Asking for It and Getting It - China's Lockdown

There is a complete lockdown for three days in my hometown village in China. No one allowed out on the street. Once caught will be taken away for self paid quarantine. And his is supported by many, including my parents, relatives and people like my brother. I don't think they will appreciate Heaven...since they enjoy Hell so much. Xi is a disgusting servant of Satan. Compared with him, Putin is an admirable man. 

No one—no people, culture, society, or country will escape the verdict that one passes on oneself. That's the justice and mercy of God. We will all get what we want thanks to his mercy and what we deserve through his justice. The two are perfectly reconciled as he knows us thoroughly. 

What I am writing is a paraphrase of what William Liu.

His point is - there is no discrepancy between divine mercy and justice just as there is no logical or actual conflict between the human and divine nature of Jesus - which is precisely the demonstration of the supreme wisdom of God.  He added that the longer he lives and observes God's operation, the more he realizes what we want and what we deserve are the same thing.  

If I may elaborate, some people might fancy or claim that they want freedom and democracy and justice, yet in reality they want a Soviet Union ( Communist China) without the Communist Party, so they've got the Russia under Putin. In another word,  they may say they want fairness and peace and prosperity, in reality they are not prepared to do anything to achieve that or safeguard it, instead all they want is to benefit personally from fairness and peace even at the cost of greater injustice and bloodshed for others - much the same as  the Jews who in the name of mercy asked for the liberation of a murderous Barabbas at the cost of the life of Jesus who is the Way, Truth, and Light. Well, those who asked for it, got it. 

Unless you really, really want freedom and life, want it so much that you'd rather die for it, you don't want it and therefore don't deserve it.

On Jordan Peterson's Interview with Artist Juliette Fogra

Juliette Fogra

EDITOR: Weizhen, the author of this blog, and a well-educated and single Chinese citizen living in Northern China, reacts to Jordan Peterson's interviewer with Juliette Fogra the illustrator of his Beyond Order:12 More Rules for Life. 

The interview can be found on YouTube here: Beyond Order: The illustrator/ Julietta Fogra - Jordan B. Peterson Podcast S4 E9. Oddly enough Fogra's name appears no where in the book except for her signature on the illustrations themselves. When books are registered for their ISBN and copyright information and illustrator is usually credited. Not here. There is no listing of Fogra's contribution on the copyright page, in the extensive alpha index, nor is she mentioned (as far as I could find) in the book's Coda where Peterson thanks dozens of people who contributed to the book's undertaking. Why is this? 

This absence of her name ironically relates to this blog post and Weizhen's comments on how her life in China and Fogra's life growing up in communist community as a Jew, compare and contrast.  

I am reading Beyond Order. I can't help but recalling some of the most intense and inspiring exchanges between JBP and Juliette Fogra in his interview of her. You asked what resonated with me? 

What a good question! One I have to answer and risk strong emotions that are to be stirred up by doing so!

First of all, Fogra was born and grew up in a communist community and felt an outcast as a Jew and she couldn't identify with her religious and social heritage. I used to lament and resent the limitedness of my own upbringing, both micro and macro—growing in a family with no education, a place no culture, a country no moral and a gender no power. I considered myself wronged and wasted. I thought I was the poorest of the poor, perhaps only women in an African cannibalist tribe have a worse fortune. But their suffering is a different kind. They have to endure hunger and fear while I am starved of beauty and meaning. 

Now, Fogra, clearly much more talented, grew up in communistic country, being a true outcast, exiled even from her own family, experienced both hunger and fear and a much severe impoverishment of beauty as an artist. 

That knowledge put me in perspective. 

Then her migration to Israel at the age of 14 would have been enviable to me since my family never had the ability to migrate outside of China. Her misery in a new country without being able to speak the language resonates with me who in my 40s tried to migrate to Germany and couldn't find a spot for myself. I could feel the harrowing loneliness and the inferiority Fogra felt. At times when I was in Germany I was like a 14 year old, defenseless and destitute. (This concerns another topic - like in the story about the modern day sleeping beauty in JP's book, too much sentimentality is infantilizing and a development malfunction that needs to be addressed. I think my mistake lies not in that I went to Germany but I went too late.)

But oh, God's way is above our way. There in the Middle East desert (literally and metaphorically), Fogra met a young man, and lost him, and was devastated. Until one day he called from New York, telling her:" Come to me. I meet people here every day but I can't see any one of them. They don't exist for me. Come, I see you."

She came to NY and was prepared to clean the toilets  in this metropolitan city for the sake of her love.  There, this shy young woman, who found it hard to survive in Israel, finds a living as an artist in the big apple.

As JP puts it there is nothing trivial about her. Although a rarely gifted artist, she is free of cynicism, conceit and condescension. Crushingly shy, she is also firm in her artistic pursuit. Her admiration and affection for JP is apparent and she genuinely wants to make him happy but she does it by being absolutely true. 

In a way, I like her better than JP in the interview. JP was a bit too eager to make his points and theories (useful and wise as they are) known, Fogra was not. She was slow in speaking, and quick to listen. She never seemed to try to impress or even aware  before her words got out of her mouth that they were going to be significant and mind blowing. She gave JP her full whole being. 

I admire her without any reservation.

And the man who sees her has very good eyes!

To Friends in the USA Worried about Biden's Trade Policies with China

As someone who has studied China-European governance, and has been involved professional in international relations between China and the rest of the world, here are some reflections.

CHINA'S INTERFERENCE IN THE 2020 U.S. ELECTION

It is true that there are enough stupid and evil Chinese officials who would have loved to have switched Trump votes for China (oops, I meant Biden). But if the Chinese were actually able to do such a thing then they have simply raised a stone only to let it fall on their own feet. They have a tendency to do with such spectacularity.  Read on as to why.

The legend of China's involvement and impact on the 2020 U.S. election is more of a compliment to their competency than a slander to their conscience. (They have no conscience.) Think of it as an achievement that none of their propaganda efforts have been able to pulled off so far.  But it's a legend.

CHINA AS A THREAT TO U.S.

Please, don't scare yourself into believing the bullshit that China constitutes any real threat to the US. Remember, the USSR supposedly constituted a threat to the U.S. Even President Reagan was not sure if he would be able to outrun the Soviets in the military showdown. But the media, then like now, portrayed the prowess of the enemy to be so insurmountable that the enemy hallucinated itself into believing its own propaganda. We all know what happened as a result. We have the incompetency of the media to thank for that...unintended consequences sometimes turn out for the good. 

BIDEN'S RELATIONSHIP WITH CHINA

The Biden administration's globalism policies, if implemented according to plan, will only serve to weaken the communist rule in a round about way. Here's how: 

1. The Biden Administration and China will cooperate on green technologies and green financing, of which Biden's son has been a chief executive. Thus, those free riding and envious European powers who criticized President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty, and resented his pressure on them to pay for their security protection provided by the US, will discover that they have only traded a slam in their face for a stab in their back. That is the U.S. will favor China instead of Europe with their trade dollars. Not good for smug Europe.

2. This will push the Europeans away from the Chinese market. 

3. And European Greeny Technology will lose one of its key markets, which is China.

BIBLE AND GUNS....GOOD STUFF

Within the US I know there are still people like you holding fast to their Bible and their guns. God will not let the USA fall. 

I have to go to sleep now...because the almighty and righteous God never sleeps.

White Privilege, Moral Extortion and the Descendants of Cain

WHITE PRIVILEGE AND MORAL EXTORTION

 

“White privilege” is ironic if not also nonsensical. Its common use today is derogatory in that it criticizes all people with light colored skin. Thus, by definition, it is racist. It demeans people solely based on the color of their skin and not their character. Also, those that use the term vainly, attempt to elevate themselves by criticizing another. The tactic has never worked because, on its face, it’s self-defeating. It claims that non-whites will never have the advantage of whites. Thus, the person using the term is using racism to criticize racism. But, still they persist.

 

As someone neither white nor black, I can boast neutrality and say confidently, that the losers that talk this way, attempt moral extortion. They are gangsters who, without the discipline to work hard, tell shop owners, “Pay us insurance money so you’re not guilty of forcing us to burn your business to the ground.”  

 

The only “hope” of impact such extortioners have is that their targets, who are prevailed upon by fear and not through fair competition, will cave to the terrorist demand.

 

Much is the situation in the U.S. cities currently ravaged by rioters who claim their underachievement is the consequence of others' success. Few are fooled that the riots are somehow about police brutality. It’s really about “class” warfare: the lazy vs. the disciplined. Somehow, the business owner who works 80 hours a week is oppressing, not himself, but the people who refuse to work even 20 hours a week.

 

I am very familiar with this practice, or the pathetic spirit behind it, which would be comical were it not so annoying and malicious, all thanks to its prevalence in the so-called civilized China. We have a special term coined for it. Pengci 碰瓷. Literally, it means 'touch porcelain'— jargon from the antique industry. Some morally challenged shop owners will place poor quality porcelain products in the middle of their store’s aisle-way. The owner intends that when a customer walks past they will easily knock the porcelain to the floor where it will break. The seller will then demand compensation for the customer’s recklessness. (Burned down a shop lately?)

Pengci 碰瓷 is unique to the Beijing dialect. It refers to malicious and illegal behaviors intended for the purpose of blackmail. For example, one may deliberately crash a car and then demand compensation—an incident-faking extortionist, which is a person who stages an incident and pretends to be the victim in order to extort money from the person who is framed as the party at fault. Welcome to Portland, Oregon.

 

Now, many people who are not exposed to such moral corruption are unaware of and shocked by this petty, ugly incompetence. Thus, we have the saying: Ignorance of cunning and evil is a hallmark of purity and nobility.

 

DESCENDANTS OF CAIN

Hitler as Cain (Painting by George Grosz, in Berlin)

Nancy Pelosi, it seems to me, is a descendant of Cain, as are all complainers and the whining wimps who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. It was Cain who accused his brother Abel of being more favorably treated (or privileged), although it was Cain’s disobedience that put Cain out of favor. And it was Cain’s murder of Abel that labeled Cain “under privileged” or cursed for all time. It was not Abel’s obedience that got Cain into trouble. Most, if not all, the claims of police brutality involve criminals, not law-abiding citizens. Although, in a way, we all have the blood of Cain, for Cain came from the same parents as Abel.

 

The temptation to blame anything and anyone other than oneself as the cause of one's misery, perceived or real, is strong in everyone. Therefore, Communism, Marxism and (radical) Feminism successfully exploited this weakness. The oppressed and the oppressor narrative always finds its audience.

 

Such selfishness is convenient. One doesn't have to change oneself with a little self-murder and rebirth. It is painful to admit one's own faults and costly to correct them. But the price of taking the easier and broader road of faulting others, leads surely and very swiftly to destruction. 

If you blame only exogenous factors for your own problems, the less specific, and more ill-defined, vague, broad and abstract these factors are, the more convenient a scapegoat they will be. An individual, however monstrous, would only plausibly be held responsible for certain and a limited number of woes. But, if the culprit is a group of people, the white, or men, or the society, the world — the more sweeping and all encompassing the accusations of who to blame and accuse — then the whole of the group would not be able to defend themselves.

 

If I blame my ex-boyfriend for my singleness, I am only a boring unlucky woman with a point.  If I blame men for my loneliness, I am a bitter cynic with little sense of proportion and probably no lasting friends. If I blame the world and God for my fate, I am (literally) out of my mind.

 

Therefore, I have decided not to blame anyone or anything for the outcome of my life, not even communists, nor my parents, nor the political Chinese culture.  This is a new discovery for me, and I still struggle to practice what I believe. But I am so much happier than before. 

 

Catherine Cookson - A Midlife Blessing

I didn't exactly celebrate my birthday but still I felt blessed because of the recent rekindled passion for reading.

Catherine Cookson. I discovered her a few years ago and have since been fascinated and inspired.

You will know what I mean when you have time to learn more about her life.

Largely thanks to what I have learned about the life of a woman who was born 120 years ago in the poorest region of England, with all the unimaginable sufferings and towering achievements, I have been free of self-pity or loathing or anger against my fate.

Here I want to share my reflections as recorded in my journal.

--- 

On the eve of my 44th year on earth, mellowing in emptiness induced lethargy, I have been given a gift.

I had wondered what I can get myself as a gift that would erase the horrifying humiliation of all the uncelebrated birthdays and those absent gifts. Anything shining luxury would be simply overkilling and might backfire and both my age and this age of the time don’t offer stimulation to the enjoyment of it.

And the nagging shame of my roots and numbing despair of bettering them are the strongest sentiment that I could feel in my numbness. I keep on telling myself I have reached the limits, the transparent but no less impenetrable ceiling. 

Besides, my brain, the strongest part of of my being, is showing signs of rapid decline. Both my body and my mind are fruitless. Whatever dream I had of being a writer is concluded with a final wake-up. And I still have another only half life to live out. What good will be there in store for me? A single childless woman? Clothing? Food? Travel? I am both beyond and beneath these bodily undertakings.

Life is a weary business if not carried out for imperative and inspiring purposes. But lo, here, finally I have been shown a life, conceived in sin and born into paralyzing dysfunction and poverty and stigma, tormented in almost every way imaginable, a psyche, as sensitive as mine if not more, an artist, starved of love, respect and education. 

• A debilitating vascular disease she inherited from a man who never knew about or wanted her. 
• A mother she thought and would rather be her sister, an alcoholic. 
• She never could have children. 
• The only religion she knew gave her more fear than hope, more smear than salvation.  
• She was tormented with rage.

Yet the more I read what Catherine wrote, the more I am amazed at her writing skills – by no means could one tell that this is by a woman of no formal education and born in illegitimacy and absolute poverty over 120 years ago.  Imagine if she had had good and appropriate formal training, what would she have achieved! 

 What more could I say? What excuses do I have for self-pity? Let me list out similarities I found in my life to hers. The order signifies no hierarchy of the attached importance.

1.       Birth into poverty and shame - both felt to be born in the wrong place, wrong family and ran away from it as fast and far as we could
2.       We share the same horoscope sign = Cancer
3.       Lavatory being the safe haven in childhood
4.       Frequent dreams of dirty lavatories and flying in the sky
5.       Largely self-taught – in terms of literature and English, as a Chinese of my generation
6.       Very bad luck with men – but thank God, she got married although at such a late age
7.       Childlessness – although mine is due to singleness and abortion
8.       Early menopause
9.       Middle age mental breakdown – with fear dominating our lives
10.   Struggle with established order – communism and her case – Catholicism
11.   Natural story telling gift and desire – greater in her case but no small in mine
12.   Bundles of emotions we are
13.   And a very similar kind of humor
14.   Both of us love tests and strive for self-improvement
15.   Writing seems the only escape and fulfillment

What did Catherine have that I lack?

1.       She was strong willed and insanely hard-working
2.       She was proud and determined to be successful 
3.       She was truly brave 
4.       She was a naturally gifted painter and piano player – I am going to give myself a piano lesson
5.       She was native English speaker and she had a devoted husband (but I have the internet)

What do I have that Catherine could have wanted?

1.       A mother who doesn’t drink and is sensible and loving albeit weak minded
2.       A very flawed father who is a terrible husband but has favored me and 
3.       I never had to endure hunger or hard labour. In absolute terms I was very well off as a child. 
4.       A body that is strong and healthy in general
5.       An intact faith
6.       A brother with two adorable kids that are as dear to me as I could never have imagined
7.       The Internet through which I can educate myself at will and almost no expense
8.       And a Catherine Cookson as my role model.

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These thoughts have protected me against despair and desperation, despite another uncelebrated birthday and the prospect of a life condemned to be spent in China.

Let come what may. I am not going to be overpowered.