First, the mirror of civilization and the mirror of change-the social morality in China today.
Is social morality a mirror or has it become a mirror in China today? This issue is closely related to the debate between moral "landslide theory" and moral "climbing theory", and there was a fierce confrontation at the beginning of reform and opening up. Today, with the further development of society and the deepening of people's understanding, the conclusion is clear, that is, the "strengthening of time concept and efficiency consciousness" and "socio-political enlightenment" of comparison theorists are not in the moral field, but more in the economic and political fields. There is no absolute positive correlation between social and economic development and moral progress. The economy has developed, but our moral situation has not improved on the whole, and there has been an obvious decline in some aspects. As far as social morality is concerned, you don't queue up when you get on the bus, give up your seat, throw paper scraps, make loud noises in public places, and don't flush when you go to the toilet. These things. Fake and shoddy, deception and abduction emerge in an endless stream; Crime is rampant, and major cases have risen sharply; Drug abuse, drug trafficking and prostitution are not uncommon. Neglect of interests, individual loneliness and anxiety, and indifference between people are no longer individual phenomena. These are hard to make people feel morally rising.
Not long ago, the things disclosed on the Internet were more typical: on June 65438+1October1day, 2004, an incident occurred in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, and the dog owner threatened the rickshaw driver to kneel and kowtow to the puppy; A month later, 165438+1October16, the same scene was staged in the streets of Hefei, Anhui Province: a taxi driver was threatened by the dog owner and knelt down to the injured puppy in the cold wind until the police arrived at the scene. The result of a police station in Hefei was that the driver who knelt down to the dog compensated the dog owner1.
Therefore, we can no longer indulge in the illusory dream of moral power. We should be soberly aware that our morality is declining, social morality has changed color, and its construction is urgent. To form a good social morality, we must first find out the reasons for the lack of social morality in China today, in order to solve the problem and have a clear aim.
Second, private morality and public morality-disadvantages of traditional culture in China.
China is known as the country of etiquette, and the virtues advocated by Confucian ethics, such as benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith, gentleness and frugality, and resignation, are regarded as the standard (guniè [criterion; Standards] refers to standards, figurative standards, norms and regulations; Based on this, decisions can be made or judgments can be made according to standards. The adaptation theory in Du Fu's Eight Sorrow Poems is still regarded as the standard by Japanese scholars. Lu Xun's "Human History"). The feeling of "worrying about the world first, and enjoying the world later" is even more praised by the world. This gesture of making the world public.
Confucianism is a theory based on patriarchal clan system. When dealing with the relationship between private morality and public morality and establishing a moral system, it develops along the path of putting private before public. Self-cultivation-housekeeping-governing the country-leveling the world, and "home" is behind "country" and "world". Confucius said, "Filial piety is also the foundation of human beings." () Mencius said, "Which is more important or lighter? Family comes first. " (Mencius? Li Lou) As far as public morality is concerned, private morality is fundamental and supreme. Public morality is based on and derived from private morality.
As some commentators have said, "The basic value orientation of China people is' identity' or' seeking common ground'. The basic methodology is: seeking common ground and then seeking common ground, linking up and linking up, and affirming again. " [2] This is of course true. However, when there is a contradiction between private morality and public morality, and the contradiction between them is irreconcilable, there is no way to "seek common ground", "connect" and "affirm" Lutz) When filial piety conflicts with honesty, Confucius, who always emphasized the latter, advocated maintaining the blood relationship between father and son through "father and son hiding", thus clearly putting family private morality above social morality.
Look at Mencius, Mencius originally advocated "being kind to others and being friends with others" (Mencius? Li Lou), but when it comes to the relationship between father and son, the situation changes. He said, "There is no duty of kindness between father and son" (Mencius? Li Lou), even thought: "Father and son are responsible for goodness, and thieves are the most generous" (Mencius? Li Lou). Mutual criticism in moral life is of course important, but once it comes to the supreme blood relationship, it will only give in. Therefore, Mencius, in the face of his father's murder, "sneaked away, followed the seaside, lived a happy life, and forgot the world with joy" (Mencius? Dedicated) full of praise. While openly praising the corruption of cronyism and cronyism, it neglected the social morality of justice, law-abiding and meritocracy, which had a huge negative impact on the social development of China. A concentrated expression of this complex effect is that because Confucian ethics has occupied a leading position in traditional culture for a long time, people have formed an ethical tradition that attaches great importance to family private virtues such as kindness, filial piety and friendship. It tends to show a relative contempt for social morality, so that some basic social moral norms, such as honesty and trustworthiness, fairness and law-abiding, observing public order, paying attention to public health and caring for public property, are often ignored. [3]
Third, the collective ideal and personal nothingness-the limitations of the background of the times
As Marx said, "People consciously or unconsciously, in the final analysis, draw their own moral concepts from the actual relationship on which their class status is based-from the economic relationship they produce and exchange." [4] Morality is the product of the times and is bound to be restricted by the times; At the same time, the development of morality has its uniqueness, and social morality is closely related to the lives of ordinary people, which is correspondingly more obvious. After the founding of New China, we experienced the "warm, harmonious, simple and clean" fifties and sixties deeply missed by many old people, the "Cultural Revolution" in which social morality collapsed, and entered the era of modernization. Our economic development is remarkable, even "world-famous", but the construction of social morality is not flattering. From the past extreme collectivism to today's extreme individualism, from the past moral idealism to today's moral nihilism, we just jumped from one extreme to the other. After this 180 degree turn, our moral situation does not seem to have made much progress. -in some ways.
Modernization is a double-edged sword. Money is a good thing and the economy is indispensable. The people of China have never been so eager for freedom and democracy as they are today. However, does economic development necessarily bring moral progress? Can rationality really bring us happiness? Is our spirit getting more and more sound, or the other way around? Rousseau's vigilant questioning of enlightenment rationality in the18th century highlights his insights more and more. His motto "The more science develops, the more morality degenerates" still echoes in our ears, and it is getting clearer and clearer.
So Olga. Hill's essay describing urbanites under the background of today's times has been widely reprinted on the Internet: "We keep accumulating wealth, but gradually lose our self-worth;" We talk too much and love too little; We have mastered the means of making a living, but we don't know the true meaning of life. We learned to catch up with time, but we didn't learn to wait patiently. We have more and more wealth, but our moral quality is declining day by day. We produce more computers to store more information and make more copies, but there is less and less communication between them ... "
Fourthly, traditional system and modern system-the vacuum of social system.
Modern people are more and more aware of the importance of the system. A good social system can turn bad people into good people, and a bad social system can turn good people into bad people, which has basically become people's knowledge. In the process of modernization, the traditional system has been greatly destroyed, but the new reasonable system has not been established for the time being, so the institutional vacuum has opened the door to the moral vacuum. "Insist on being bold", the standard to measure boldness and timidity here is the destruction of social morality. "Being rich without virtue" is an irrefutable truth in an imperfect society. At the beginning of reform and opening up, many nouveau riche made their fortune in this way. Today, we are faced with many problems, such as the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the intensification of social injustice, unfair competition, black-box operation, and so on, which are hotbeds leading to the lack of social morality.
The incident of "thieves" stealing steamed bread in Beijing, which once attracted social attention, fully exposed the problems existing in the system.
A young man who failed to find a job in Beijing didn't eat for several days and was really hungry. In desperation, he stole several steamed buns from the canteen and fled in a hurry after being discovered. But because there was no strength, I fainted to the ground and was "caught red-handed". Some proud Beijingers said, "Look, these foreigners are so incompetent. They came to our capital and seriously damaged it. " However, Beijing is not Beijing for Beijingers, but Beijing for China. Cui Wen Daily once reprinted a short article entitled "Why is it so difficult to be a Beijinger", which outlined the problems existing in the existing system in China from the aspects of life discrimination, occupational discrimination and children's education discrimination. [5] These problems focus on social justice, and social justice itself is the greatest morality. Rawls, a great contemporary thinker, pointed out at the beginning of his epoch-making masterpiece A Theory of Justice: "Justice is the primary virtue of social system, just as truth is the primary virtue of thought ... No matter how efficient and orderly laws and systems are, as long as they are unfair, they must be reformed or abolished." [6] The unjust social system has laid endless hidden dangers for the lack of social morality.
Therefore, if we ignore the defects of the system, blindly criticize morality, pretend to be a moralist, preach to them that "starvation is a trivial matter, and disrespect is a major matter", and carefully examine the development process from the traditional system to the modern system, we will face our conscience and feel ashamed.
5. When God dies, people die-the lack of faith.
It is not difficult to demonstrate the importance of faith in theory, but it is difficult to let faith fall from the mouth to the heart and raise the sail of faith in real life. The belief of westerners has gone through the process of natural god-god-reason-nothingness. Under the background of the west wind spreading eastward, we in China have fallen into the subversion of the traditional Confucian belief in joining the WTO. Its core is "to stand for the world, to stand for the people, to make a career for the former dynasty, and to be peaceful for all generations."
A piece of red cloth written by Cui Jian, the father of Chinese mainland rock in the 1980s, tells the illusion of China people's belief: "You covered my eyes with a piece of red cloth that day/you asked me what I saw/I said I saw happiness." Just as Lu Xun described "waking up from a dream, but there is no way to go", loneliness, loneliness, depression, hesitation and disappointment. The sacred and noble love is gone, "I will love you/you will love me/just because of loneliness" ("Because of loneliness"). Although the lyrics are cruel, they express the voices of many people.
The lack of faith leads to the prevalence of extreme individualism and extreme utilitarianism. The reason why the word "extreme" is added in front of it is to distinguish it from western individualism and utilitarianism. Individualism and utilitarianism are the cornerstones of western values. In their view, individual rights are above everything else. It is human nature to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, and morality should conform rather than violate it. This is the most superficial concept of western individualism and utilitarianism. Many people in China today fully agree with this point, but ignore its deeper significance. Individualism emphasizes personal dignity, value and even the sanctity of property, which refers to everyone and is universal. China people only understand the individual as "me". Utilitarianism emphasizes utility, but pursues "the greatest happiness of most people". According to Mill, the master of utilitarianism, the happiness and long-term interests of all members of society are the most basic principles of utilitarianism. [7] It can be seen that utilitarianism includes the concept of respecting others and living together with others, as well as utilitarianism in China today.
This extremism is manifested in three levels. For ordinary citizens, they believe in "in an era without heroes/I just want to be a person" (North Island); The second level is deeper and more extreme. By subverting values and the game world. The so-called "being a villain is really happy" means this; What's more, he publicly shouted "Don't treat me like a human being" in the third pass (Wang Shuo). In this context, talking about social morality is tantamount to talking about idiots.
Sixth, "I" is dominant and "I" is a slave-the loss of subjective consciousness.
Man exists as a subject. In the field of cognition, man is the subject, anyway, he is the subject. But in the field of value, when it comes to moral issues including social morality, people often lose their dominant position consciously or unconsciously. The reason is, as Berdyaev said: "People are in a state of slavery, they often can't find their own slavery status, and sometimes they like this kind of slavery." "Freedom is a difficult thing. It will be easier to be in slavery. " [8]
In China, the loss of the dominant position is inseparable from the lack of civic awareness. China has been a subject society rather than a civil society since ancient times, and the collective unconsciousness of China people is full of subject consciousness rather than citizen consciousness. Therefore, Wang Hai, a fake hero, and Qiu Ju, who sued the village head, are regarded as "unstable factors" and "thugs" by some "public servants", and the price they have to pay is unimaginable to ordinary people.
What we used to say about "the spirit of ownership" is consistent with civic awareness. Because we feel that we are citizens and masters of the country, we will care for every grass and tree in society as we care for our eyes. I will also recognize and abide by the public rules of society; We will sincerely identify with and practice the fashion and values advocated by the state. This is an important reason why China's social moral construction has attracted worldwide attention since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
However, today, due to various reasons, this sense of identity with the country and society is declining sharply. In the past, the concept that "small family" and "everyone" belong to the same family was gradually replaced by the contradiction between "small family" and "everyone". Private morality and public morality are no longer interlinked, but more become an antagonistic relationship.
Seven, public image and self-image-indifference of legal concept and rule consciousness.
Citizens, legal system and rules are closely related to the core vocabulary of modern society. Since I am only an insignificant subject, since the meaning of my existence is different from others, why not occasionally violate the rules and play the edge ball without the knowledge of the master, experience the pleasure of playing cards according to the rules, and get unexpected huge benefits? The subject's personality is split. The existence or non-existence of the owner shows the opposite. He showed two completely different "I". The lack of civic awareness will inevitably lead to the indifference of legal awareness and rule awareness. Throwing scraps of paper, driving illegally, profiteering, making loud noises in public, urinating in the bath pool, etc., are all manifestations of lack of legal awareness and rule awareness.
More importantly, the lack of legal concept and rule awareness is not only reflected in the "small things" in daily life and our "words and deeds", but also related to the construction of a democratic country and the overall improvement of national quality. At the end of World War II, Germany, a responsible big country, had to let its citizens cut down trees to keep warm. Forestry personnel are searching for old, weak or inferior trees in the vast Jyukai. At that time, German administration existed in name only, all civil servants were transferred to the front line, there were no police in the city, and the whole country was almost in a political vacuum. But until the end of the war, there was no incident of indiscriminate logging by residents in Germany, and all the regulations were faithfully implemented. After more than 50 years, the old Ji Man Xianlin, who was trapped in Germany at that time, still lamented that Germans "have the conditions of anarchy, but there is no anarchy" [9] As for Germans and Japanese, they obey the traffic rules, even if there is no one on the road, as long as the red light is on, they will not drive or walk. China people are already familiar with these examples. This is the quality of modern citizens. I don't know how many teenagers it takes for such a thing to happen in China!
In short, as some scholars have pointed out: "To run a red light, police must be present to maintain order. Such people are used to being controlled by others, and they lack the corresponding sense of social responsibility. We cannot imagine that a democratic society can be composed of such people. " [ 10]
Eight, "law first" and "law second"-some enlightenment
The six reasons mentioned above do not exist in isolation. What is provided here is only six different perspectives to examine the lack of social morality. It can also be said that the loss of social morality in China today has turned the mirror of civilization into the mirror of today. This is a social problem, not just a moral problem. Only by putting it in the social background can we find practical solutions and ways.
Historical experience tells us that moral construction cannot be achieved overnight, ignoring the realistic political and economic conditions and trying to realize people's "thoroughly remoulding" in a short time by means of spiritual revolution. Such a wish can only be a castle in the air, and the ultimate fate can only end in failure.
Moral construction is different from economic construction, and material input is not always proportional to spiritual return. A just society is the cornerstone of moral civilization. If we want to turn the mirror into a mirror of civilization, we must reform the society from the perspective of social justice. To achieve social justice, we must first establish a sense of rules. The urgent task today is to grasp the degree of public morality, that is, not to be infinitely high, nor to stop at the primary level, that is, "learning the law."
The so-called infinite improvement means that we have achieved "taking law as the top priority", that is, we have generalized social morality and talked about morality all the time. In the past, we regarded college students' love as a moral problem, and adopted the way of "chasing and intercepting" to raise a moral stick to hit Yuanyang. This behavior is not only ridiculous, but also immoral in itself, because it goes against human nature. Therefore, if it is moral, give it to public morality.
At the same time, it should be noted that due to the differences in moral levels, people often equate social morality with the lowest daily code of conduct and think that social morality seems to have nothing to do with ethical norms and the pursuit of belief values. This "law-based" problem has gone to extremes. As mentioned above, social morality is not just a trivial matter, it reflects the comprehensive quality of citizens in a social mental state. The so-called "one sand and one world", whether Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism or Christianity, we all see the integrity of morality.
Finding a breakthrough to make up for the lack of social morality is still the first step. At the beginning of the article, a living person in Anhui province kneels down to a dead dog. The party who kneels down is afraid of the revenge of the dog owner, and the police are afraid to tell the police why they are forced to kneel down after they arrive. It really responded to Mr. Lu Xun's words: "Sad for their misfortune, angry for it!" Therefore, the road to enlightenment is long and long, and we still need to adhere to the belief that we have no regrets even if we die nine times.