Recently a female friend came back from a party and told us, still in excitement, that she met a nutcase who was brainwashed by the Communist Party. Seeing that everyone was listening, she continued, “I was so much surprised that the guy should insist that it is a good thing that we’re under the leadership of the Party, which I believe has got to leave right now.”

“You know what? We all rose and attacked him verbally. Actually we gave him a lesson on what freedom and democracy really is.” She said, obviously pleased with herself.

I said nothing, for I believed I would also be attacked if I said anything against her. Frankly, I have no interest in anything political. And I have to admit that I don’t know much about socialism or capitalism or multi-party system or whatever. Of course, I know freedom and democracy are nice things and should be our ultimate goals of human race. However, I also know that there’s no absolute freedom or democracy in this crazy world. If you could really enjoy the absolute freedom, then the freedom of others would inevitably and usually negatively be hindered. For example, if you were given the right to sing as loud as you wish, and as long as you please at night, how could your neighbors possibly go to sleep?

Secondly, no political system the world has ever seen is ideal or perfect. You might disagree and say multi-party system is better; at least there’s competition and they can mutually supervise. Allow me to disagree. It’s not necessarily as simple as that. Just imagine how much time and social/natural resources would be spent on party fighting and meaningless quarrels. I definitely agree everyone is entitled to have enough personal free space and should have the basic human rights that we are born with. However, we have to admit that we’re not truly “created equal”. I think of a blog I read yesterday, which says that the human society is very much like a human body. Different cells serve different functions. If every cell wants to be a brain cell, making decisions and giving orders, the entire body would be in chaos. I think there’s some point in it. In any society, you can try to be the one who makes decisions, but you have to admit not everyone.

I once read an article online about building a road in India. Almost everyone agreed that it would be a good thing to have that road built. However, when coming to some concrete matters, people had different opinions and just couldn’t reach an agreement. Therefore, they had to continue with their discussion and consultation. The result? You guessed it! The road that is sure to benefit everyone has never been put into reality in that area. So as you can see, democracy does have its own disadvantages; it’s just not a solution for all.

Then do we have to endure all of the injustice and corruption? It all depends. First, let’s face it; injustice and corruption exist in almost every society and nation. So long as greed is part of our human nature, these social tumors will never be completely eliminated. Yes there’re many problems with our government and our social system. And we do need to make our voice heard sometimes. However, we have to realize that every system has its own advantages and disadvantages.

With that agreed upon, we can move on to the answer to the big question. The only standard, if there’s one, is whether you are better off. It’s not very important who is in power. What really matters is whether they can make your life better. Looking back upon the past thirty years, we have to acknowledge that our nation has made enormous progress, whether socially or economically or politically. Honestly, we’re much better off than before. Historically, our country is in the fast lane of development now. In this respect, we should give credit to the Communist Party. So I believe any drastic change would not be in the interest of us common people.