An Anachronist’s Life

Fool’s Moutain Blog上发表Mark Anthony Jones的一篇文章Sorting fact from fiction – Tiananmen revisited第一部分。我没有看完全文，很多fact都是我已知的，或者是认同的，但是MAJ意图影射的结论让我感到不安。令我感到惊奇的是，大部分FMB的读者都认同MAJ的一些结论。MAJ的第二部分会在5月22日发表，据说会展现出政府实际上更加愿意妥协，但却被傲慢的学生拒绝。我对这部分很期待。

FMB上有位读者Uln的留言这么写道：

4- Granted, the Tiananmen student protests had many flaws and perhaps it was better for China that this particular protest didn’t succeed. Still, this does not justify the killing of thousands of people by the army (see same sources cited in OP) without any kind of accountability. The CPC might say that it was necessary, but why do the Chinese have to take this at face value? Is it right for a government to cover up such important events “for the benefit of the people”? Do most Chinese people agree to be treated like irresponsible children that need parental control? It is sad to see that a large part of the younger Chinese today have no idea of what happened in 1989.

5- Finally: having democracy and human rights as an ideal is not the same as “American ethnocentrism”. It is an ideal that is shared by many people in all the World, and from what I have seen (in the 2000s), it is shared by many Chinese as well. We should not mistake this ideal with the political utilization of it by certain powers. Not all the Western media supports this, as shown by the reactions to the invasion of Irak.

我觉得，不管西方媒体和读者是多么的误读六四，我不认为学生是最该受到指责的。如果要评判这起事件中的责任，政府无疑应该承担主要责任。而政府对六四相关人员的处理，已经对六四事件的评价，则在错误的道路上越走越远。引用克林顿总统的一句话，“您的政府，站在历史的错误一边。”

其实，也许六四算不上什么民主运动，它的口号、标语都非常共产党化、精英化。但是六四唤醒了中国人对民主的梦想。从另一个角度看，我觉得现在的中国正在逐渐培养民主土壤和民主素养。经济进步，教育程度提升，民智渐开，现代通讯手段的发达，给未来的民主中国奠定了坚实的基础。相比较二十年前，民主已经从精英层逐渐深入到市民的每日生活中，并随着中国的大规模城市化步伐，成长壮大。

Note: FMB的另一位读者把这篇文章选录到他自己的博客。但是在这，讨论却被集中到关于MAJ的credibility的大讨论。因为我的博客上也曾经转载过MAJ的西藏观点，所以花了点时间看了这段讨论。在冗长的讨论中，我看到一个链接，MAJ居然给China Daily去了一封读者来信，批评Peking Duck污染互联网，我有点寒。