Yang Jun
U.S. President Biden once again called on to eliminate "toxins that pollute US politics and make each other's opposite" in a Christmas conversation last year.In fact, he and his predecessor may not realize the root of the "toxin" at all.Because to this day, the two parties are still attacking each other, and the endless party is the same.Even Bye Deng himself has become more and more aggressive recently.This further shows that the United States has been trapped in the crisis of political polarization. Not only did it not move towards the unity that he had called at the beginning of his office, but in the opposite direction, he ran all the way.
The truly threatening of the civilization is from the internal civilization
So we need to be serious and in -depth analysis, what exactly is toxin pollution?The author believes that the most typical characteristic of toxins is the crisis of political polarization. If you want to truly understand this toxin, you must go deep into the Western civilization and religious crisis behind the US political system to find out, because essentially speaking, rightThe true threat of civilization has always been derived from the inside of civilization rather than external.
If the American civilization is recognized as Greece, it is in the same vein with Greece to reduce the pulse of Western classical civilization, especially based on the modern western civilization represented by the Renaissance, religious reform and enlightenment, then the progressism of the prevalence of the United States today and "political correctness", Relators, nihilism, skepticism and other trends of thoughts and social and political polarization crises are closely related to the postmodernism of "decomposing all existing structures" and religious nihilism.
Because the most prominent philosophical achievements of postmodernism thought are the basis for Plato for more than 2,000 years as the foundation of Western action guidelines and ideas for more than 2,000 years.As the historian Richard Tanas pointed out, the western philosophy tradition was accused of a futile language game, an internal alienation and hierarchical compression of the Western philosophy, not only deceiving themselves, but also deeply destructive.Therefore, postmodernism must not only abandon the "Zhengdian" that has long been stipulated by men, white, and European elites for a long time.The truth of the truth is also condemned to varying degrees of ideology and moral loss.
In short, postmodernism is a major anti -lawist movement of waste, deconstruction, decentralization, non -mysterious, non -continuous, differentiated, dispersion, etc. of Western thought.These terms not only express their fascination with debris or rupture in epistemology, but also show their support for politics, gender, and language.The problem is the essence of postmodernist paradigms, which is the fundamental subversion of all paradigms. Therefore, while deconstructing everything and doubting everything, it inadvertently deconstructs itself, so that it is precisely, it is impossible to form any postmodernism.The worldview.
Based on this ideological paradox, based on this separation of damage and disorderly, the contemporary western ideological environment is full of tension, hesitation and confusion.Not only lacks ideological internal aggregates, but also lack of good insights on the formation of common culture.Therefore, the incompatible explanation not only causes any problems that cannot be resolved, but also to a certain extent cause government governance capabilities to rapidly decline, and even deeply trapped in the danger of no governmentism.This not only explains why the American scholar Fukuyama has repeatedly called for rebuilding the national capabilities of the United States, but also helps to explain why the US government and even many white elites in the "Black Life" movement to a certain extent,Support black people to smash and grab the operation, and how the former President Trump supporters blatantly impact the Mountains of Congress, completely ignoring procedures, order and rule of law.
Another factor that profoundly affects the crisis of American political polarization is the conscious vacuum and confusion caused by religious nihilism.
This religious nihilism has not only existed in the modern philosophy of the West, but also developed with the rapid development of modern industry and scientific and technological civilization, and Christian faith has become increasingly marginal in the daily life of the American people.Although German philosopher Heidegger finally returned to Christianity in his later years, he also declared: "This is the end of this" and "only one God can save us."The problem is that the Western "God" was declared death several times as early as the youth Hegel and Nietzsche.Therefore, how can the West count on not only no God, no soul, no life, no redemption, no sympathy, but also disgusting or even hate Christian nihilism?As analyzed by Heidegger: Dieses Nichts, the phrase "God is dead" means "a super -sensitivity, a binding world is no longer present.The most terrible guests have stood in front of the door. "
"God" died and the ultimate redemption is
This once again indicates that the Western civilization has no solution.If more than 2000 years, people have rely on the entire traditional metaphysics in the spiritual field of super sensitivity.What will Westerners rely on the ultimate redemption of spiritual and souls?This is probably a new era that western people have never encountered by their own civilization. A spirit and belief have nothing to do with faith, just like a duckweed era.Losing this ultimate referee and the only eternal standard, purely relying on the rationality and science of people, will definitely be affected by the fatal and self -contained.
The result of this is bound to be polarization of political division. The entire society is in great internal consumption.The biggest challenge is exactly from the country. The more and more severe differentiation from American society, and the people are almost difficult to reach consensus on any matter ... ... From sports to red and blue consumer brands, thisThe splitting has spread to all aspects of life ... ... Extending different facts on both sides, one party believes that the election in November 2020 is one of the most fair elections in American history, and the other party believes that it is a large -scale illegal president selected."
The scholar who had shouted "History has ended" at that time, not only was deeply anxious, anxious and helpless for the current social and political polarization of the United States, but also admitted that "the American era has ended."It is regrettable that he still failed to point out the roots behind this polarization. There is no courage to point out that it is the fusion of postmodernism, religious nihilism, and neoliberalism, which will cause the United States to split today.The culprit of democracy decline.
Bayeng said in a Christmas speech: "I hope that during Christmas this year, we can spend some time reflection and find the peace of the Christmas core ... and take a serious look at each other.It is not based on the position of the Red Army or Blue Army (looking at each other), but as the identity we really should, that is, the American compatriots, it is worthy of being treated with dignity and respect. "
The question is that if Americans still do not face up and reflect on this "toxins that pollute American politics and make each other opposite", if the religious foundation and republic of the two parties are left, how can they be the basic American compatriots status.What about reaching consensus?How to open a "new start"?
The author is an associate professor of China University of Political Science and Law
Kennedy College of Harvard University
Researcher of Ash Democratic Governance and Innovation Center
