all his life.How can he not be lonely if he wants to draw a line with his own society and the masses of the United States so arrogantly?He supports the Nazis and Hitler, and of course the American left doesn't love him; but he is anti-religious and likes to mock the Puritans, so the American right won't love him either.Of course he was lonely.

Long Yingtai, you are not Mengken.Although you are proud, you have a friendly face and a sincere smile.However, I think you will agree that you, like Menken, forced Taiwan, which has been closed for a long time, to face two things in the critical years of Taiwan through those fiery writings—to face the larger "unknown" The world", but also to face the civilization standards gradually established in the vast world.

Back then, your article couldn't hide your dissatisfaction with the "closed".Stubborn, rigid, untrue slogans, inflexible education and control, these things that others regard as a windmill, but you clearly perceive them as the most terrible enemy.And these are exactly the "hillies" personality in Taiwanese society 20 years ago.

Do not believe in the fundamental value of being human, do not know how to respect individuality, treat everyone as a kindergarten student, and in places where no one is in charge, people who lack civilized self-control make their lives as disordered as wild animals , This is the crux of the personality of Taiwan's "hillies" 20 years ago.

So you call for freedom, for loosening, and more importantly, for dignity, the dignity of individuality.In that era, reading "Wildfire Collection" back, I confirmed that the standard of civilization you proposed was exactly the "spirit of freedom".

Taiwan's opening up to the outside world must make up the civilization learning focus, which is freedom and the self-respect and self-respect brought by freedom.Down with the ubiquitous, yet uncivilized authority, and give back our freedom as individuals to breathe with individuality.

(End of this chapter)