花束般的恋爱和独特性

最近花束般的恋爱翻拍的新闻大火,有些巧合的,关注的几个媒体或多或少的都聚焦在解构现代人的消费主义和标签化上:你看,我们自以为的两个人的心心相印或是默契有加,其实或许只是现代消费主义的投射,而这些标签,又会在现代社会更大的结构化力量的重压下倒塌;自然的,一见钟情的恋爱脑让位于组队打拼的理性人似乎是现代人不可逃脱的宿命。

仔细想想,现代人面对独特性的危机似乎并不是什么意料之外的惊人发现。从小被教育要实现自我的我们渴望自己的梦想是个性化的;然而在知识即力量的社会里,我们对独特性的定义又深受他人眼光的影响;你可以独特,但是你最好在鄙视链的上游。所以我们不可避免的陷入一种困境:每个人都想坚持自我,可是所向往的独特又不可避免的重合:在花束般的恋爱的世界里,它可以是贾樟柯的电影,王安忆的作品,柏林护士的歌曲;是对单一麦芽威士忌或是精品咖啡的追求;而当这些重合的标签下的彼此并不如我们想象的独一无二或是无法抵抗现实的侵袭的时候,大概也只能唏嘘于花束的恋爱的美好与短暂了。可能更糟糕的是,我们越来越容易发现自己的独特性并不唯一:如果跟你相似的人不聚集在live house的现场,那她们多半会聚集在互联网的什么角落里。

一个解决方法是否认对独特性的追求是有意义的:你所以为的独一无二其实不过是眼界狭窄;你所以为的不食烟火也不过是年少无知。在这种视角下,爱情或是人生最终要回归到数字和概率游戏:如果独一无二虚无缥缈,重要的自然就是追求最优:人生也好,爱情也罢,都可以被解构成市场里的数字;在这样的人生里,我们的安全感不来源于独一无二,而来源于比下有余和合群。这种对独特性的消解从某种程度上也体现在语汇的梗化里:社交网络上用“喜提/打卡”之类交易性语汇来描述自己的生活,可以当成一种对自己的保护;我没有觉得这个经历有什么独特性,不过是在Matrix安排好的剧本里购买了一次新的游戏体验而已。

然而对独特性的追求,真的是恋爱脑的一厢情愿吗?如果经历喜好都无可避免的会出现重合,那能保证独特性的大概是时空本身:“最美的不是下雨天,是和你躲过雨的屋檐”;或许就算是看上去相同的体验,时间和陪伴不同,带来的体验也注定不同。哪怕“慈母手中线”被反复吟诵,很难想象会有人说亲情是重复的。从某种程度上来说,这就是母题的力量:“思君令人老,岁月忽已晚”可能是耳熟能详的名句,但不同读者吟诵时的体会到的思念与离愁却是跟他们个性化的经历密切相关的。

一种更积极的解释是,带来独特性的并不是标签,而是标签下方的自我。标签终究是一种概括化的表达,而这样的概括是注定会损失信息的。随着时间的推移,我们与标签的关系会被更深的挖掘出来:而最终决定两个人契合的,会是那个自我,而非层层包裹的标签;从这个角度来说,我们应该庆幸有花束般的恋爱存在;理想也好,现实也罢,在符号和标签下面有更深的独特性和真实可以挖掘,不是挺好的吗?

反复横跳

鼓励教育也好,长辈宽容也罢;我自认从小到大还是一个挺被照顾的人 —— 半瓶子醋的晃荡容易得到表扬;自以为是的乱来也容易被原谅。自己又是个有那么点呆的人,很容易就信以为真。慢慢就养成了膨胀的心态,喜欢什么事情不掂量掂量自己的斤两就冲在最前面,也犯了不少错误:不考虑他人感受也好,不知道自己丢脸也罢;还有不懂装懂或者冒犯了别人不自知之类的,不一而足。

问题可能是我的记忆力(目前)还算不错。结果很多事情今天回想起来大抵要么后悔要么尴尬;于是慢慢学会了谨小慎微:做事努力小心翼翼得不敢越雷池半步,努力让自己懂事乖巧不犯错误。可是一方面自己说到底可能也不是一个多懂事多没有脾气的人,所以时不时还是制造点名场面;另一方面发现你不说话别人确实也会把你当成哑巴,以为你真的是个没有内容的面团可以搓长捏扁。所以最近几年觉得自己在膨胀和胆小之间反复横跳,不该争的事情疾言令色,该表达的事情忍气吞声,总是踩不到那个对的鼓点。

会反思自己为什么这么不会判断轻重,想想可能一个原因是自己太患得患失了吧:总想要证明自己是好的对的,自然会在表现自己和循规蹈矩之间不知所措。这么说来,好像放下得失心是显而易见的答案。可惜自己终归是身在局中的人,说着不在乎得失多半只是嘴上用来自欺欺人的口号;再说了,放下得失心恐怕也就放下了对得的追求;金庸说得好,“胜故欣然败亦喜”的人,恐怕计算都懒得计算,哪里下得出好棋呢?

那怎么办呢?大概有两个想法;第一可能是要知道自己到底在意什么。是在乎被人说自己刚愎自用,还是怕人说自己唯唯诺诺;是更不想自作多情,还是更不想冷漠自私;是更怕自己平庸无奇,还是更怕自己装模作样。大概知道了自己的底线,才能挑好什么东西要争,什么东西要让。

第二可能是要对自己诚实。虽然可能很多时候是用潜意识做的选择,可是总会给自己找一个冠冕堂皇的理由。可是非要坚持那些冠冕堂皇的理由,难免就会陷入死要面子活受罪的境地;只有承认自己的揭示偏好和内心的污七麻黑,才能真正让自己放下应该放下的,去争取自己应该在乎的。

可是话又说回来了,福柯告诉我们,人类还是要面子的动物,要不然怎么会被社会规训呢。笑一笑罢,人总是不能免俗的。

适当扎手的豪猪

更不懂事一点的时候写文章非常喜欢引用豪猪,大概用法是这样的:

我们就像带刺的豪猪一样,为了取暖而彼此靠近,又因为疼痛而彼此分开。总有一天我们能找到合适的距离。

—— 那个时候还不知道什么是PID控制,不然的话大概会像现在的我一样,绞尽脑汁插入一段PID控制和段子中的豪猪如何相似的议论。人还真是本性难移呢。但是我扯远了。

小时候与自己和解的方式是教科书式的:我不完美,但是我为自己的每一个部分而自豪。或许我不是最成功的那一个,但我尽力做到了自己能做的最好;或许我放弃了更“好”的选项,但那些不是我喜欢的;不管对错,走过的路都是我自己的人生,我从不后悔。总的来说,我就是我,是不一样的烟火。

觉得长大一点之后的一个进步是对自己更诚实一点:我不完美,对自己的过去也不无后悔。会希望能够弥补以前的错误;会想忘记自己的尴尬时刻;会知道自己并没有做到能做的最好;也会盘算在一些岔路口做不一样的选择的话自己如今会身在何方。觉得现在的版本是最喜欢的自己,或许只是因为自己在合理化自己的现在而已。

另一个觉得自己长大一点的部分是意识到自己的行为有多少是为了迎合他人的眼光。可能喜欢上理科也是因为大家都说聪明的孩子应该选理科;可能读聂鲁达不仅是因为他狡黠而古怪,也是想要别人觉得自己欣赏品味没有太低。或许自己的每一个决定, 自己都在潜意识的思考别人将会怎样看待自己,而自己又该如何维护自己。

可是解构多了,难免就会陷入对意义和独特性的质疑:如果现实是自己不得不接受的妥协,那它值得珍视的地方又在何处;如果难免为他人的眼光期待所规训,那到底有多大程度的自我属于自己?而那些引以为傲的人生信念,到底又有多少是自欺欺人而已?

一种做法是解构到底:人生如戏,谁不是在骗自己呢?世间一场大梦,看谁的梦更美一点罢了。另一种做法是竖起防御:或许有我不得不妥协的事情,但是我也坚持了我的坚持。假以时日,我总归会离梦想更近一点。

写这篇文章的此刻,我也不知道哪种答案更好一点。多少有点像豪猪的刺该竖起来多少的问题,不是吗。

One Leaf of Time 一叶时间 #6

本周最大的热点除了G7很可能是ProPublica关于富豪如何避税的报道 —— 文章的焦点集中在超级富豪们如何利用各种手段避税 —— 财富增长课税较少,工资收入税收较多,而超级富豪的收入主要来源于资本增长,加之以借款来支付支出等手段,使得富豪们并不需要付出很多税收。文章提供了一个直接的比较:2018年,25名美国最富有的富翁所支付的税收大约是19亿美元,而拥有等量财富的美国普通家庭大约需要支付1430亿美元的税单。

对文章的争议集中在两个方面,一是这样的避税是合法的,而且并非什么不可告人的秘密;二是这样是否涉及隐私。抛开是否涉及隐私不谈 —— 从Wikileaks开始,公众人物对这个问题的立场似乎永远取决于被泄露信息者的立场跟自己是否一致。如同ProPublica指出的,报道的焦点不在于富人是否应该为某一特定的财富支付税收,而在于美国税收的累进系统失灵:拥有财富的人并没有支付更多的税收。自然而然的,富人是否应该支付更多的税收又常常会变成关于“下渗经济学”(Trickle-down economies) 的争议:富人能够更有效率的花钱,从而“先富带后富”吗?征税会阻碍富人创造财富吗?从1950年以来,美国的税收曲线不断变平缓,至于这种平缓是好事还是坏事,恐怕是克鲁格曼或者IMF才有资格争议的问题了。

这样的贫富差距导致多数美国人都认同富人和大公司没有支付足够的份额 —— 拿最近的民调来说,不同的民调显示六成八成的民众认为富有阶层应该比现在在支付更多的税收。当然了,大概98%的美国人都认为自己是中产阶级或者低收入阶层,所以这个民调并不一定说明民众认为*自己*应该多交税。这也解释了为什么财富税如此受欢迎 —— 它几乎是一个仅仅针对1%高收入者的税种。G7的一个焦点是用以限制避税天堂的多边公司所得税协议,也反映了拜登政府对收入分配的忧虑。

在大洋彼岸,中国在争论阶级固化,996,加班和躺平。高考期间火了衡水中学学生要去城里“拱白菜”的宣言,以及复旦“非升即走”政策引发的凶杀案,隐隐的都可以看到贫富差距的影子。拿三胎政策举例子,一条热门评论说,“我不买三辆劳斯莱斯,是因为限购吗”,而某一大V关于三胎的评论基本上可以概括为“生的太少你们都有房子继承,哪里还有心情奋斗加班”。从某种程度上来说,两国的舆论是具有一些对称性的:工薪阶层对收入分配不满,而公司和企业抱怨员工拿钱太多企业活不下去了

一个自然的问题是,全球的第一和第二大经济体,真的到了给员工合理的报酬和社保就活不下去的程度吗?一个合理的替罪羊就是民族主义和国际竞争:在美国,这种声音是“中国人窃取知识产权,无视环保/人权,抢走了我们的饭碗”,在中国,这种声音则是“美国人害怕中国崛起所以尽全力打击中国制造”。在这种逻辑下,企业可以要求员工和顾客都为爱国情怀买单:对员工来说,是“我们中国现在还很弱小,大家咬咬牙加加班才能赶上外国”,对顾客来说,是“大家咬咬牙多支持国产我们才能打破美国的封锁”。至于自己的技术到底是不是真的打破了封锁,是不是美国的操作系统本来就是谁都可以自由使用不存在什么技术封锁,是不是所谓的打破了封锁就是改了改名,乃至打破了美国的封锁中国的码农是不是就可以不用加班,似乎暂时还没有人觉得有寻根究底的必要。

站在21年6月看,全球经济民族主义和民粹主义的崛起似乎不可避免,相信自由贸易和全球化能够带来繁荣的人越来越少。然而各国间的贸易为什么越来越多的被看成是一场零和游戏?Klein和Pettis提供的一种解释是,全球化的贸易伴随着财富向富裕阶层的转移,导致了工薪阶层失去消费能力,内循环被转化成外循环,所以各国的经济冲突与其说是各国之间的经济冲突,不如说是各国经济不平等传导的结果。这种解释是否正确,恐怕只有各位自己去判断了。

哈德斯的仆人

“那宝玉的情性只愿常聚,生怕一时散了添悲,那花只愿常开,生怕一时谢了没趣;只到筵散花谢,虽有万种悲伤,也就无可如何了。因此,今日之筵,大家无兴散了,林黛玉倒不觉得,倒是宝玉心中闷闷不乐,回至自己房中长吁短叹

我是一个在聚会后半程看表就会感到一阵曲终人散的紧张的人,所以看到这段描写会心有戚戚,有的时候会想,宝玉宴席散去时大概也有林妹妹那样的焦虑吧,“桃李明年能再发,明年闺中知有谁?” 只是林妹妹比他更解构罢了。

一些关于年龄的细节挺有趣的。比如说有人会把20岁说成奔三,把30岁说成奔四。偶尔会想这种四舍五入一个亿算法的来源:或许我们害怕体内滴答作响的时钟,而这种把终点无限拉远的方法能够从某种角度上缓解焦虑吧 —— 哈哈哈哈你看跟39的人比我还年轻呢!然而话又说回来,39岁和31岁的区别在哪里呢?为什么一个手指数量决定的进制问题会让我们如此紧张?我猜,大概人类过于愚蠢,对时间的流逝毫无感觉,需要把时间用某一个特定的日期和数字标定才能意识到离衰老和死亡更进了一步吧。

这篇文章的题目叫哈德斯的仆人,意思满直白的,因为越来越觉得,冥王虽然生活在阴曹地府,我们的生活却不可避免的被死亡支配着。也包括游戏。例子大概不难找,比如健身。除了那个明显的例外,美国男政客(是的,性别刻板印象无处不在)的形象几乎跟健身房是紧密联系在一起的。奥巴马会安排他在伊利诺伊的私教来白宫给他上课。布什说他喜欢跑步,福奇也曾经是个跑步者,Beto O’rouke 喜欢跑步接受采访,用气喘吁吁的记者来展示他的健康。而这种对健康体魄的追求大概又和对死亡的恐惧有着千丝万缕的关系 —— Paul Ryan自述里有提到他少年时候在家发现父亲的尸体让他从此以后沉迷健身房。拜登团队经常用他对Peleton自行车的热爱来回应对他健康状况的质疑,也会经常听到家长前辈的教导 —— 要珍惜身体,不然老了后悔就来不及了。体检,人体工学和饮食结构被越来越多的人关注 —— 卡路里,嘌呤,升糖指数,从这个角度来说,现代中产阶级的生活方式和对衰老死亡的反抗是密切相连的。

然而再完善保养的机器也有自然的使用寿命,给这样的努力染上了一点西西弗斯式的色彩。到底为什么我们要努力延迟一个不可避免的结局呢?或许是对未竟事业的野心,害怕“出师未捷身先死”?然而我越来越怀疑,如果生活没有终点,我们真的会做同样的事情吗?考虑到拖延症的严重性,很难相信自己到时候不去再旅游一次,去把没有追完的番追完,去读个不一样的专业,总之把实现梦想的事情推后到9012年再去实现。

所以与其说是想做什么事情,不如说是害怕选择消失吧。就好像毕业或者旅游打卡一样,知道你还有机会尝试的时候,大概不会要一份全套的鸡蛋灌饼冒着胃病的风险把自己吃撑。但是你再不吃以后就没机会吃了怎么办?有的时候会觉得做这样的选择有点像大学里安排课程表 —— 因为可能一门课你毕业前不会再开了,所以你决定修掉它以防后悔。

然而课程表排得再满,大概也会有安放不下的课程。所以会想追逐某种意义上的生命延续。在自建网站的社区里,一个永远的热门话题是“如果你遭遇意外/去世,你的个人网站/NAS要怎么转交给伴侣/子女”。似乎知道自己的网站在身后仍然会存在,会给自己带来某些意义上的解脱似的。类似的,一个单身者/丁克家庭常常面临的质疑是“等你老了怎么办” —— 你看,死亡甚至规训着我们的繁衍,至于这种规训是社会的还是生理的,就不得而知了。

这个时候就会觉得Coco是一部很深刻的电影,以及人真的很自信 —— 其实,又有谁能保证后人记得你是谁呢。

不如举杯自嘲的笑一笑罢,作为凡人,真的很难不怕死呢。

One Leaf of Time 一叶时间 #5

I spent a little bit of time on my piano this week. Two central thoughts as I go through the practicing process are a) how many routines focus on the separation of concerns – separate hand practicing, slow practice, etudes, breaking down the piece into little snippets all point to isolate the technical/musicality as much as possible, and they are all quite useful tricks in practice. And b) how much context switching costs overhead in your brain – it is often a surprise to me how much harder and more tired hands together practice can be compared with separate hands. I think I would be a much better keyboard player if I have thought about these things in my childhood.

This brings up the question – is it that good an idea to learn piano at a very young age (3-4)? Would the students have the necessary interest, understanding, and stigma to practice wisely, and learn the actual music? Another related thing is there are a lot of “young prodigy” piano videos on Video platforms, and a lot of them are sub-par if you do not account for the age. Those videos would be much more enjoyable if the videos are actually good playing, and I do think there are suitable pieces that can be played well by young kids.

China opens up the three-kid policy this week and it met with some skepticism from the public. It seems like a very interesting footnote in a wave of propaganda pushing people to work harder and not lying down; Douban even censored multiple subforums on the “lying down” philosophies. Moreover, Shenzhen moves to eliminates the legally-bind overtime payment for gig workers. It is very ironic that on one hand, the semi-official media is arguing “China is developing quickly and as long as you work hard enough you can realize your dream”, and in the meantime, it seems that China is moving faster and faster to replenish its cheap labor because “small business cannot survive with a high labor cost”. After forty years and headlines after headlines claiming “The western world is afraid of China”, seems that China still views its huge population as the core advantage.

In other news, Friends Reunion gets censored by China because of the appearance of some problematic artists, including BTS, lady gaga, and Justin Bieber. There is a very good write-up about Asian identity in NYT. Vivo seems to have a backdoor to use its phones as a CDN. Finally, apparently, the Slack LOGO is four ducks sniffing each other’s butt in a daisy chain fashion.

See you next week.

One Leaf of Time 一叶时间 #4

本周Android 12在Google I/O上发表了,主打的特性是重新设计的用户界面。虽然我有很多好朋友都在Android团队,我也相信他们在背后为这个版本做了很多我看不到的贡献,但是我还是很想吐槽这件事。

原因大概有两条,一方面我觉得这是一种“过度工程”(Over-engineering)。从Android M以来,几乎每个版本都会重新改造Android的设计。然而我已经很长时间对Android的设计没有什么意见了,反倒是一个新设计意味着我又要重新适应一个新系统,我已有的使用习惯和已经购买的主题/图标等有可能会变得更不适用。更重要的是,我觉得Android影响我的体验的部分并不是她的设计不好——对我来说,应用隐私的忧虑,无线网和5G之间的切换,蓝牙设备偶尔掉线,应用时不时会死机(或许是三星UI的锅),或者是Google助手一年比一年慢的启动速度其实更影响我的使用体验。拿GMail的新界面举例子,老界面几乎是立即加载的,新界面速度肉眼可见的变慢。当我看到巨大的设计重构的时候,我会忍不住想,这些工程资源去打磨其他部分的体验不好吗?

另一方面,我觉得频繁的重新设计接口的结果常常会变成只求好看不求好用,是一种“形式重于内容”的直接体现。比如说我觉得Android的通知栏每年都改设计,但是一年比一年更不好用,体现在两个方面,一是为了视觉效果,有效信息密度越来越降低,为了“清晰明了一目了然”分了更多的区,字体越来越大,带来的效果是通知栏往往有两屏长,有效信息要滚屏才能看见,“一键清空通知”的按钮反倒是越来越不好按;二是界面的逻辑越来越复杂,本来简单的“通知——清理”的逻辑现在变成很多类别,有的通知可以取消,有的通知会始终驻留。比如说,通知滑动这个操作,当滑动距离不大的时候不会消除通知,而是会出现“通知设置”,我的手机屏幕比较窄,所以经常误触,然而第二次同样的滑动却会消除通知,本来只需要开环控制的操作,现在却需要根据反馈来调整。不仅如此,这些“接口设计”往往缺少文档和说明,导致我直到这周开始写这个post才搞清楚这个操作的逻辑。类似的一个设计增加逻辑复杂度的例子是安卓的手势导航 —— 本来左侧边缘是一个几乎通用的呼出菜单的操作,自从侧滑这个动作被用作返回键的功能之后,有的app的菜单是按住边缘呼出,有的app是在界面右滑呼出,有的app干脆把菜单绑定在了返回键上。好看倒是好看了,接口本身的功能却不好用了。

这种重新设计界面的热潮,我觉得或许一方面是对“直觉”的用户接口的追求,希望用户接口能够不用学习,不占空间就能够魔术般的实现用户需求;另一方面或许是对“控制”的偏爱,希望用户能够按照厂商设定的场景、设定的方式得到设定的体验,而不是交给用户工具来实现他们自己的目标。这两者似乎都指向有一个无需权衡损益,无需用户选择的最佳体验,可我对这样一个最佳答案的存在,多少有点怀疑。

本周巴以冲突和袁隆平逝世算是热点话题,有趣的是,我的timeline上对这两件事情的意见似乎和对大陆政局的意见高度相关。另外一个我觉得值得关注的点是1619项目的创始人被UNC board of trustee 拒绝tensure —— 疑似和1619 Project引起攻击有关。好吧,这就是我们生活的世界:阵营比一切都重要。

下周见。

One Leaf of Time 一叶时间 #3

Earlier today, I was thinking about how I need to write a post today and how I did not feel the time passing until the to-do item popped in my mind. And I realized time is a bit like observer effect or double-slit interference — the amount of time seems to decrease as soon as you try to think about how much time you have. It is kind of a trope observation but captures my inner fear of death surprisingly well.

This week, the New York Times published another detailed report on the sterilization effort of minority women in Xinjiang, China.. It is good, and you should read it, along with their previous report on Re-education camps. There are also anecdotal videos accusing Han teachers of using corporal punishment towards minorities with discriminative language circulating Twitter.

Being a mainland Chinese with many mainlander friends – I often feel pretty powerless talking about this. Partially, this is because of the censorship, and the fear of repercussions from bypassing it. However, a more significant part of the feeling comes from the skepticism from my friends — “Look, do you really believe this?” or “My friend recently went to Xinjiang, she/he says it is great!”. This skepticism seems to be partially brewing from the strong confidence that our personal experience is representative and omniscient — “I don’t think things like this can ever happen. Otherwise I would have heard about it.” “How can the minority be oppressed if they are given so many benefits?”

This to some extents, demonstrated how successful the censorship on Xinjiang is. It is almost like a Catch-22: a lot of reporting on Xinjiang rely on the second-hand account and leaked files because, well, nobody is able to report first-hand there; and people do not believe the limited reports because first-hand reports do not corroborate them. The lack of first-hand and corroborated reports also increases the risk of exacerbated reports and far-fetched reports, which can often be used as evidence of “western bias”/”counter-evidence.” As we have frequently seen in other public events, the most effective strategy is often not straight up to remove/falsify data, but to allowing certain true stories and false reports to be circulated in a controlled manner, which can easily create a post-truth cynical sense that everyone is lying. We also see this in another event with a rippling effect – the mysterious death of a Chengdu high school student in the teacher’s office building.

How can we counter this? Well, I won’t be so powerless if it is easy. I think pointing to the shared experience that the audience can relate to, like the suppression of dialects/stereotypes of minorities in other regions, might be helpful. I believe it is also important to resist the desire of shrinking into a comfortable echo chamber – a self-reinforcing community is unlikely to construct an effective persuasion to other audiences.

The impedance mismatches when talking about Xinjiang often also come from different thresholds of wrongdoing between my friends and me — “They don’t have a job, what’s so wrong about helping them work?” And that speaks to our general tendency of preferring security and stability over individual choices and liberty. Both the dystopian Chinese COVID restrictions and The Epic vs. Apple discussion highlight this – people are willing to accept dystopian controls over their phones in the name of security and view it as a feature, not a bug. Interestingly, this is also often combined with a false sense of individual responsibility and choices – “If you already follow the regulations, why would you have a problem with the system?” “If you use the iPhone/live in the country, you should comply with the regulations, love it or leave it.”

Well, that’s exactly what they are discussing on the court, and I am not super hopeful of the verdict.

See you next week.

One Leaf of Time 一叶时间 #2

有思考过这个系列是应该用简体中文或者是英文 —— 一方面,我曾经一度信奉的原则是作为一个世界公民,应该使用国际化的语言。简中世界相对严重的信息孤岛也加重了这种逆反情绪。另一方面,自己也越来越认同语言是身份的一部分,对通用语言的追求很大程度上也算一种精英主义者试图摆脱自身身份的努力。最后决定使用这种交替使用的形式,就算是在自己想做世界公民的愿望和不能也不愿抛弃的个体身份之间做一个平衡吧。

讲到精英主义,最近常常会想到“尊重专业”和“兼听则明”这两个我深信不疑的原则之间其实是有所冲突的。上周有提到,当“外行人”发表和自己本职工作无关的意见的时候,最常得到的回答往往是诉诸权威 —— “哎呀你去多读点书再说话”“你一个数据记者能不能不要置喙公共卫生的事情”。这的确避免了民科或者阴谋论者混淆视听误导公众,但是也的确很容易联想到学阀或者专家对话语权的垄断 —— 没有相关领域的博士?不如你闭嘴听我们的。那么,这种话语权的垄断是好事还是坏事呢?垄断的优点似乎很明显:我们难道不应该信任科学和信任专家吗?考虑到辟谣的成本远大于传谣的成本,似乎有一个权威的,学术共同体做出判断也不错。

然而潜在的问题在于,学术共同体本身其实也是个建构起来的概念。宇宙浩如烟海,真理难以琢磨,个体皓首穷经也未必能精确的了解自己的研究领域,更不用说跨领域的研究判断了。COVID疫情提供了一个现成的例子,专家也可能犯错,学术共同体也可能意见不一致。权威专家做出的判断也可能是根据自己的先验知识和证据,做出的最佳考量而已。如果我们信任学术共同体并不是因为它能保证100%的正确,而只是相信这个体系做出判断和反应的能力是现况下的最佳选择,那么面对其他的声音一概以“要尊重专家”的理由拒之门外,是否过于一刀切了呢?从传播的来说,这样会不会给公众一种”权威的指导是绝对真理”的感觉,从而影响在复杂的情况下权衡利弊(到底感染新冠还是子女无法接受面对面教育影响更大)?如果之前做出了某些错误的判断,需要做出修正,会不会被阴谋论者抓住辫子,指责反复无常?

更进一步,“尊重科学”是我们作为个体,没有能力也没有精力对复杂问题一一验证,而将这个问题交给学术共同体代理的结果。学术共同体作为这个系统下的既得利益者,真的能够免疫一切外来干扰,不受政府的审查,不受维护自身权威的动摇,不受自身政治立场的影响,做到公平持中,闻过则改吗?抛开学阀不谈,我们看到中国CDC主任高福没有根据的臆测mrna疫苗安全性不佳,也有看到西方学者对BLM示威对疫情的潜在影响有所回避。从这个角度来说,或许有点不同的声音是一种好事 —— 我们不该低估假新闻与阴谋论的影响力,但或许矫枉过正也同样危险。

发散一点说,虽然“诉诸权威”是每一本逻辑教程都会提到的逻辑谬误,但是生活中避免却未必是那么容易的事情。我们往往对自己的研究领域和方法有着深切的热爱,也难以避免有着对不同者同仇敌忾的心思。包括我自己在内,时不时看到自己不懂的观点,第一反应也往往不是试图搞懂到底作者在讲什么,而是去试图查证作者是不是领域大牛,她到底有多厉害,以此来判断她的观点好坏。从这个角度来说,我对争议人物王垠是很佩服的 —— 这不是因为他“一贯正确”,而是不管他是不是好发惊人之语,他都很少把自己的观点建立在前人权威的基础上。对公司福利的评论,对自动驾驶的责任分布,包括最近对一些乐理的观察,都可以说很有思考的价值。倒是很多对他的批评都进入了“王垠没看过XXYY根本不懂没资格大放厥词”或是“你说的这个问题其实只要看了XX或者YY就能理解”的模式,而不是回应他的观点。从某种程度上来说,这也是某种诉诸权威吧 —— “你说的这点皮毛我还能不懂吗,是你才疏学浅”。

Twitter中文圈这周的热点是…汉人有没有必要check自己的privilege。从偶尔读来的观点来看,似乎认为没必要的观点主要是两条,一是“汉人也是被压迫者,没有必要反思”,另一派是“能住酒店是基本权利根本不是什么privilege”。大体上我觉得前者是忽略了intersectionality —— 一个人处在少数族裔和社会下层的交点可能会导致他被压迫的程度更加严重,后者有”何不食肉糜“的味道 —— privilege这个概念往往讲的正是“你以为习以为常的事情在别人那里并不容易获得”。觉得有趣的部分是,这方面的讨论和对white privilege的讨论惊人的相似:我们也能看到类似于“你看少数民族加分是不是对汉人的反向歧视”的评论。

镜头拉远,全球疫情仍然肆虐 —— 印度疫情似乎尤其受人关注。南美的疫情似乎有见顶的趋势。美国刚刚宣布支持放松对COVID疫苗的专利限制。Epic和Apple的App Store案子刚刚开庭Apple的律师显然对“Xbox on PC”的存在感到十分困惑… 举报文化仍然盛行,青春有你3惨被叫停… 中国驻日使馆想要嘲讽美国,结果不小心发表了反犹言论…这篇华北棉花的报道也十分有趣。

下周见。

One Leaf of Time 一叶时间 #1

After a ton of abandoned projects, I am almost afraid of jinxing this by talking about big plans upfront. So, here is a simple introduction: a week’s time, writing in a page or so.

Let’s start in China – there are a few seemingly unrelated controversies going on this week. This week was the anniversary of Tsinghua University – widely regarded as one of the two best universities in China – and a dance in the parade was widely criticized because “it has no artistic beauty, no youthful sexiness, no power of movement.”

It’s not like I can understand if the dance were any good. However, the idea that the dancing performance of Tsinghua students is a little flawed seems just fine to me. After all, they are probably just amateurs, or at best, professionals-in-training. This reminds me of a lot of “A Tsinghua student cannot find a job” style headlines produce by media – which I think fundamentally reflect some of our collective misconception about higher education – the institutions are often seen as a moving assembly line of “plug-in-and-use” geniuses that can woo the hoi polloi instantaneously, not a place for the youth (or elderly) to explore and develop themselves. I am sure Tsinghua can find professional-grade dancers among its students — they are that good — but ultimately, I would be much happier to see my classmates with some awkward moves to represent the university if I were a student.

In addition, the slut-shaming portion of this controversy is just plainly obvious – people try to paint the girls as “performing for the senior boys” in the tweet quoted earlier. There are also tweets comparing dances from Tsinghua and Waseda University — the subtext being Japenese students are more noble and elegant, where Tsinghua students have no tastes. I can’t help but feel that these comments are just male gazing – fantasizing a group of old-fashioned role-model housewives in training, to justify pointing fingers at Tsinghua students – “see, bad students”. Well, like it’s anybody’s business.

In other news, Chloe Zhao wins the Oscar, and Chinese media censors related posts. The censorship apparently boosted a few creative usages of the Chinese language. In fact, the whole Oscar got censored in China, partially because of a Hong Kong-made documentary nomination (Do Not Split), partially because Chloe Zhao has mentioned some unfavorable commentary about China in old interviews. Amusingly, there has been a huge discussion among Chinese Twitter users about whether Chloe Zhao’s allegedly lack of make-up in the ceremony “disrespects the award and audience.” There can be lots of things to unpack here – lack of tolerance and effect of consumerism being two of them. What I want to highlight here is how professionalism is often used as a tool to suppress personal choices, especially the choices of women and other minorities – “you’re on the job, why don’t you dress appropriately?” can be a very easy excuse to avoid being tolerant. Of course, a lot of these criticisms fall into common mansplaining patterns, or in Chinese explanations, 爹味 (self-appointed daddys).

Continuing this topic, New York Times published an article, detailing how “inciting mass confrontation” is used as an excuse to censor Chinese feminists. If you’re not familiar, that refers to how calls for movements like #metoo or women’s rights are inflammatory and should not be promoted. You also see some municipal courts claiming domestic violence victims should “handle emotion disputes properly” and “protect harmony and completeness”. What I often feel somewhat annoyed and powerless, though, is Chinese Internet trolls strawman arguments to paint a polarized picture of feminist arguments. “How dare you say Chole Zhao’s lack of mark up represents her power – femifights (女拳) will attack you because making up is women’s right”. Fundamentally, I think this reflects a conflict between the gender-specific and gender-blind languages in the feminist movement, but that’s for the next time.

Of course, the most important story of the world rolls forward without much mercy: COVID ravages through India, US reinstates J&J vaccine, and its domestic pandemic simmered down somehow. Almost expected at this point, there is not a lot of international or domestic resolution to actually combat this together. GOP introduced a bill to prioritize vaccines for US citizens, and we saw some British dramas. It’s sad that the nativism pitch is still on a high note globally.

In the Twitter world, the pause of the J&J vaccine in the United States has been controversial and criticized. Nate Silver, the famous data journalist, is among the most vocal opposition. Naturally, that caused a lot of people shouting, “why cannot a pollster stay in his lane.” It’s indeed a very interesting question to me – who is qualified to participate in such a public discussion, and who is not? While I see the point of respecting science and expertise instead of letting armchair epidemiologists and conspiracy theorists dominate the conversion, I can also see the this becomes a way to guard power – you don’t have a related degree or are not established, so you shouldn’t have a say. Is there a way to reconcile this? I don’t know.

There is also some drama in the Linux communities this week – from my point of view, the story is, some researcher from the University of Minnesota tried to submit a bogus patch (they pointed it out before actual merging) and their newest patch is not very high quality, so this agitated Kroah-Hartman and the university is banned, all previous patches by the entire university scheduled to be reverted, even the good ones, and “the Linux Foundation and the Linux Foundation’s Technical Advisory Board submitted a letter on Friday to your University outlining the specific actions which need to happen in order for your group, and your University, to be able to work to regain the trust of the Linux kernel community.” We can leave the detailed discussions for another day – but I am not sure throwing tantrums to the researchers of the same universities and reverting good patches solve the problem, especially when the open-source projects are supposed to be robust in the reviewing process and Linux is not that famous for being the most friendly upstream.

See you next week.