Dualistic Tension

Dualistic Tension

There's nothing that turns me off more than ignorance masqueraded as knowledge or trivia presented as gravitas. I don't go around looking for cheap praise and facile approval as some feeble-minded individuals think I do, but I love shooting down sloppy, mushy, hazy, lazy thinking. ( I do look for real teachers and intellectual stimuli).

Righteousness has to be science and reality-based, and must not rest on wishful thinking and superstitions. One must always ask oneself if one's thinking is rationalistic and logical. Of course, the rationalism and logic of one's thinking depend on one's values. A selfish, self-absorbed person's rationalism and logic would be different from those of a caring, altruistic person. So, at the end of the day we are back to values and philosophies. Thus, we are back to the fundamental question: for what and for whom do we live? For our own selfish interests or for others and the group at large or somewhere in between?

Sociobiologists maintain that altruism is ultimately beneficial, not only to the group, but also to the individuals. Naked and rampant individualism is a harbinger of a society's collapse.

Rampant concerns with self-interests are what are happening in Vietnam, from the very top-the Politburo of the VCP, who set a very poor example for the populace, down to the bottom. There are some individual exceptions like Le Cong Dinh, Le Thi Cong Nhan, et al., who devote their lives to Vietnam.

What we need is a revolution in thinking, a step in the right direction in Vietnam, otherwise Vietnam will be a province of China in about 25-50 years, if not sooner.

We all have to die someday. On our deathbed, we must ask ourselves, not the silly concerns about reincarnation and Last Judgment, but the real question whether or not our lives have had real meaning and relevance and contribution to our group, our race, our country (could be more than one in recognition of the special situations of diasporas)

Three-Cent ThinkerWissai

P.S. This piece was written as a result of my preoccupation with the dualistic tension between altruism and selfishness, between patriotism and self-preservation. The thinking process is raw and not well- developed, yet I decided to post it in the hope of receiving some feedback. Sociobiology was invoked but I only had a vague idea about it. However, the statement regarding what we should feel when lying on our deathbed was heart-felt and probably explained of and accounted for much of my outlandish behavior.

I don't know if you guys have heard of the Khmer Kampuchea Krom movement. When I first heard about it, I felt really sad for the Khmer people. And then I felt a terror and a horror running through my body when I thought of the threat China was posing to our people. I don't want to see a Free Vietnam Movement when I am lying on my deathbed, feeling impotent and useless and full of regrets.

My job requires long drives across many states of the USA. As endless sretches of roads are ahead of me and vast vistas of landscape extend to the horizon, I cannot help thinking that only more than 150 years ago, these lands belonged to Mexico, just as barely 350 years ago, much of South Vietnam belonged to Kampuchea. While Mexico has a fighting chance to reclaim her lost lands due to population growth and a merge with the U .S. and Canada to form a superstate to fight against the dominant China, Vietnam has no chance to regain its sovereignty once it becomes a province of China.

No province of China has managed to break free from the Han rule and stay free for long, except, of course, Vietnam. We have been mostly independent since 939 C.E (Current Era, AD smacks and smells of religious bias). It looks like our days of independence from the Chinese are over if most of us embrace selfishness.

For the sake of our survival as a distinct people with a sovereign country to call our own, we need to familiarize ourselves quickly with the notion of altruism.