At the end of December 2019, Google released its word of the year as usual: “Hero.” This may have had something to do with the many superhero movies released that year. But in an age full of chaos and anxiety, calling for heroes does become one of people’s choices.
After all, history is only an abbreviated record of past events, and it easily creates the illusion of a heroic view of history. The more a nation likes to “take history as a mirror,” the more likely it is to look eagerly for the arrival of a hero when facing a historical crisis it cannot handle. Napoleon for France and Hitler for Germany are examples, though the legacies they left were completely different. The former left the great French Civil Code and spread the spirit of French freedom and democracy across Europe; the latter left war, massacre, and a Germany reduced to ruins. Yet both were personally lifted onto the heroic throne by their own people.
Every heroic epic, whether tragedy or comedy, requires two elements: lazy people and ambitious men. People naturally tend to hand complicated problems in front of them to an exceptionally capable hero. Public affairs are complex and changeable. Handling them involves tedious calculation. Compared with participating and spending their own time and energy, people would rather throw themselves into brief and exciting public trials or movements of idolization. As for boring public affairs, let the hero deal with them.
The ones who fill this lazy demand are ambitious men. They always enter public view with unrealistic plans for salvation and promise people a beautiful new world flowing with milk and honey. Among many such figures, a few outstanding ones are chosen by the public and become “leaders” who will deal with the crisis and lead the people to the new world.
Open any history book, and the partnership between lazy people and ambitious men almost always ends in tragedy. Complex public issues do not have once-and-for-all solutions. Even if they did, they would not be imagined by a small group of leaders sitting high above everyone else. Solving public affairs requires the participation of all citizens. Attention, discussion, voting, and petitioning are all forms of participation. These are basic obligations that citizens should fulfill while enjoying their rights.
Lazy people ignore all civic duties except paying taxes and place their hopes in the appearance of heroes and leaders. In the end, they only attract ambitious men and create irreversible tragedy.
As members of an ancient nation that has not yet fully escaped such tragedy, we should remember the lessons of history: refuse to become lazy people who suffer the consequences of their own choices, refuse to become ambitious men full of beautiful visions, and work with other citizens to truly fulfill our civic duties. That is what taking history as a mirror really means.
Public trials and movements of idolization may be exciting, but citizens cannot immerse themselves in that false sense of participation and stop at the satisfaction of appetite. A great nation requires great citizens. Lazy people will never achieve “national rejuvenation.”
2019 was a year of many troubles. I faintly smelled the cyclical decline of human civilization. In this unavoidable decline, which nations will sink, and which will make it through? That is a question worth thinking about.
Without doubt, the diligence and courage of the Chinese people are worth taking pride in. They have created the world’s second-largest economy despite layers of institutional obstacles. But as former Premier Wen Jiabao said, without successful political reform, economic reform cannot be carried through to the end. The gunshots thirty years ago silenced the whole people and pushed China’s reform into the awkward state of having nowhere left to reform.
But people’s silence does not mean they have chosen to be lazy. The world never needs heroes. What it needs is for everyone to abandon “isms,” study real problems, work together, and take responsibility for this ancient nation.
My phone ringtone is “Hero,” a song written by the American band Family of the Year for a yearly TV series. Its lyrics express the spirit of a younger generation that rejects grand narratives while still warmly welcoming the life ahead:
Let me go, I don’t wanna be your hero. I don’t wanna be your big man, I just wanna fight with everyone else. You’re a masquerade, I don’t wanna be a part of your parade. Everyone deserves a chance to, Walk with everyone else.
Today, China’s younger generation bears survival pressure far beyond what it should have to carry: sky-high housing prices, corporate exploitation, poisonous food, environmental pollution, a worsening aging population, and the social security gap that follows. None of these burdens can be easily solved by a “hero.”
We have had enough of grand narratives such as “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” or “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” In the complex era ahead, these slogans seem painfully pale. In such difficult circumstances, we cannot place our hopes in the appearance of heroes. Or rather, only we can be our own heroes.