To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.
Interpretation
Self-awareness is achieved through diverse opinions and the freedom to express oneself.
In this quote, Ma Jian emphasizes the importance of freedom of expression as a fundamental human right that enables individuals to develop self-awareness. He argues that when people are exposed to a variety of opinions and allowed to express their thoughts freely, they are empowered to think critically and form their own identities; without such freedoms, they risk becoming mindless automatons, lacking individuality and depth of thought.
In practice
This quote could be used during a speech advocating for free speech rights.
After the Tiananmen Massacre, I felt compelled not only to continue writing but to actively resist the restrictions placed on freedom of speech. I set up the publishing company in Hong Kong, with offices in Shenzhen in mainland China, and managed to publish works of fiction, philosophy, and politics by unapproved authors.
Before the counter-culture revolutionary Li Lian was executed in 1971 for criticising the Cultural Revolution, pour policemen pushed her face against the window of a truck, lifted her shirt and cut out her kidneys with a surgical knife,’ Mau Sen said, his face stony and white. ‘I think that removing the organs of convicts while they are still alive is too much. It completely contravenes medical ethics.’ ‘This is a dissection class, not a political meeting,’ Sun Chunlin said.
The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit ... Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do ... He does not keep "protecting" you by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that.
I figure anytime you put an adjective before 'writer,' it's a way of dismissing the writer.
Humans are producers of their life circumstance not just products of them.
Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie.
Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of power divine, Supremest wisdom, and primeval love. Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I shall endure. All hope abandon, ye who enter here.
Conscience doth make cowards of us all.
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