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Ba Jin

Nationalism and the Road toHappiness for the Chinese

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Chinese society is at the darkest stage now. Under such circumstances,young peop le become impo ten t and weak w ithou t the powe r to resistcorruption. Even the brave ones can only keep quiet and submit to fate.When it is really unbea rable, suicide is the on ly way out. China is par-

alyzed; where can we nd happ iness ? Some conscious youth believetha t the on ly way to improve Chinas curren t situation is to promo tenationalism, and identify nationalism as the only road to happinessfor the Chinese. Voices of nationalism have spread all over the nation.I shudde r at such a though t. Nationa lism is in f act the obs tacle tohuman progress. Being a member of this society, I cannot accept nation-alism aga ins t my conscience . I have to argue aga ins t nationa lism anddemons trate the real road to happ iness f or the Ch inese . My words are

sincere and I wish to receive sympathy from people who ref use to ignoretheir conscience.Wha t is nationa lism? Tolstoy says, Nationa lism is the site of exe-

cution . Wha t it practices is the art of killing ; wha t it discusses is theways of killing. It has no thing to do with the real lif e of the masses . Itmay sound ridiculous, but it captures well the essence of nationalism.Except f or cold-blooded m ilitarists and po liticians , all human be ingshate war. Te origin of war is o en found in the love for ones nation.

If human be ings love each other and wo rk together happ ily, there canbe no wa r. A er the birth of the na tion du ring the era of animalisticdesire, nationalism emerged, whose cause and purpose were all aboutselshness and g reed . For examp le, when one s tate wan ts to expandits territ ory, it sacrices its peop le to invade other nations to f ulll itsan imalistic desire. If it wins , only those m ilitarists and po liticians canen joy the fruit of success . If it is def eated, people have to suff er fromsupporting military expenses. Does it benet the masses? Poor masses,

do they realize tha t nationa lism is the weapon tha t kills their belovedfathers, sisters and brothers? One example proves that nationalism isa monster of killing: in the late 19th century, the German state promotednationalist sentiment and introduced the conscription system. All adultmales had to serve in the army; even scholars and monks had to followthe orders of militarists and politicians to kill civilians. When they were

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God is the master and Man the slave. Man can never nd justice andtruth by himself; eternity is given by Gods powe r. God creates theworld and sends k ings and officials to represent him. So the peop leshould also become the slaves of our kings and officials. (Ti s is what

Charles I of Britain meant by the divine right of kings.) Tis is theessence of Christianity. Te powerful Christianity exemplies otherreligions. Bakunin is right to say that if there is a real God, we shoulddestroy him. Let us try!

e above systems are our enem ies. We mus t overthrow them inorder to nd ou r way to happ iness . A er we elimina te them , we willredistribute wealth, give peop le the au tonom y to organ ize and he lpone ano ther. To each according to his ability, t o each according to hisneed . e ind ividua l seeks to benet society; society seeks to protectthe ind ividua l. Is this not happ iness ? But to achieve happ iness cos tsus enormous blood. Bakunin has said, Revolution is the most excitingand en joyable endea vor! Would you rather linger on in your lif e bycurling under the evil power, or honestly risk your life ghting againstthe devil with no turning back! How exciting and courageous! I hopeour friends w ill join us w ith ery spirit t o f ulll the mos t exiting andthe most en joyable endeavor of revolution. Let us march together to theroad of happiness!

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The Anarchist Library

Anti-Copyright

March 11, 2011

Ba JinNationalism and the Road to Happiness for the Chinese

Originally published in Awakening the People , No. 1, September 1921

h tt p://dwa rdmac .pitzer.edu /ana r i st_ar iv es /bri gh t/ ba jin /r oad tohapp iness .h tm l

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