HANGZHOU, Oct. 29
Sun Yat-sen, considered the father of the Republic of China, once sighed that the Chinese people were like scattered sand, not united. Now it is more likely that the rich people in China -- such as the real estate dealers -- can unite together. Government officials are in some ways in accord with each other too. Out of common interest they can stay together and speak the same words.
By contrast, people at the bottom in China have become completely become pulverized. What is worse is that a new phenomenon of "people eating people" has appeared. If this continues to spread it will be disastrous.
In the first half of this year, media were full of the sensational news that illegal brick kilns in Shanxi province were using children as slave labor. Actually there have been similar cases in other places too. Recently an illegal kiln was discovered within the jurisdiction of Beijing. The contractor was accused of denying his workers personal freedom, withholding their salaries, beating them and forcing them to work long hours. He had paid 300 yuan (US$40) for each worker. They had been tricked into coming there from different places.
Why is similar mistreatment of people found at illegal kilns in different places? We can see that they all have contractors who directly carry out evil deeds and play the role of "eating others." Someone has calculated carefully that if a contractor is honest and not cheating the workers, he will have very little profit left after paying the contractor's fee. Contractors themselves actually also belong to the bottom of society. At first, they strive to survive. Later, during the process of acquiring benefits, they go beyond the bottom line of humanity. They then become ruthless and exploit the workers to the maximum level, which is typical of "people eating people."
Unlike people in the upper class, those at the bottom of society do not have the legal right to harm others. To make their lives better, they can only harm those who are also at the bottom, or at most in the middle class.
By contrast, people in the upper class own their armor. Their security is guaranteed before the basic social order goes out of control. The "people eating people" phenomenon of the bottom class is against civilized society, and is an inauspicious sign. If it becomes more serious, the result will be even worse than that of the self-indulgent "Xi Menqing" style and the fawning "pet" trend in upper-class society.
People living on Chinese soil who have not yet lost their normal judgment can easily conclude that China has fallen to its lowest moral point in history. All the bottom lines have been broken through; people can do anything without fear. They are not afraid of punishment from God, and do not worry that God is actually watching them.
There is no future for such a place, filled with the indulgent rich, the fawning, marginalized middle class and the lowly "people who eat people." Although we cannot say that all evils are caused by politics, politics certainly play a decisive role. Early in the 18th century, French Enlightenment thinker Jean Jacques Rousseau noted that everything is the result of politics. A nation's outlook is totally decided by its political nature, he said.
Under such circumstances, people in power should do something to change all this. They should not put maintaining their authority as their top priority. Before political change takes place, at least those conscientious people belonging to the rich class in China should stand up and take some responsibility to reverse this moral degradation, change the self-indulgent lifestyle and try to rebuild the people's moral standards and values. They should take action to build new models for society.
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(Fu Guoyong is an independent writer and civil scholar. His articles on modern China have been widely published within and outside the country. His special interest is the history of public opinion over the past 100 years and issues related to China's intellectuals. This article is edited and translated from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online; the original may be found at http://fuguoyong.vip.bokee.com. ©Copyright Fu Guoyong.)
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