The Hard Way Forward

Given the depressing situation, people seem to be dealing with it in a number of ways. One is to capitulate and join the powerful; save your skin or even prosper; never mind justice and conscience.  Two is to fight even more desperately, by any means possible; never mind that it is destructive and leads to no good end. Three is to retreat into a small circle and pretend that the outside world does not concern them; never mind that it still does and there is really no escape.  Four is to run away as far as possible, at least to a place where it is safe; never mind that one cannot run away from one’s conscience and no place is really safe. 

But there are still ways to live in dignity.  Yes, there are suffocating pressure coming from so many angles.  So many things one cannot do, discuss, teach, write, and even think about without getting into trouble.  But it is not true that therefore there is nothing that one can do.  

I know of this teacher of English.  She does not teach in a classroom in a formal school but outside.  She does not help the student with homework.  She teachers her students to read newspaper and magazine articles, analyse them and discuss them.  She teaches them to think clearly and critically.  She teaches them to distinguish between news and fake news.  She teaches them to live in truth. This is certainly one way.  There are others.  The inner world is always ours.  

Yes, there are red lines that we cannot cross.  But it is still possible to find room behind the red line.  Even the authoritarian needs science and technology to drive productivity and development.  To do science and technology one needs the ability to think logically.  So people can continue to think and help others to do the same. 

If it is a just world that we seek, then we have to learn to know and live in truth.  We have to learn to tell the difference between news and fake news.  We have to help our young people learn to respect diverse points of view.  But we also need the courage and the discipline to not say anything that is not true even if it serves our purpose.   We have to learn and teach that the end of justice does not justify the means of falsehood and violence.  In fact, a system of democracy is of no use if the citizens are not capable of distinguishing between news and fake news, and not able to reason reasonably.  It would only become the tools of demagogues.  We have witnessed too much of it recently, all over the world.  

But this is a hard way.  It does not bring instant gratification.  We may not see the real impact even in our own lifetime.  Yet it is the necessary way.  Perhaps even the only way.  In the end, truth is God’s.  He is there for us.  But truth is always the hard way.  

#HongKong

#justice

#faith