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January 22, 2014

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Home » Opinion » Opinion Columns

In increasingly permissive society we lose sight of what’s morally right and wrong

By Wan Lixin | January 22, 2014, Wednesday | Print Edition

A DISTRESSED primary school student in Jingjiang, Jiangsu Province, has complained to the mayor about a billboard showing a well-endowed Taiwan actress with a “deep cleavage.”

The boy wrote that he is obliged to pass the billboard each day and cannot help noticing the breasts of actress Lin Chi-ling.  His concentration has suffered and his school performance is getting worse, he lamented.

He received a reply from authorities stating that the billboard was examined and the advertisement found to be totally in compliance with Provision 7 of the Advertising Law of the People’s Republic of China. Authorities found nothing that might compromise the moral and physical health of minors, he was told.

Some of our civil servants are probably known for their immunity to such cleavages, but it would be hard for any parents familiar with our urban landscape not to worry about the negative impact of skimpily clad models on adolescents. Many officials have mastered the art of selective perception.

Take the pervasive smog.

Our opinion leaders, instead of targeting the growing number of cars, are now talking about limiting Spring Festival firecrackers that supposedly have “serious” pollution consequences, though they have been around for millennia.

Myriad distractions

Similarly, instead of doing something about motor vehicle noise or managing the ubiquitous LED screens shouting at us at bus stops, in metro stations, and inside metro cars, our commentators are turning their attention to an easy victim: middle-aged and elderly citizens dancing to music in parks. Dancing is one of the few activities left to the elderly that helps them renew their sense of community. It costs nothing and saves medical expenses.

Over lunch one of my colleagues talked of a successful ex-colleague who is so enthusiastic about marathons that he flies around the world to participate in the race, as an  amateur.

Our respect naturally wells up for him,  because of his self-discipline, but more because he can afford the tons of fuel in his long-haul travels.

Each year during a high-profile race in Pudong, you will see miles and miles of cars parked on the streets nearby.

It’s good for these health-conscious runners and onlookers to demonstrate their commitment to green life — but at what costs?

In our enthusiasm about superficial solutions, we are essentially flattering our own vanity, our sense of progress, participation and engagement. This enthusiasm entails a studied aloofness from the central issues, and an evasion that saves us the inconvenience of coming to grips with real problems.

Cult of celebrity

This moral indifference is yet another sign of our failures in education, with the consequence that some of our celebrities are prosperous criminals, and many of our intellectuals are little more than celebrated scoundrels.

Take Fudan University Professor Wang Zhengmin, a medical expert and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who was recently accused by his former secretary of winning election to that esteemed institution by using falsified documents.

An investigation by Fudan last August concluded that some of Wang’s papers are “highly repetitive” and said that Wang “lacks a seeking-truth-from-facts attitude in his academic pursuit.” The university let off the more damning charge of plagiarism.

We are living in a morally permissive society that takes a highly utilitarian view of success that often borders on snobbishness.

Movie star Tang Wei was recently defrauded of 210,000 yuan (US$34,000) in a popular telecom scam. Instead of questioning her intelligence, quite a few people found the actress “refreshingly simple.”

Jack Ma, from Alibaba, has reneged on his early promise of never going into the online gaming business which he once vehemently condemned. And he will become more respected as he gets richer.

Utilitarianism is increasingly a guide to our action, thought, and judgment.

The column title comes from the saying “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

 

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