Lost...In China

我结果的我的经验懂我不可以等别人的帮忙，我自己得帮助我。(As a result of my experience, I came to realize that I couldn’t simply wait around for help in life, but had to help myself and take action into my own hands.)

It was 10 p.m., 4/15/13, in the city of 苏州, 中国 (Suzhou, China), that I had the single most impactful experience of my life so far. I belonged in a group of students and teachers for this study tour across southeastern China. On this particular night, my touring group and I sought out an ATM. When I entered, I lost track of time, and expected my friends and teachers to wait for me…but when I did eventually exit, I found that I had been left behind.

             The emotions coursed through my body in rapid succession. First, shock, that I was alone. Then fear seized my body, as I realized I was lost in the middle of a foreign city without a working phone and with no way to contact anybody else. Pitiful helplessness then overcame my mind as I realized there was nothing in my power. And lastly, almost absurdly, came assuredness—my mind relaxed into blank certainty that one way or another I would be found relatively soon and all I had to do was sit there outside the small little ATM in a derelict car park…and wait.

It was nearly 30 minutes, before in a minute of lucidity, my mind once again operated and realized that there was no help coming. The exuberant little voice in my hand that yelled that all would be fine stopped for a second, and was overwhelmed by the louder voice of panic. “There is no help coming, nor will there be any help coming. There is absolutely no way for anyone to know that you are lost, and you may as well sit here for the next 48 hours.” The absent-minded, almost childish voice, finally faded away, and I was consciously drawn away from my absent-minded ideas of imaginary help.

But the replacing emotion was almost equally deleterious for panic and fear pumped through my body, freezing up my mind and stagnating any proper thought process. I felt paralyzed, sitting there, with adrenaline coursing through my veins, with insufferable inaction agitating myself as I had no available options in hand.

Finally a calming voice entered my head to squelch the alarm and terror that had reigned over me. But this voice that brought help was innately unrecognizable and yet all so familiar. “你为什么怕了？对什么怕了？问题在哪儿？你是在中国，还有你可能说中文。 (Why are you afraid? Of what are you afraid of? Where is the problem? You’re in China and you can speak Chinese. )” The voice was indisputably myself, but such seizure of control over the crisis by myself was simply unfathomable. Sensing my hesitation, it rang once more, “你为什么还等? (Why are you still waiting?)”. Deciding to take a leap of faith in myself, I decided that no help was coming to save me, and so I decided to take the matters into my own hands. After all, it wasn’t someone else’s life, but my own, and my sub-conscious, which weirdly was now in Chinese, had thrust it into my own life.

I stood up with confidence, leaving behind that seat of self-pity and absent-minded hope in that derelict space, and walked into a store in the vicinity. I asked the shopkeeper, “您好。您知道旅馆是在那人？我是学生可是我的老师拉我，哈哈，所以我要回来。（Hello. Do you know where the hotel is? I’m a student but my teacher left me behind, haha, so I wish to return.）”. They happily gave me directions down the road, and after another two conversations with other shopkeepers I managed to return to my friends and teachers after about 2 hours on my own.

When I got back, I found out my absence had not gone noticed. No one would have noticed my separation until the next morning. But I surprisingly did not find this astonishing, but only expected. How could I ever expect anyone else to be looking out for me? The only person obligated to ever help me was myself, and I had an obligation to take care of myself to the best of my ability. Had I not been thrust my own life in those circumstances, I may very well have sat there in absent-minded self-pity waiting for help ceaselessly until morning.

Whether it was in a particular situation or just in general life, my life was in no one else’s hands but mine. And though help is always welcome, in the end of the day I have to lead my own life… now it is unthinkable to me that there may have been a time that I expected, even took for granted, external control of my own life. And I owe it to those harsh circumstances to force myself to finally stand up and take matters into my own hands, not for those few hours, but for the rest of my life.   

我结果的我的经验懂我不可以等别人的帮忙，我自己得帮助我。(As a result of my experience, I came to realize that I couldn’t simply wait around for help in life, but had to help myself and take action into my own hands.)

Nanjing'm Sun Yat Sen Memorial

            In the city of Nanking, China, lies a grand memorial dedicated to the Chinese Nationalist Sun Yat Sen. At the foot of the tall memorial is a gate that everyone crosses through with a dedicatory inscription at the top. After passing through the arch you are presented with a wide span of stairs that continue up over a 1000 steps with a monument at the very top lined with hundreds of people. Despite my friends’ and my foreign appearances, we were soon integrated with the crowd. Eager as I was to practice my Chinese, it took less than two minutes for me to find a trio of college students to talk to.

At first I felt a little confronted by students as they gathered around me to talk. I felt my mind’s two years of learning Chinese abandon me as fear managed to clog my throat and brain. After an awkward 20 seconds of open mouthed gaping I managed to utter a weak “ni hao.” Inwardly, I felt so ridiculously conspicuous and foolish standing there, obviously a foreigner, with my mouth just hanging open. I simply turned around and tried not to make eye contact with anyone so I could be shrouded in inconspicuousness. But as I turned back on my heels, I had an odd epiphany as I realized that nothing could be more foolish than to travel across the world and learn a language for two years just to hide myself in the shadows. So once again turned around, but this time I faced the 1000 step scene and found different people to converse with. My mind still stuttered from time to time, but I simply shook it off, determined to not be deterred.  

The topics were endless and the opportunities unlimited, for I could converse with these crowds. Some people I spent a matter of minutes with, while a few others I spent over an hour. The relationships I formed with people were certainly not typical, as they found me a strange curiosity to be speaking their language and I found them to be equally interesting. Often I would stumble with my Chinese and feel slightly flustered, but they were polite and deft enough to help me continue. When we finally reached the top of the monument I was by far and away isolated from by comfort zone of friends, and instead was journeying by a different group of college students, and yet I felt at ease.

The memorial explained the enduring life of Sun Yat Sen, a Chinese politician that had time and time again got up after being pushed down by challenges in an attempt to establish democracy in China. The journey had certainly been worthwhile as I now felt great reverence for a man who always proved tenacious. By the end of the day I had met so many different people through my Chinese, I felt fairly accomplished. I had done what I had wanted to do in taking and studying Chinese. And it was this monument on this tall mountain that had taught me that there are countless possibilities for me to keep trying again and again.

Just How likely is World War III?

            Just how likely is a new global war? To properly understand the ramifications of the current situation in Ukraine and its neighboring countries, one must fully understand the beginnings of the earlier 20^th century wars, namely the First World War. Known then as the Great War, WWI had rather humble beginnings in relatively trifle matters. The trigger that set massive events into motion was the assassination of an Archduke of Austria-Hungary at the hands of the Black Hand, a Serbian terrorist group. As expected, Austria-Hungary acted out of anger, issuing an ultimatum to Serbia as a prelude to war. And henceforth the double-edged blade of alliances reared its ugly head over Europe and eventually the World, as dozens of countries were forced to make good on their treaties, alliances meant to ironically ensure security. Russia was bound to back Serbia, and as a result Germany declared war on Russia on behalf of Austria-Hungary. As a result England and France were sucked in as allies of Russia and hence so were the many English colonies, such as New Zealand and Australia.

            So how much of today’s situation parallels the circumstances precisely a century ago? Well, the change of government in Ukraine, due to the protests against Yanukovych, would have been a matter limited to Ukraine. However, it concerns both the western European countries and Russia because the new government is pulling further away from Russia and closer towards Western Europe. That combined with the fact that many Ukrainians and Russians in Crimea are protesting against the new government has incited Russia to move troops into Crimea without firing a shot. If we view Ukraine’s particular situation, torn between West and East, as a Civil War, this particular state of affairs is even closer to 1914. A trifle matter between two countries has brought Russia to stand ready to commit on one side. In 1914 Russia’s preparedness to enter on one side provoked Germany into declaring war because of the system of alliances. Well, today countries don’t have so many treaties and alliances ready for war, do they? European countries don’t have such explicit treaties today, but they have something even more tangling. The western countries have the European Union tying them into each other and the eastern countries are less formally tied together as all former Soviet Union. Already the EU has close ties to the new government, backed by Western Ukraine, and Russia has close ties with the previous government, still desired by Eastern Ukraine. Moreover the international community, including US, has reached a consensus against Russia. So in comparison to the Great War in 1914, the current situation looks pretty ready for war.

            However the factor that remains uncounted is the global community’s hard-learned lesson from the 20^th century wars. Especially with the evolution of even more destructive nuclear weapons and experience with arms races with the former USSR, the global community is more than ever inclined to try diplomacy as much as possible. After the series of global wars in the previous century, America should not have, and so far has not expressed, any desire for a full-blown global war with nuclear weapons on every side. So in the context of the 2014, and not 1914, WWIII is simply not likely. That said, it is fairly likely, that either the UN or the EU contemplate or even attempt sending in a small number of troops to see Russia out of Ukraine and that peace is returned.

Society's social obligations waived aside

If all humanity disregarded the good of society and only considered their own gain, the global society would rapidly disintegrate and degrade back into a barbaric state. All of society, society as a whole even, has a social responsibility to one another and if everybody waived that obligation our developed society over the last several centuries would be no longer. Even now the only reason our society has even come so far is because a few people, such as Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa, have gone above and beyond their own share of social responsibility. But it should not be this way- everybody should be fulfilling their own share of obligation to society with no one person going so extremely above and beyond. But let’s assume it actually happens- everybody decides to only act out of self-interest and not even give a thought to their social responsibility.

 First the government would be greatly affected if every individual decided his only concern was to himself. Legislators and their respective committees would cow into their ‘sponsors’ that ‘donate’ tons of money to them. Bureaucrats, whom are hard to remove from office anyhow and have no fear of reelection, would take the easiest path and implement policies lazily. So if they were to implement a Medicare program they might try to cut corners if they waived aside their personal responsibilities. Bureaucracy would no longer regulate all the companies properly and thoroughly with concern for the human population’s safety. Really the whole idea of a government being there to promote the general welfare would be gone if social responsibilities were waived aside, and just like that, thousands of years spent in refining government would be thrown away.

After the government’s denigration businesses would grow monumentally with the government off their back regulating everything they did and without a thought toward social responsibility. What stops a biopharmaceutical government from using steroids in their drugs for added strength to show stronger results and stimulate more sales if there is no government regulation and they don’t feel an obligation to the health and safety of the public? Corporations would have no check on them society as a whole decides to waive aside any obligation they feel towards one another. We have spent so many thousands of years in civilizations all over the world trying to find a way to make sure businesses do not abuse the public, but all that work would just be unraveled. Our society would be brought to its knees if people wouldn’t even be able to trust their local businesses to be honest.

Lastly and most strikingly our communities would be literally nothing. The idea of a community predates humanity…communities of individuals have been developing since the first organisms. Literally the idea of working together, intertwined with the very structure of nature, is founded on social responsibility. If as a whole our society waived aside any social responsibility, we wouldn’t feel any need to protect or help our neighbors. If an ambulance showed up at one’s house, neighbors wouldn’t care to check on him. Even further, the concept of friendship would be gone. We would feel in no way obligated to help somebody that we call a “friend”. Even further the very unit of a family, a little hub of protection and safety and love, would be diminished. What would we be but wholly separate individuals with no care but ourselves? Can we even imagine such a world? It is the social obligations that we feel that draws the difference between our current society and that sad existence.

 

One's Obligations

            It is easy to agree with individualist theories and agree with philosophers like Thoreau that we owe nothing to society, only to ourselves, because it appeals to our personal desire and makes sense on a fundamental level. Aren’t we all sole units and hence isn’t our first and only obligation to ourselves?

The problem is that society and the whole world today has only made the progress that it has in the past few millennia because there have been people that put their own self gain aside for the good of the community. If all humanity disregarded the good of society and only considered their own gain, the global society would rapidly disintegrate and degrade back into a barbaric state. We would live in an every-man-for-himself society without any government or rein on society, where ethics and morals would no longer apply. Everybody who could take advantage of other people would take advantage of other people simply because they had the power to.  

            On the other hand if everybody put the good of society first before their own, we would be no closer towards recognizing an ideal state of society. Really, the world would simply be in anarchy because even though people are thinking of the society as a whole first, their personal motivation to do anything is dashed. Who would try to work hard for society when their personal efforts won’t amount to anything significant for themselves or even for society but be shadowed by the rest of the society as a whole? Whenever people work in teams naturally individuals begin to slack off because there’s little personal gain and their contributions won’t be significant in the final output.

            As of today our society is comprised of mostly people that work towards their own personal gain and a few that feel a strong obligation towards society. This structure does not work either. Nelson Mandela (in honor of his recent death) and the South African Apartheid structure illustrates our current society impeccably. The National Party of South Africa had been enforcing apartheid, or racial segregation, primarily for their own self-gain as these white people in power are simply promoting themselves. In the end what it took for actually social progress was a man who put the greater good and society first- Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela suffered punishment and imprisonment on Robben Island before he could bring about the change he envisioned for the better of society in South Africa. Clearly our current society does not work either. Firstly, it is too slow and time taking when so many are not considering the good of society and secondly, it is unfair to those who finally sacrifice their own self gain for all of society’s progression.

            Obviously there is no clear cut answer towards the question “how should society behave as individual people when it comes to their obligations to themselves and the whole of society?” But I find that the best approach would be for all people of society to put their own personal gain first, as all people have a natural obligation first and foremost to themselves, but then to regard society as their second obligation. No decision should be made by an individual without regard to both his own good and the good of society. In this way no one person, such as the great and venerable Nelson Mandela, should have to carry society on their back but society is nurtured and allowed to progress forward.  

Gun Control

Should America have more gun control and place more restrictions on firearms? How could the answer possibly be no? Isn’t national security a top priority for this government, an institution constitutionally delegated to “promote the general welfare” of the civilian people of America, and hence mustn’t the government at the least place better control of these dangerous weapons of destruction in America? The number of shootings in past years has just kept increasing and unless we act now many more innocent lives will be taken or harmed by these firearms. Annually more than 30,000 people are killed by firearms annually, and yet some would even attempt to argue for looser restrictions on guns. Obviously firearms are in the wrong hands if there is such a ridiculous amount of gun violence annually. Hence it is the government’s duty to keep such weapons of destructions out of these wrong hands, and the only plausible way to do that is by increasing gun control and hence keeping the nation safe. There cannot be any question in that these guns are used for violence and result in high numbers of deaths and injuries as statistics prove that relative to other nations America has some of the worst gun violence. Seeing as 40% of gun sales in America have no background check, logic proves that gun control and restrictions, such as far more background checks, are the right way to keep firearms out of wrong hands and keep America safe.

When it comes to arguments for less gun control, the real statistics show that these ‘arguments’ do not even make sense. The most popular argument is that firearms should not be restricted because it is a guaranteed constitutional right by the Second Amendment. Those who make this argument forget that America’s founding fathers and framers of the Constitution purposely made an amending process because they knew far too well that they could not plan for all of history and that times would change. Times have certainly changed with the improvement of our police system and the increase of the destructive power of firearms. The second main argument against gun control is that it is a basic right to protect oneself with firearms. This argument does not make sense on so many levels. The first reason is that removal of all firearms is not the suggested legislation, but greater control so they stay out of the wrong hands. As long as someone who wishes to protect themselves passes background checks and is deemed psychologically healthy, they can still be authorized to own a gun. The second reason this is invalid is one can certainly protect themselves without the use of firearms, especially if the assaulter does not have a firearm, because of greater gun control. The third reason is that firearms are used far more for violence than self-defense. For every time a gun injures or kills in self-defense, it is used for attempted or completed suicide 11 times, 7 times in a criminal assault or homicide, and 4 times in an unintentional shooting death or injury. There are quite obviously far more people hurt at the hands of firearms than saved, but even with that considered greater gun control will be diminishing the number of times it is used in violence, not the number of times it is used in self-defense so much. Hence there is absolutely no logic behind the arguments against stronger gun control.

If not for me, your own family

If you don’t buy this chalkboard mug from me, I’ll be ruined and it would be on your head. If you don’t buy this mug, I will lose my job and it would be your fault. My whole life will be ruined if you don’t just buy one. Just because you wanted to go buy some silly sunglasses later and not simply give me a few dollars I would lose everything. I’ll not only become a laughingstock and lose my job, but I will never go to college and never get a job again unless you buy one right now. If you walk away right now, I will lose everything in my life just because of you. My life would become a failure and it would be all on your head. You’ll have to walk around the rest of your life knowing that you have caused this if you walk away right now. I’ll lose all the confidence I ever had and my whole future would just disappear if you won’t do this small little thing for me. As you leave and go to the mall and spend those few dollars, the key to my future, I’ll be fired from my job and be forced to watch in shame all that future that was ahead of me dissolve like a dream. But you’ll go happily along your way and never realize how you so easily destroyed everything I’ve worked so hard for. I will lose everything, but you’ll keep those few dollars, green pieces of paper that are nearly worthless to you but worth everything to me, and it would be your fault.

Fine, if you won’t do it for me and all that I have ahead of me, at least do it for your family. Have a heart and go home today to create some lifelong memories with your family. Take home this awesome chalkboard mug and go home and sit with your kids and wife by the fire and have a real family moment. Don’t you love your family? Don’t you want your kids to grow up and think of you fondly? Make it up to them with this mug; go bring them this and sit around the fire drinking hot chocolate and drawing with chalk. Let your kids actually have a childhood and a true family moment without the internet if you actually love them. Let them sit with you and play some games over a chalkboard and some chalk as you did when you were a kid. Don’t you want to go back to your own childhood and live those warm family days and play once more with chalk? Give your children a chance to have those amazing memories that you cherish now. You’ll be depriving them of their childhood if you walk away right now. Take this mug home and stop to smell the roses for a bit and show your family some love. Let them play and draw on this mug with you and one day let them think back to their childhood with smiles. If you actually love your kids, you will buy one of these.