Ignatius Lee: Cynicism is an Accomplice of Totalitarian Governments (Repost)

Historically, most totalitarian states have been composed of vast and indestructible cynical societies. A typical characteristic of modern cynics is that selfish and clever people specialize in doing bad things: they oppose totalitarianism, yet they also oppose resisting totalitarianism. Because they cannot find any other way to deal with totalitarianism, they advise you to submit to it. Regarding the correct direction of resistance, they repeatedly claim that you are asking others to go to their deaths. In this way, modern cynics create a firebreak for dictators.

Using cynics to rule an autocratic state is simply too convenient. As long as you maintain a high-pressure posture, cynics will help you correct the 'thorny' dissidents in the crowd. Cynics are best at dividing people's hearts. In the most correct direction, they use plausible-sounding arguments to mislead the audience, appearing righteous themselves, while the result is only to further strengthen the autocratic iron cage of the totalitarian state.

The public must learn to distinguish cynical rhetoric coming from the crowd. We must seek to overcome the current state of an atomized society to effectively resist a totalitarian state.

To overcome an atomized society, we need to rebuild trust between people, rebuild the belief that citizens have the ability to change society, and rebuild the determination and confidence to overthrow the totalitarian state.

For individuals in daily life, regardless of how much pain and cost trusting your neighbor may bring, you should persist in doing the right thing as much as possible. Belief is contagious, just as despair is equally easy to spread.

Whenever a society enters an era of transformation, belief and confidence spread rapidly across the country. This has happened almost throughout the entire course of 20th-century history, in every country that has undergone historical transformation.

The most serious problem with cynicism is that they oppose everything, and they oppose everything without a purpose; they are dissatisfied with the status quo, yet they mock those who strive to change it; they do nothing themselves, yet they ridicule those who are working hard to influence society and attempt to promote social change everywhere.

We must be vigilant of this dangerous territory. We must realize that the reason a fragmented society cannot coalesce into a force of resistance is that the problem lies with the atomized individuals. We must start with ourselves, practically overcoming our own cynicism, maintaining belief, goals, and direction, and not be swept away by blind optimism or lifeless pessimism.

I do not encourage anyone to take blind action. I only ask everyone, within their power, to persist in trust, friendship, tolerance, and patience as much as possible, to persist in expression as much as possible, to maintain a spiritually independent life as if the totalitarian state does not exist, not to be dependent on power, not to flatter power, not to collude with power, and not to engage in cynical behavior that directly or indirectly helps maintain the status quo.

Doing these things is not easy, and we may pay a painful price, and you may regret it deeply. But it is the right thing to do. Because these are the essential conditions for a civil society, and without these factors, we cannot form a civil society.

Yes, we will pay a price. Our teeth will be knocked out, and we may lose our eyes. Our companions will become our teeth, and our compatriots will become our eyes. We have no choice. We must walk hand in hand in rows toward the enemy. We must depend on each other.