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Virtuous ‘idiots’ all too rare in world of calculated rationality
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IN the wake of the recent blast in northern China’s Tianjin Municipality, the significant death toll of firefighters triggered an outpouring of public grief.
In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, a female celebrity chose to tweet, at a rather inopportune moment, that it made no sense for firefighters to risk their lives going into a blast site that everybody knew was highly dangerous.
Despite the apparent bad timing, the post appeared to be inspired by a well-meaning intention to question the logic of sending the firefighters on what turned out to be a suicidal mission.
Nonetheless, the celebrity drew flak. Eventually, she quietly deleted the post.
One of her critics is Professor Yang Zebo, who teaches philosophy at Fudan University. Yang is concurrently a member of the International Confucian Association, a pan-Asian, non-governmental alliance of individuals and groups committed to the study of Confucianism.
Speaking at a recent forum jointly organized by Fudan’s schools of management and philosophy, Yang said that the celebrity’s views represent those of a “perfect egoist.”
Coined by Peking University professor Qian Liqun, the term “perfect egoist” has caught on as a buzzword in recent years. It is often used to describe people who apply an overly calculating mentality toward the choices they make.
In the case of the firefighters in Tianjin, they probably were aware of the danger, but still chose — or were commanded — to put themselves in harm’s way. This kind of selfless daring-do will probably be perceived as an act of stupidity by “perfect egoists,” said Yang.
The reality is that firefighters are trained to deal with risks and obey orders. Cruel as it sounds, they are supposed to shed concerns about personal safety in pursuit of communal good.
But is choosing the greater public good over selfish interests still the obvious option for most ordinary people, even if it entails great personal risks? Yang asked.
Centuries-old debate
His question is a variation of the centuries-old debate over self-interest versus morality.
In Yang’s view, too many people nowadays are willingly enslaved to economic principles, which force everyone to act cynically in their own self-interests. Seldom do they remember that mankind lives not just for material contentment, but for moral fulfillment as well.
In Yang’s view, many Chinese students, in particular those majoring in “utilitarian” disciplines such as finance and management, are led astray and taught to think from a purely economic perspective.
This line of thinking has permeated the ranks of both teachers and students, to the extent that some of our supposed brightest minds are wont to interpret everything in economic terms, however ludicrous that might appear.
For example, a prominent Chinese economist whom Yang did not name once said that Confucius should be celebrated for devising a primitive form of social security, for his far-reaching emphasis on filial piety is basically a brilliant economic institution: a father who cares for his son will in turn be provided for in old age.
Although it is universally known that the father-son bond is anchored primarily in biological affinity, rather than any economic benefit of reciprocity, it is surprising that “one of our best economists should understand the Confucian teachings on filial piety through the narrow prism of economics only,” said Yang.
He claimed that while many students of economics have come to revere Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” Smith’s other masterpiece, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” is not given equal attention. The relative obscurity of the latter book mirrors a selective attitude toward Smith’s thoughts, said Yang.
Observers of Chinese public discourse will surely be aware that a simmering discussion of morality is now playing out. While moral deeds are occasionally celebrated and acts of depravity deplored, people often bemoan that the general social atmosphere discourages them from behaving virtuously.
There are times when it pays to be virtuous, even at the expense of sacrificing one’s selfish needs — or one’s own life, in the case of the firefighters mentioned above.
As Yang said, those motivated by the need to do good may be dismissed in private as idiots, but such “idiocy” is an indispensable quality of a virtuous person or mature society.
Ours is an era characterized by calculating rationality, wherein everyone is looking to maximize the gains of their enterprises and eschew the pains thereof. In the end, society has too many rational minds, yet too few “idiots” who think of others before themselves, Yang told the forum.
He added that aside from material desire, human behavior is also driven by moral standards. Only by internalizing this standard can we detach ourselves from our egotistical tendencies, and live life to its fullest.
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