Schrödinger's words: Dialogue is creation, and chaining is manifestation

Written by: Feng Guangneng, signed author of the Three Views of Crooked Neck, founder of Xiaoguang's Xiuzhen World

Editor: Gu Yi Stella

Words are related to the transmission of memory and the formation of public memory, and people make connections through words, and this connection can cross time and space. For example, we can connect with Heidegger through the words of "The Pursuit of Technology", and also with everyone who has read "The Pursuit of Technology". In addition to making connections, words can also be used to speak freely or discuss things. Sitting around the fireplace and reading was once a good life, and likewise, it was an ancient existential tradition to discuss things together, do things together, and make connections while doing things together. In the context of globalization brought about by industrialization, reading books as a good life and discussing as a tradition of existence are gradually on the verge of oblivion. The inability to speak freely and to discuss things is the greatest crisis that industrialization has brought to civilization.

"Exploitation" narrative as ideology

Ideology is embedded in every grand narrative. Ideology, according to Adorno, is a "necessary social illusion," a social consciousness that most people think is right, but is actually wrong, and at the same time necessary.

First, ideology is not an ordinary social consciousness, but a necessary social consciousness that most people consider correct, but it is indeed wrong. Second, our discussion and criticism of ideology is always carried out in ideology, ideology cannot be shaken off, and what we can do is not to establish a correct ideology, but only to reduce ideological errors, in this sense to achieve social reform. Third, ideology is like the rules on a chessboard, we as chess players, every hand we play will affect the situation of the entire game, but will not shake the rules of the board, unless we begin to reflect on the rules and speak, the purpose of discussing the rules is not to overturn the board, but to make the game more fun.

Ideologies are diverse, precipitated in grand narratives of all kinds, and this is the fate we must bear. Many young people in modern times are averse to grand narratives and reject all grand narratives, but this attitude of rejection itself also stems from grand narratives such as "all grand narratives are deception".

Among the grand narratives that are currently prevalent, the one that needs the most reflection is the grand narrative of "exploitation," whose origins can be traced back to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Marx's Capital. Based on his analysis of the international situation of his time, Adam Smith discovered a simple rule: the more people engaged in productive labor in an organized way, the richer the country became, and vice versa, the poorer the country. The reason is that the labor of unproductive laborers (priests, doctors, literati, lawyers, actors, singers, dancers), whether honorable or not, is born and dies and cannot be sustained. For example, after a table is produced, even after many years, it can be exchanged and traded with others, but after a speech, no work remains. Thus, Adam Smith established a new value system based on survival, which exalted the value of productive labor and emphasized the importance of the free market, private enterprise, and the division of labor for industrious and thrifty enrichment, in which the size of capital reflected the virtues of capitalists.

Marx inherited Adam Smith's distinction between productive and unproductive labor in Capital, but was surprised to find that hard work does not necessarily lead to enrichment. The reason is that the wages paid by capitalists are often lower than the actual return that laborers deserve, and the multiplication of capital depends on the exploitation of laborers by capitalists. Thus, the size of capital no longer reflects the virtues of capitalists, but the original sin of capitalists.

The danger of the grand narrative of "exploitation" as an ideology is that it is premised on the opposing existence of the "exploiter" and the "exploited". The more it feels realistic, the stronger the conceptual premise becomes, leaving many possible relationships unrevealed. Ultimately, it reveals unfair realities while making them more miserable.

! [Schrödinger's words: dialogue is creation, chain is manifestation] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-69a80767fe-c56800833a-dd1a6f-69ad2a.webp)

We cannot use smallholder thinking to understand economic problems in the context of globalization. In the past, in the countryside, landlords were a typical rentier class, and it seemed that the problem of unfair distribution could be solved by attacking the tycoons and dividing the fields. But it doesn't. First, smallholder thinking is conservative and cannot bring about institutional-level innovation. The old landlords were overthrown, and if the distribution system did not change, the new landlords would still come to power. Second, smallholder thinking is disconnected from the rapidly changing technological environment. In the past, landlords were visible, but today, the flow of capital has become so hidden that ordinary people who passively accept distribution are unaware of it. But even so, the spirit of criticism is still essential, but we are no longer criticizing specific people, but some backward concepts, so that those who hold these ideas are alert, conscious and reflective.

What we want to criticize is backward ideas. Everyone living in history has his own historicity, and these historicity are first and foremost embodied in the precipitation of ideas, because human behavior is governed by his own ideas. Everyone has a large number of ideas precipitated in the depths of the world of intention, some of which are good and can inspire people to manifest their divinity, such as "make people around them feel comfortable", "respect others", "suspend their own foresight", "exercise is beneficial to the body and mind", "do things well little by little", "care about the demands of those around them", "actively connect with people around them", "need to care for the environment, cherish energy", "pay attention to details", "seek meaning in the living world"; Some are evil, which will make people show their own magic, such as "the law of this world is that a few people exploit the majority", "only by exploiting others can we get more game chips", "this society is an exploitative society, if you do not exploit others, you can only be exploited by others", "reality is so cruel, it makes no sense to talk about ideals"; Some ideas have nothing to do with good or evil and belong to the private sphere.

Our time has long been overcapacity, and everyone may actively explore the possibility of life, make life more interesting, and make life at the bottom full of dignity, but it is because of the existence of these evil concepts that the discussion of the new order has become extremely difficult. The common-sense concepts that are crucial to the discussion of public affairs are obscured by these evil ideas and can hardly be put forward when talking about things, such as "the world can be cared for, understood and inspired by each other", "the trend of the times depends on everyone's choice", "emancipating the mind itself is the noblest cause", "making money is not the ultimate goal, we are pursuing a better living world", "under the framework of industrial civilization, many public welfare projects are simply impossible to make money" , "A good society should be happy for everyone"... Even, because some people have eaten the dividends of the times with their evil concepts, they feel that these common-sense concepts are nonsense.

But criticism is extremely difficult. The reason is that people are often willing to show their divinity, to speak out about the concept of good, to avoid talking about some evil ideas, but deep down they believe in it, and even hear the criticism of these concepts are indifferent, just thinking that they do not show it, as a result, their thoughts are also bound by these evil ideas, and they can no longer see a wider world. The age of technology is accelerating, and the rules of the game need to constantly change in order to adapt to the new environment and gradually make everyone live a better life. Since coexistence is the basic way of human existence, helping the people around us as much as possible, especially helping them to emancipate their minds, is the prerequisite for us to live happily too. In ancient Rome, slave owners let slaves play with them all day, and eventually their ideas and tastes were assimilated by slaves. At the Royal Society, everyone has their own pursuits, and everyone actively competes and inspires each other, and finally achieves a large number of immortal scientists.

Because of the difficulty of criticism, the idea of evil can sometimes feel entrenched, leading to the complete dissolution of public life. People who hold evil ideas are also unable to talk about public affairs sincerely because they lack reflection on their own ideas, but they will constantly hinder the discussion of public affairs, and even feel that they are doing very great things, which will seem very absurd. At the same time, these evil ideas will seem self-evident in a narrow context, but spread very quickly, resulting in society becoming an intriguing Asura field. Even if some local government employees have little reading and lack of broad vision, they may be caught up in this concept and unable to see the real way of governance, which not only fails to promote local development, but also worsens local order.

In the new global landscape, the danger of the "exploitation" narrative is that it opens up a game of evasion of the signifier, making people try more to cover up rather than reflect on the idea of evil. There is no doubt that the miserable situation of life at the bottom is obvious to all, if the quality of life at the bottom is improved, then the middle class does not have to worry about the problem of class falling, the involution of society can be improved, and everyone will have more energy and time to explore the meaning of life. As the exploited, it is obviously reasonable for the bottom to appeal to society, but the bottom cannot get a substantive response, and the bottom can only hear a variety of stories. Whether it is an "exploiter", "capitalist", "entrepreneur" or "politician", it actually points to an abstract community, not to concrete people who can take responsibility.

In fact, in modern industrial civilization, everyone may play the role of "rentier class" to a greater or lesser extent in their respective fields, forming a pattern of layers of rentier and mutual defense.

In the long run, both the rentier class and the bottom of society are doomed to be forgotten by history and all die.

The era without public life

The crux of the matter is that the context of "exploitation" presupposes the existence of a "rentier" in the concept.

In practice, according to Adam Smith's distinction between productive and unproductive labor, in fact, as long as people who are not engaged in productive labor, they have become more or less rentiers, but some people have more rentiers and some people have less rentiers. The rentier class and the bottom are not only not opposed, but may also have a high degree of overlap. For example, a contract foreman may be both a social stratum and a rentier class that devours the profits of his employees, and he is also the object of rentier profit by his superiors.

If the rentier class already exists in the idea of the bottom, and the narrative of "exploitation" becomes the core narrative accepted by the bottom, then the problem for the exploited is not to innovate the system or accept more complex realities, but to strive to become a member of the "rentier" and thus increase their freedom. And the number of people that each social class can accommodate is limited, and if there are more monks and less porridge, and no one makes cakes, then the vicious competition of involution cannot be avoided. At the same time, the development of human civilization is a process of realization of a possible world with a common intention, if only a very small number of people think about a better possible world, and most people cannot get rid of the exploitation narrative in their concepts, then no matter how beautiful the possible world, it is difficult to condense into everyone's consensus, and reality will continue to maintain the structure of "exploiter-exploited", which is accompanied by a large number of infighting, internal friction, idling, and empty consumption, but causing everyone to be in misfortune.

In modern society, the human situation is becoming more and more absurd, because with the continuous development of the industrial revolution, the material capacity of society has long been overcapacity, and for the entire human civilization, it has become easier to solve the affairs in the field of necessity, but the internal friction and idling of human civilization have also become more prominent than ever, and the result is that the rentier class is as miserable as laborers: laborers are struggling in the system, frantically seeking excitement after work, such as brushing short videos to decompress; After the salted fish turned rentier class obtains the so-called "freedom", it often does not automatically become speakers and doers, they do not actively care about public affairs, what they do is nothing more than skillfully engage in dodgeball, or no longer believe in love, or still maintain a thrifty life, and at the same time in order to serve future generations, diligently teach future generations, guide them to master what they think is the rules and strategies of the rentier class.

On the surface, everyone is trying to "struggle" for a better life, but the way of struggle is intrigue, drama, mutual internal friction, mutual calculation, layer by layer exploitation, resulting in everyone is limited by their own thoughts, do not see new possibilities, find it difficult to truly pursue life ideals, and are in the prison of self-thought, which is a fundamental dilemma. Moreover, exploitative arts (such as ghost storytelling, carrots and sticks, using debt as a driving force...) is able to circulate, the more a person controls related skills, the more skilled he is, the more dependent he is, and even gradually proud and happy of his skills, thinking that he "manages well", at the same time, the growth of the exploited is the process of learning related skills, these microscopic skill transmission mechanisms are like capillaries distributed in all aspects of society, slowly making most people in this society both exploiters and exploited.

The sad thing is that the limits on the self are also accompanied by the restrictions on others, and the restrictions I make on others also limit me, and if the mind is not liberated, then the whole society will have excessive mutual restraint.

The rentier class after having money seems to be able to buy everything, but the public sphere of human civilization has almost collapsed, the technological environment is becoming increasingly systematic, industrial civilization is developing in an accelerating and unsustainable way, and the modern rich can make headlines for gossip, but it is almost impossible to enjoy public life, almost impossible to enjoy the joy of talking about public affairs, almost impossible to turn the times around, and complete the salvation operation like the Messiah. Glory and immortality are in the distant past.

Conversely, some intellectuals who have the courage to speak out, try to discuss public affairs, and try to make society better may not have much money in their pockets, and will also be buttoned up with hats such as "public knowledge", "smelly old nine", "what national affairs do you care about". In this context, if an intellectual has not been scolded and angry, then he is certainly not a qualified intellectual.

It can be found that in the grand narrative of "exploitation", the rentier class is busy playing dodgeball games while telling ghost stories, intellectuals are constantly scolded, and the exploited bottom is struggling desperately, but only to improve the status of the class and become a member of the rentier class. This grand narrative brings a vicious circle, which leads to the fact that even if we have overcapacity, no one in society is happy, the bottom is still devastated and lacks dignity, the rentier class only dares to secretly enjoy pleasure, can not win glory, intellectuals who are hungry for fame are constantly scolded, even if they continue to put in a lot of effort, but like Jingwei reclamation there is no end, because all narratives about the possible world are regarded as stories that have nothing to do with reality, rather than stories to be realized. For example, when discussing public affairs, everyone's consensus is often not based on rational discussion, but on the basis of "we are all 'rule-makers'", so as to gain a sense of trust and security, in turn, no matter how specific, practical, and beautiful your vision is described, once there is no liquidity mechanism that can make money, it is often in vain. Because "beautiful" has become equivalent to "more money".

The "exploitation" narrative is not only very exclusive, but also destroys the basic trust between people, and everyone has to worry during the dialogue to know whether the other party is lying to themselves. Once a bottom layer of society accepts the "exploitation" narrative, the rich and even the intellectuals in his eyes will all become potential exploiters, and he may inexplicably become aggressive to the people around him who live well, which also makes it difficult for him to accept other narratives and see new possibilities. The reason is that compared to the heavy memory that stings the heart and body, the light of the unattainable good life is a little too dazzling.

There is no doubt that the memory of "exploitation" has long been precipitated in the marrow of many modern people, and this painful memory is like a tarsal maggot, so that everyone does not want to mention it and cannot forget, so the grand narrative about "exploitation" is used as an ideology in the unconscious dimension to dominate the behavior of most modern people, which makes it difficult for modern people to negotiate public affairs, actively dialogue and open a new order in the era of overcapacity. In this sense, opening a new civilization and welcoming a new order requires the efforts of every modern person, brewing history into wine and planting flowers on cliffs.

This kind of effort is first of all an ideological effort, a verbal effort, which requires us to face the ownerless debt and debt dynamic structure precipitated in the intentional life, actively embrace the possibility of existence provided by modern technological conditions, and then learn to accept and forget.

Speech and creation

For Heidegger, language is the home of existence. Harari would believe that man is an animal that tells stories, and through stories forms imaginary communities. This is actually the same thing, that is, the activity of speech has always been the activity of creation. We create possible worlds through words, and the journey of many human civilizations to the future is the process by which their own common possible worlds are realized.

As a creation activity, the intention of speech does not distinguish between true and false, but the difference between emptiness and fulfillment. A man says, I'm going to read 100 books, and if he doesn't read it, the sentence is not false, but empty, because he may still be able to flesh it out in the future. Even if he says that I will read 100 books in a year, and then he does not finish it a year later, not even a single book, then what he is saying is still not a lie, but empty words, unfulfilled words, and this sentence loses the possibility of being fulfilled. This means that although he did not do the thing of reading, the intention he once expressed "I will read 100 books in a year" is still real, that determination is still real, and this intention may inspire those around him to read. A year later, the people around him found that this person was not studying, so they felt that this person did not keep his promises and no longer trusted him, but they had been inspired by this person to study. If the person's initial intention is to stimulate the desire of those around him to read and is ready to be distrusted, then he is still a real person.

The reality of the story is reflected in the fact that the story is always open to all as a possible world to be fulfilled. For example, the communism described by Marx (in fact, the translation of "communism" is problematic, communism should be translated as "publicism", that is, public life as a core concern. In fact, "communism" presupposes a certain concept of "production-oriented" or "production first", and in the era of overcapacity, in fact, everyone no longer needs to produce together, production is only a type of affairs in many public affairs. Society, when there is excess capacity, everyone can start from a kind of understanding of the whole world, pursue free and comprehensive development, such an ideal is neither true nor false, it is just not full enough, so it has not yet been realized, we can continue to enrich this ideal through words and actions, in the process to highlight our own excellence.

In the "exploitative" narrative, what we find is that the structure of events precedes our judgments of conformity and dominates our behavioral choices, but the structure of events is often unnoticed. Many people will think that the "exploitation" narrative is realistic, and this belief will lead them to get caught up in the structure of the event in which the role they can choose is either the exploited or the exploiter, and can never be overcome. At the same time, this narrative is so relevant to the actual experience of modern people, so easy to believe, that it has become a deep-rooted ideology. In addition, most modern people's behavioral choices are also governed by this ideology, which eventually reinforces this ideology, making social innovation more and more difficult. Because compared to systematically reflecting on the entire era, whether it is playing a game of dodgeball or trying to climb a step, at first glance it is obviously much easier and more grounded. But if more and more people join the game of dodgeball or involvement, and no longer negotiate public affairs, the crisis of the entire civilization continues to accumulate, and the end result is that no one can live an easy life.

Thus, we discover the quantum effect of words: as a creation activity, speech may open up a better world, or it may strengthen the defects of the old world.

To highlight the importance of this effect, we might as well borrow from "Schrödinger's cat" and create the concept of "Schrödinger's words". In the box containing radium and cyanide, the cat's state is a superposition of the two possibilities of survival and death, and whether it is dead or alive is only known when the box is opened. Similarly, in any story we are trying to tell, it is difficult to predict whether this possible world will lead the real world for better or worse.

Of course, the possibilities of superposition in the story are richer, because everyone who listens to the story will respond to the story from their own position and circumstances, and the good story will always continue to flow. This means that for those of us who love to tell stories, we need to be humble, learn to take responsibility for our speaking activities, and learn to reflect continuously and deeply on the structure of the story. If the story is told well, we will become the god who illuminates the world, and if it is not told well, we will become a demon who demagogues the heart—whether it is a god or a demon, and only after telling the story can we know it, which is the duality of god and demon as our speakers.

Flowers and bayonets

Recently, as a digital nomad, I often started reading clubs, and slowly met many new friends, and everyone liked to chat. While chatting with Xiao Guo, Xiao Guo shared with me one of his favorite works of art, "Flowers and Bayonets", also called "Washington Flower Girl", which recorded the historic moment of Jane Ross, a 17-year-old American girl, using flowers against guns and bayonets at an anti-war march in Washington on October 21, 1967. A very simple picture, but it gave me a strong, unforgettable shock.

! [Schrödinger's words: dialogue is creation, chain is manifestation] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-69a80767fe-1bfac3431e-dd1a6f-69ad2a.webp)

Image source: Wikipedia

In our era of advanced information, everyone has long realized that war is often a way to divert social contradictions, and in modern civilization, the cost and uncertainty of waging war have increased significantly. At the same time, in the face of the divergence of the gap between the rich and the poor, as well as many problems such as financial bubbles, rigid social structure, and populism, everyone's heart is very heavy. When we denounce Keynesianism and denounce listed companies for running away with money, we feel lost and homeless. It is clear that the production capacity of industrial civilization has been overcapacity, and the society is still full of many opposition, and people are wary of each other, fortified each other, and unable to negotiate public affairs.

According to Mumford, dialogue is the highest form of urban life. The reason is that we first live in a possible world brought out by dialogue, and play a role of our own in each possible world, such as a "disrespectful" that brings out a story about beautiful women and satyrs. The so-called "real identity" is actually our identity in a world most closely coupled to the technological environment, which is the lowest because it cannot be further realized. Conversely, some "ideal identities", such as bards, shamans, gods, Buddhas, bodhisattvas, immortals, real people, lovers, will be more sublime because they bring up a whole new world of possibilities and can illuminate our "reality."

The so-called consultation of public affairs is actually to speak freely about the possible world from the conditions in front of you. However, in a depressed social atmosphere, people with leisure do not automatically take on the heavy responsibility of thinking about the possible world, and do not actively negotiate public affairs in the process of dialogue, because they do not know where to start, but make the originally depressed mood more depressed.

Even so, if we still want to live a better life, we still need to cherish every opportunity for dialogue, and in the process of dialogue, strive to speak out our best understandings, say those understandings that are integrated into our lives, and give "flowers" to every listener. Conversely, if we are still dominated by the "exploitative" narrative and try to answer some questions that are destined to be impossible to answer, we can only fall into perpetual confusion, because opening the future means the reality of the possible world, so the more "realistic" the story, the less likely it is to open the future.

Everyone lives in history, everyone cannot escape their own historicity, and the narrative of "exploitation" has long been precipitated in our consciousness. It is quite possible that we think we are speaking very sincerely, but unconsciously, our speech activities are still consolidating the stale order. For example, we living in industrial civilization like to pay attention to operability, efficiency, measurability, evaluability, and the conclusion of dialogue... These are actually what Habermas calls instrumental rationality. At the same time, because instrumental rationality is most compatible with the working logic of the industrial age, we often immerse ourselves in instrumental rationality and forget about communicative rationality. In the process of dialogue, even if we attach importance to the basic principles of cooperation, consultation and inclusiveness, the final consultation plan is still given in a rational and instrumental manner. If we do not realize that everything we say actually contains a very deep intentionality, then we are likely to underestimate the difficulty of emancipating the mind and overestimate the quality of what we say.

The reason why I like to start book clubs is actually because I think books are the most beautiful flowers, the intentionality of texts is the clearest, and the ideological resource that is most likely to pierce the "exploitation" narrative so far. Each book embodies the author's painstaking efforts, especially academic books, such as "Oxford General Reader", "Sanlian New Knowledge Library", "Khan Qingtang Series", "Oracle Bone Series", "Fifteen Lectures on Famous Scholars", "Science Yuan Dictionary Series", "Chinese Translation World Academic Masterpieces Series"...

There is no doubt that for most readers, these books seem relatively professional, not interesting enough, and even a little difficult. However, reading these books is the most direct and effective in terms of emancipating the mind, in terms of sound reason, and in terms of enriching our intentionality. Conversely, if we lack the courage to read these books, it will be difficult for us to emerge from the heavy history, and the authors' hard work will be dried and disappointed.

Wind achievements

Previously, Hao Ge put forward the idea of "putting promises on the chain", trying to create a trust mechanism with the help of the decentralized and immutable characteristics of the blockchain, and trying to awaken long-termism with this mechanism. This idea inspired me a lot, and I was thinking that maybe "Linking Achievements" would inspire people to read academic books.

Obviously, reading academic books, immersing yourself in them, understanding the author's thoughts, expressing one's own understanding in the public sphere, and constantly creating good words and deeds is full of glory in itself, fully demonstrating the wisdom and charm of the individual.

And for everyone who is not accustomed to reading academic books, learning to read itself is an interesting journey, in the process, everyone will experience many "firsts": the first time to reconstruct the argument structure of a paragraph, the first time to suspend their own prescience, the first time to carefully read footnotes and endnotes, the first time to grasp the relationship between paragraphs and the topic of the article, the first time to enter an author's world of thought, the first time to feel the field of existence, the first time to interact with a distant, Even dead authors have in-depth dialogues, the first time they debate with friends around them, the first time they explore public affairs from a complex perspective, the first time they appreciate the relationship between words and immortality, the first time they have the urge to leave a book, the first time they have a strong curiosity about certain issues, the first time they feel the freedom of thought, the first time they develop the ideas of their predecessors on the basis of inheriting them...

If we carefully read some well-written academic books, it is possible to resonate with the author's thoughts, find a sense of belonging and home in our thinking, and accept a new perspective on the world. The experience of reading a book together is also beautiful in itself, allowing people to establish dialogue and communication at the ideological level and form a deep consensus. Of course, we should not communicate with the purpose of "seeking consensus", because the fact of reading together is actually enough as the purpose of life. Together, starting from a reliable text, opening the topic, and then freely exchanging ideas, fully demonstrating the uniqueness of the self, fully highlighting the differences, and understanding the deeper unity in the process of discussing the differences, this is a good life in itself.

In addition, by reviewing, discussing and recording many things that happened during the reading process, then it is possible to extract some highlight moments, which can be recorded in writing or through the way of chaining, and become a public memory that cannot be tampered with in the development of the community. In this way, offline community development is linked to the online digital city-state.

This immutability itself is sacred, because it means the immortality of fame unless the entire community is forgotten. And as long as the community still attracts newcomers, as long as the community is still maintained, the outstanding deeds made by the predecessors can continue to illuminate future generations for future generations to follow and follow.