A World of Ideas

Interview of F. Forrester Church:

Church: "Lord Acton said that every institution - and I would say, every individual, too - is finally destroyed by an excess of its own first principle. So each of us has to be wary and mindful of our own first principles wherever we're sure we're right."

(Every Chinese dynasty, including the current one, is an example of this process.)

Church: "My own definition of religion is that it's our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die... When another person is dying, or a loved one has died, it's like a blast of fresh air that blows all the dust off your own desk, and makes all of your own petty grievances and pride and anger and bitterness and envy meaningless. You remember that this is basically the bond, this mortar of mortality that binds us fast to one another... And therefore, we are one."

 

[胡渙]

回複 '7grizzly' 的評論 :

這是魯迅說的我們的王朝的first principle:

古時候，秦始皇帝很闊氣，劉邦和項羽都看見了；邦說，“嗟乎！大丈夫當如此也！”羽說，“彼可取而代也！”羽要“取”什麽呢？便是取邦所說的“如此”。“如此”的程度，雖有不同，可是誰也想取；被取的是“彼”，取的是“丈夫”。所有“彼”與“丈夫”的心中，便都是這“聖武”的產生所，受納所。

　　何謂“如此”？說起來話長；簡單地說，便隻是純粹獸性方麵的欲望的滿足——威福，子女，玉帛，——罷了。然而在一切大小丈夫，卻要算最高理想（？）了。我怕現在的人，還被這理想支配著。

[7grizzly]

> Every Chinese dynasty, including the current one, is an example of this process.

What was each Chinese dynasty's "first principle"?

[7grizzly]

> it's like a blast of fresh air that blows all the dust off your own desk,

How fit indeed is this analogy!