The birth and spread of the virus have their own laws. In this process, the system is only second, that is, whether the system can effectively prevent or curb the diffusion of the virus.If you want to eliminate the virus from the source, people must also have scientific knowledge and scientific lifestyle.(AFP)
After the new coronal virus epidemic evolved into a large -scale public health crisis, Chinese governments at all levels finally changed the practice of negative passive or even concealing the epidemic.In the war, the entire country entered the largest mobilization state.
However, the attitude of Chinese society to the government's actions is so different from that of the government.One end is a ridiculous and ironic person, scolding his father and scolding his mother. People finally find a chance to attack the system and vent all kinds of complaints on the system. It seems that if there is a system, there will be no virus, and there will be no epidemic spread.The other end is the praise, the great praise of the system, it seems that only such a national system can have the ability to curb such a scale.People understand the epidemic from their respective perspectives. Different views express completely different feelings, or fear, despair, or anger, or sympathy, or pray.
Although all these feelings are inevitable and reasonable in the face of the disaster, whether they are questioning the institutional or praising the system, people lack science.The birth and spread of the virus have their own laws. In this process, the system is only second, that is, whether the system can effectively prevent or curb the diffusion of the virus.If you want to eliminate the virus from the source, people must also have scientific knowledge and scientific lifestyle.
To a large extent, it can even be said that it is precisely because of the role of the system that it can cause today's public health crisis.Compared with other systems, the mobilization capacity of the Chinese system is indeed incomparable.After the crisis of Shas (severe acute respiratory syndrome, referred to as SARS), the Chinese public health system has made substantial progress, which is also the source of people's confidence in the system today.However, although Shatz's infectious disease has changed China's public health system, it has not changed human behavior at all.
Believe in politics and not believe in science
The powerful energy released by the powerful system prompted people to move towards another extreme. People only believe in the government, leaders, and official media, and do not believe in science.Many people think that politics and leaders can do everything. As long as they have power, they can deal with any disasters.In fact, this is not the case.No system is impeccable, and the strongest system has its weaknesses.During the Shats, some weaknesses presented in the system still exist.Local governments are waiting for superiors, local leaders are waiting for the central leadership. It seems that before the central state, the local government cannot do something, and cannot recognize the epidemic crisis.Therefore, concealing the news, loose laziness, as if everything was normal, nothing happened.It was only after the epidemic spread and the superior government and leaders paid attention to it.
Once mobilized, local competition began to see who upgraded the epidemic and fast, and the local government's reaction ability.If this is not enough to control the epidemic, people will move towards another extreme, that is, anger.Most people can't wait to be a local officials who should be responsible and those who are responsible for their responsibility. It seems that this can solve the problem.But except for venting emotions, there is no effective way to solve the problem.
In fact, the government and the epidemic have entered a vicious circle that is almost difficult to avoid.People believe in power, but power is not a supernatural; once power cannot do, people hate power.How much has people's behavior changed since the epidemic in 2003?Except for greater expectations for politics, there is no substantial change in individual behavior.For example, it is generally believed that Shas is caused by Wheels.This time Wuhan's new coronary virus is also considered to be caused by the game.Why not change the habit of eating game?Although there are a lot of voices calling on the state to legislate to prohibit eating spectacles, why do relevant departments have no action?Although some people think that most of the spectacles are rural people who have no culture, it is undeniable that consumer spectacles are considered to be cultural cities in the middle class.
Another example is people's behavior changed?Not only did not, but the transformation was intensified.Although people always criticize the behavior of others, they never review their behavior.The epidemic has deteriorated, and many people are still indifferent. They walk on the streets and alleys as usual, and walk to relatives and friends. It seems that nothing happens.As for whether the virus is infected, it is explained by luck.Countless rumors are flying all over the sky. Since the media reports the development of the epidemic with its own rich imagination, explaining the ins and outs of the matter.What you eat can curb more news of the virus.The epidemic has become an opportunity for some merchants to sell goods or coax the prices of lack of material.Various ignorance behaviors are vividly.Mr. Lu Xun described the numbness of the numbness of the people in the early century in the last century.In a word, people always push their responsibilities to others, and never have self -reflection and progress.
From this point of view, no one can determine that people will automatically change their behavior after this epidemic.People do not have any memory ability.What happened today has also appeared during Shas.As soon as Shats passed, people quickly forgot that epidemic that swept the global epidemic.If people have enough memory, the epidemic will not be so fierce.
Political Enlightenment Excessive Scientific Enlightenment
This shows that people's behavior has not yet come out of ignorance.This is the result of lack of scientific enlightenment.No nation's behavior was scientific from the beginning.Science is the product of human progress, and scientific behavior is the product of scientific enlightenment.In the Western example, people have experienced early Renaissance and began to come out of religious ignorance to science, rationality and progress.Science shows people that there are always origin and development process; any problems have its roots and solutions.Later, an enlightenment moved in the West, focusing on the improvement of the steering system.If the scientific and rational attitude of Renaissance is ignored, it is difficult to understand the effectiveness of the Western system.As far as public health is concerned, there have been many public health crisis in the West, but in modern times, it has not caused huge panic.It is a scientific attitude to deal with the epidemic, open and transparent, and the government and society shall jointly bear responsibility.
Where is the problem in China?Simply put, the political enlightenment is excessive and the scientific enlightenment is lacking.The May 4th Movement is regarded as China's political enlightenment, not cultural enlightenment, which is inevitable.In the face of Western powers, nations and countries are facing a crisis of life and death, and saving the country naturally has become a political theme.Politics has its own advantages, but it is also inevitable.The advantage of politics lies in organization, political awareness.Organize the country and save the country by political methods, China has succeeded.Because of success, people believe in the ability of politics and believe in power. I believe that any problems can be solved by political methods and can be solved with power.However, the disadvantage of political methods is also obvious, that is, it has strengthened the deep -rooted awareness of the people in China. People more obey politics, obey power, and obey to the extreme, so that people no longer believe in other, including science.
This does not mean that the country does not pay attention to science.On the contrary, science first becomes the principle of national development.This is the reason why the concept of scientific socialism has become an irresistible ideology.Reality is reality. In modern times, China has been defeated by Western powers because of the latter's science and technology. If China wants to become a strong country, it is naturally necessary to learn and develop modern science and technology.In fact, a strong science and technology country has always been the consensus of almost all Chinese political elites in modern times, and this consensus has also contributed to the rise of contemporary China.
People only believe in politicsDo not believe in science, it means that science has not become a part of people's daily life, or science is still outside the daily life.Science and technology are progressing, but people's behavior has not improved. It does not use science to make rational thinking to improve their lives.What is even more ridiculous and more serious is that new technology often becomes an effective tool for people to spread rumors and superstitions.
If compared with neighbors in China, it can be seen that the people of China and Japan have different attitudes towards science.Japan is a typical example of a strong science and technology country. Since the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government attaches great importance to science, first learns from the West, and then innovates on this basis. It soon prompts Japan to become a strong science and technology country.Science also affects the reorganization of Japanese society and affects the daily life of the Japanese. Today, Japanese society has shown high autonomy and autonomy.As far as the system is concerned, Japan is also a typical centralized country, but the government realizes the limitations of politics and gives the society sufficient autonomy at the institutional level.It is seen that in the face of crisis, the Japanese can organize themselves to save themselves or rescue each other even without the government.As far as public health is concerned, the Japanese's public health awareness is self -explanatory and is a model of the world.
China needs the National Science Movement
If you want to promote the life of science into the Chinese, people need a national science movement.This is a real cultural enlightenment movement, scientific and cultural enlightenment movement.In view of the relationship between politics and science, the enlightenment of science and culture is also political enlightenment.In other words, the Enlightenment must start from politics, but not as excessive political enlightenment as before, but to deal with the relationship between politics and science.This must be considered at least in the following aspects.
First, politics must establish its own boundary.Politics or politicians should not pretend to be omnipotent, and we must deeply aware of the limitations of politics.Politics is important in national organizational life, including organizational scientific life, but politics cannot replace science, and political will cannot replace scientific logic.Especially in the contemporary world, when society becomes more and more complicated, more and more problems need to be solved scientific.
Second, the government itself should talk about science. Scientific knowledge should first be popular among officials.Whether it is Western or Asia, the popularity of scientific knowledge starts with government officials.Officials represent the elite class of a society, and their behavior has a model effect on other members of the society.Official's demonstration effects are particularly significant in China, because China has a deep culture of worship bureaucracy.However, officials' demonstration effects are also more difficult in China, because experience shows that officials are even more superstitious than ordinary people from non -scientific factors.Power and wealth do not bring scientific first rationality to officials; on the contrary, they often resort to various superstitions to explain or solve problems they are facing.
Third, the government should transform the advantages of cherishing crisis into the advantages of preventing crisis.The Chinese government has strong mobilization capabilities. This ability is manifested in dealing with various crises, including a crisis similar to Shas and today's Wuhan epidemic.However, this ability must be transformed into the ability to prevent crisis, because the crisis of crisis indicates that the crisis has emerged and the cost has been paid. Only by having the same ability to prevent such a crisis can we reduce or even avoid social crises and its costs.Obviously, the premise is science to do this transformation.Only by respecting scientific logic can the government be aware of the limitations of power, can we use scientific knowledge to prevent crises and use scientific knowledge to deal with crisis.
Fourth, the government must decentralize the society, let the society consciously organize, and make each element of society a stakeHolder (Stakeholder), which is responsible for society.Here are several aspects of significance.First of all, people can call things like Shas or Wuhan epidemic as public products, and they must be avoided.This requires that every social member does not provide such public products.The premise of achieving this goal is that every member of society has a sense of responsibility for society.Secondly, no government has the ability to supervise each social member for 24 hours, so in addition to the consciousness of social members, members of society must also be supervised.Third, once the crisis occurs, it is not relying on the government to solve everything. Social members or social groups must act independently, organize themselves, and go up from the bottom up to cope with the crisis.All of this must be decentralized to the society.
In this process, intellectuals especially play a special role, that is, less politics and more science.Regardless of whether intellectuals are around, they must realize the limitations of politics, no matter which politics.Many things, such as Shas and Wuhan's new coronary virus, have nothing to do with politics.Just as in any other society, intellectuals are the most important communicators of scientific knowledge.This requires the shift of Chinese intellectuals from spreading political knowledge to spreading scientific knowledge, so as to change the situation of excessive political enlightenment and lack of scientific enlightenment.
China is undoubtedly a big science and technology country, but this is not enough to make China a strong science and technology country, because science is not reflected in people's daily life.Only every social member learns to live a scientific land can China be a powerful country.
(The author is a professor at the East Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore)
The article only represents personal point of view
