曾经在悠网与一个上海的楼主关于对待自然的态度的辩论。对于自然,我的态度其实是敬畏(awe)。
■楼主:《黄河在奔腾!黄河在咆哮!黄河等待勇士们去征服!》
(文章内容省略)
★网友1:黄河是可以征服的吗?!一群人在黄河的一个小点搞个抢渡比赛(200-600米)就可以征服黄河吗?!!!真是太藐视大自然了!太藐视大自然的威力了!
■楼主:革命的乐观主义!黄河需要治理、疏导,也可称为”征服”,不要绝对的理解“征服”二字。很抱歉,我必须提醒你,您是伟大人类的一员。人类的伟大并不在于身体结构,而在于对自然的改造和利用,青出于蓝而胜于蓝,这样的“征服”不仅仅是我的骄傲,我们的骄傲,更是物种的骄傲。人最好懂得感恩,在享受着征服自然结果的同时(你居住的地域本应该属于大自然,要不你回神农架去?或者大兴安岭也召唤着你的归去。),何必批评一个微乎其微的用词问题呢。存在即合理,还是希望您安静一点吧,谢谢。
▲远方的朋友:
这段话非常荒谬,而且对大自然的理解似乎仅仅就是“荒野”的代名词,可笑!说实话,我一上来看着此贴的标题就觉得别扭呢!人类的狂妄曾经使他们提出“征服大自然”这种荒谬的口号。我们经常把大自然比做“母亲”,所谓“征服自然”就好比一个人提出要“征服母亲”一样荒谬。黄河是我们中华民族的母亲河,你可以去那里游泳,你可以认为自己是在拥抱黄河,但还是别谈什么征服黄河吧。“Tame nature”(驯服自然)的观念在文明社会早就让位于“Co-exist in harmony with nature”(与自然和谐共存)的观念,而我们在一条河中游一下泳还要慷慨激昂地说什么“征服”,这样的口号可不是什么用词的问题,完全属于一种愚昧落后的观念问题。
■楼主:
“Co-exist in harmony with nature” always seems to be a joke. Someone told you that is the right way to behave, then you just believe in it. Look! How brilliant you are! We are all animals. We are now doing everything we could to keep us alive, including change the nature and creat a new world. Come on, face the fact, you are changing the nature yourself. By the way, flood is a part of your precious nature, do you think it is a grace? Or glory? People just swim across the river, so they are proud of their great success. What's wrong? I am very appreciative of your answer.
▲远方的朋友:
“Co-exist in harmony with nature”to those like us, is simply a fact, no matter one likes it or not. “Tame the nature, change the nature, conquer the world…” sounds so familiar. Have we ever heard “Fight with heaven, fight with earth, fight with people, and the joy is endless!” such ridiculous statements in China? And what were the consequences? Rivers drained, forests reduced, land desertized, lakes shrunk, and in the end, nature punished us, with a force unprecedented. Just as officially concluded for “natural disaster period in early 60s”, a lot of times, natural disasters are caused by “30% of nature, and 70% of human”.
“Co-exist in harmony with nature” does not equal to passively staying in the world without utilizing the modern technology. On the contrary, co-existing in harmony with nature requires human more actively, more intelligently, and more carefully balance the interest in near term and longer term. That is exactly what human differentiates from animals, because we know where to balance, what to protect, and when to act, not only for ourselves, but for our future generations as well. “Changing the nature” can only benefit human when the balance is reached. Otherwise it can only mean disaster as we many times witnessed before.
“Co-exist in harmony with nature” does not mean to embrace natural disasters, such as flooding, fires, earthquakes, and so forth. Equalizing “nature” with “natural disaster” violates basic common sense, needless to say it is an insult to human intelligence. No people, even animal, would mix the beauty of nature with disasters.
Success of crossing a river of course is worth celebrating, but to push a simple entertainment or sport event to such a height of “tame the nature” shows the very human arrogance and ignorance.
“Tame the nature” is a joke, because nature has its laws, with or without human. The human responsibility is at least in the minimum, not to destroy nature to such an extent to expedite our own extinguishment.
■楼主:
To be or not to be, it is a question worth considering. To endure the savage and poisonous arrow by fate, or to raise and be against the world and struggling to change it all. These two kinds of behavior, which is nobler?
"Co-exist in harmony with nature” shows the fact that we all know the right way, but to do or not to do is quite another thing. Proceeding from the fundamental interests of mankind, to protect the environment will surely slow down the speed of economic development. So environment-protecting can be a global trend, but not a serious thing we'll take pains to do.
I'm unable to break the habit, so I decided to follow the rule of others. It's up to you whether to fight or to keep silence.
Man can be destroyed, but never defeated. If I'm willing to be destroyed from the start, I will never be defeated. It's my own funeral. Forgive my negative attitude towards the entire world.
网友二:长江三峡大坝的建设改造就是我们人类征服自然的举措呀!
▲远方的朋友:
To be or not to be, it is a question worth considering. To endure the savage and poisonous arrow by fate, or to raise and be against the world and struggling to change it all. These two kinds of behavior, which is nobler? ▲It’s quite confusing to quote the famous Hamlet monologue here. I take leave to doubt if you really know what it means. As I already mentioned above, in this world, many times the disasters, or “savage and poison”, are caused by human ignorance and arrogance. What is so noble about? Do I need to raise examples how we human are destroying the world?
"Co-exist in harmony with nature” shows the fact that we all know the right way, but to do or not to do is quite another thing. Proceeding from the fundamental interests of mankind, to protect the environment will surely slow down the speed of economic development. So environment-protecting can be a global trend, but not a serious thing we'll take pains to do. ▲Thank you for recognizing that “co-exist in harmony with nature” is at least “the right way”, but you just show that a right way can not be taken because a right way is “not a serious thing we’ll take pains to do”. Then let’s have a question: when can we take pains to do it? Do we need to wait until the whole village got cancer to stop polluting the water (it was reported on newspaper)? Do we need to run out of underground water to stop pouring chemicals underground (as a lot of cities already faced)? Do we need to wait until the fountain water intake port becomes dirty and people have to go to the stores to buy all bottled water, and then think and act (as happened in Wuxi Taihu Lake )? Just one question: when can we treat it as a serious thing and take pains to do it?
And things really need to be re-considered: 1. why should the “fundamental interest of human” exclude the environmental protection? 2. how can “a speed of economic development” bring benefits to people when it destroys the very environment in which we live and breathe everyday? 3. is environment protection just a global trend unrelated to our daily lives?
I'm unable to break the habit, so I decided to follow the rule of others. It's up to you whether to fight or to keep silence. ▲In above you mentioned nobleness, now you talked about the uneasiness of breaking a habit. Now I am confused: if one is doing a noble thing, a right thing, why to break it? Is it so hard not to “follow the rules of others”? Who are setting the rules anyway? It will be very easy for me to keep silence, but I choose to voice my opinion, even if there is one listener or no listener at all. This is my choice already made.
Man can be destroyed, but never defeated. If I'm willing to be destroyed from the start, I will never be defeated. It's my own funeral. Forgive my negative attitude towards the entire world. ▲Earnest Hemingway would be laughing if he knew that a person needs to be destroyed first in order not to be defeated later (it is simply not logical). I know what he meant but would like to add something to it: even if a man is defeated, so what? He can still choose to move on and face the remaining challenges. To me, it takes more courage as a defeated person to continue to live than a victorious person, and in this sense, a “defeated” person is not really defeated because he revived himself and is worth respecting.
Regarding the Three Gorges Dam, we even don’t know its full impact yet which may take decades to show. So please refrain from applause, and let the time speak.
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