FREEDOM AND HUMANITY

 Nowadays, humans have gradually lost self-confidence. Day after day they relied on those possible social and political efficiency expecting more public welfare, peace, prosperity or happiness. At anytime, anywhere, the authorities promise, politicians promise, society promises, organizations promise, political administrations promise. Everyone scrambles to promise and this becomes the “battle of promises” which continues until the cultural and spiritual values are gradually and unjustly sacrificed in the struggle for political dominance. Humans likely believe as if they have more supporters but in the meantime, the society becomes more complex because of the increase in inherent conflict, division and discord. This is true, especially when particular social ideologies and systems impose upon human life which intentionally treads down or disregards humanity and the substantive existence of the individual.  And these props bring happiness as the people expected, do they? As a matter of fact, most of them cause more afflictions and struggles similar to the prey in the spider’s web and the happiness that they are pursuing is more unattainable.

   In the countries experiencing totalitarianism, dictatorship and tyranny, the dominance with any label which is sophisticated and falsified by any means certainly brings a society to disintegration, trouble, conflict and anguish. In that falsified and incompatible environment, human integrity - heart and soul are gradually fragmented and became depraved in dealing with the irregularity of life in the un-naturalized model of society for existence. Vile instinct, greediness, doltishness, hatred and ambition naturally grow to push humans gradually going downward on the ladder of humanity.  The inherent fear now has the chance to grow and to develop in its fertile soil that causes man to seek hidden shelter behind the barrier of jealousness, selfishness, injustice and inhumanity. This results in man diving deeper into sorrow tangles which man-he sows and reaps. It is not enough to say that the moral values in this kind of society are depraved because they have been destroyed and here there is nothing left to measure objectively declines or improvements, isn’t it?

   History clearly shows that the Soviet Union and the European Communist countries decayed by themselves and collapsed all together at once after a long period of building their totalitarian stronghold which based on deceit, repression and exploitation from maltreating the people. The ideology is very alluring and seductive; especially to the ears of youth it sounds like “Heaven on Earth”, but it is based on deceit and cruelty to humans.  Secretary General Milovan Djilas said: “At 20, if you are not a communist you are heartless. At 40, if you do not abandon communism you are brainless”; Soviet Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev: “I have devoted half of my life for communism. Today, I am sad to say that the communist party only spreads propaganda and deceit.” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (who served in Soviet Union KGB): “He who believes the communists has no brain. He who follows the communists has no heart” and Russian’s President Boris Yeltsin (former First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party): “Let's not talk about Communism. Communism was just an idea, just a pie in the sky” He also said: “Communists are incurable, they must be eradicated”.

   Today, the lucky ethnic groups in the world have just awakened and rushed to reclaim their human rights. This suggests they have been tendentiously on the way back to the fundamental humanity. Human dignity has been regarded as something luxury or disregarded under the totalitarianism. This regime has squandered a long period of time and people’s lives in experimenting with an ideology which is just the collection of extrinsic fragments from the integral whole of human-beings. Human rights are only appreciated and respected where freedom and real free political institutions exist! This is absolute truth! Naturally, no one can reclaim human rights in a country in which the political system is totalitarian, dictatorial because the survival of this form of regime fundamentally depends upon denial, trample on human rights; deceit, demagogy and taking no account of basic human dignity and integrity. Therefore this must be a “fight to the finish”, an existing struggle.

   In the long term human dignity and integrity have been rejected, man has been pushed to the brink with the resulting crises and afflictions.  In order to get to the truth - the spirit of liberty and freedom - man has to break through the wall of ignorance which has been steadily and intentionally built up by superstition, deceits, illusion and vain hope. This is not an easy and small thing for man who has been oppressed, because that benightedness cannot be enlightened while the experiences of corruption, disintegration and vague or distorted understanding of human dignity and integrity are still being retained. Nevertheless, it is a new and encouraging beginning for these ethnic groups.

   According to the Creator, human beings are superior to all other species; and if mankind is humble, this is a true source of joy. Only mankind is self-governing by eternal principles of truth, liberty and freedom. Those are not outer shells; therefore absolutely there is no beginning or ending, - not relevant to time at all. It is not necessary – not at all for anyone, any organization or any mode or system of government to define, redefine, or to give or take them away.

   Freedom is not an end; it is not the aim to chase but it is immediately at present. It is the grasping of the principles of liberty and freedom – liberty and freedom do not come from learning - that help man conquer his vain passions or tame his vile lust or frantic desire and to sow peace for others to the betterment of society. Why does man become captive of those ideological system, the political mold from a certain theory in which there are full of tangled contradictions, devious yokes - the seeds of war, death and affliction? The whole hulking ideological system clarified all in all just to confine the people to the subject of “yielding according to the utmost of man – ability, collectiveness and allocation of yield  according to vital need” meanwhile the value of man and his life, which is superior to the value of tangible substance, is definitely sacred and inviolable.

   Happiness is absolutely not only depended on limited value of substance.  Man has a heart and soul as well as intellect, and uses his God given intellect to dig deeply into the rubbish of human life and society to fabricate ideological systems which bring inevitable wretchedness and anguish for human – such as Marxism. It is virtually no different than man snaring himself as well as throwing seeds of grace into the wilderness of disintegration. Although with intelligence and hardworking, man molded whatever so-called sublime ideology, it is actually perspectives, aspects, or points of view – arguments of fragments or pieces of the integrity of human life which is never changed through the millennia of mankind. Those particular pieces are only ideas, theories of one or the some who are talented in digging and exploitting human vile instinct anyway! Why should man waste many lives, many generations to experiment with them? And ultimately what is the achievement if not conflict, degeneration, corruption, depravity, sorrow tangles and anguish which keep haunting man without ending?

   The more alluring theory derives the bigger piece of vanity. And it cannot be used no matter how big it is! Since man comes out from the womb with insecurity, man always has fears: fear of the present, running away from the present, fear of the future and even fear of what man has not ever known. But ultimately, what is the real fearful thing at the beginning and at the end if it is not losing touch with others – turning further away from human interrelation? Man’s existence as real human integrity is only recognized when man realizes the intrinsic human interrelation with one another.  Lust for power, fame, self-interest and fear are parts of the aim of inhuman an aberrant political doctrine that are sowed and thoroughly exploited until individual self-isolates and consequently, human interrelation hindered or shut down. Once, the value of humanity perished, it is inevitable for man and society to undergo corruption, division, demoralization, conflict, trouble and affliction.

   Only freedom - right at the moment stepping aside, those involvements cease, man instantly perceives what truth is, and what is false and also feels peace in his mind. Since human interaction is disregarded, man loses direction, self-submits to power holders, just takes obedient race for some kind of peace of mind granted. Then the affected tranquility or satisfaction come and go, which is flickering and vague as the image of the ghost. Imagine! a picture of handful of grass hanging in front of a horse while it is running the sled. Although the morsel is attractive and the restricted distance is short, the horse can never reach the grass by its strength, speed and effort. The truth and freedom are the same. It is the present and to be sensed immediately. It can never be future and therefore it will never be able to bring by a theory – an effort from outside. And hence, any promise for these is only fascination and deceit. People are normally gullible because of their own aspirations of satisfaction. Cupidity and lust; envy and hatred; self-prejudice and aberration turn them into, bigots, fanatics, sectarians or enslaved people – victims of political guises. Of course the propaganda from those inhuman theories is always meticulously studied, disguised and prepared thoroughly, thoughtfully, in order to achieve that goal as the professional hunters trapping the quarries that they have already learned.

  The purely intrinsic human interrelation only has a chance to exist in the society where human dignity is appreciated and respected. Social models, ethnic groups, territorial sovereignty, culture, political regimes … all come from human existence; in other words, they absolutely pertain to each substantive entity of the individual. Because the truth as well as the essential value of humanity is firmly at the immediate moment - it is as simple as a drop of clear water in daily life that it is usually disregarded. Meanwhile man keeps engaging in the so-call sublime theories with vain thought which supposedly will bring happiness. But any theory, any doctrine contrary with this truth will certainly bring man down the ladder of human dignity. Anyway, the unlucky people have sacrificed generations in experimenting with those theories for their really terrible outcome! And this great lost can never be offset by any means because any moment passed by, life would never return.

   There is no one who can go back to the good old days to live in peace with nature. But on the way back to basic humanity which actually warms up integrated love, waken up self-conceivability and interrelation, perceive the value of liberty and freedom, live with justice and common sense, shouldn’t the people in the countries which the Marxism imposed stand up, get out of that outdated and decayed wagon lamely heading around the graveyard of Marxism – Leninism and then choose a social model and a political system that brings peaceable, prosperity and happiness society in which human right – the God given inviolable right to be respect? Yes, to our mind, they might love to. But poor! The vast majority of people as well as the authorities high or low position, the individual shells of fears have been reinforced day after day; it became so thick. Each individual self-isolated and pure human interrelation totally obstructed and the people have really lost substantive existence of the individual in their life which yields to tyranny. “Yes to all” has become deep and thick habit; their will has become blunted and their self-confidence has withered. The truth has no foundation and the human interrelation has no more ground upon which to stand in this type of society. Therefore it is not easy for the people to gather their strength to fire and sustain a revolutionary movement. That is the real success of dictatorial government. And anywhere, even in the free state whenever it appears the propaganda which sounds helping but actually the government grasps and expands their power to the local community and every branch to hold sway over the people; and people feel that kind of fear, bias, crouch and blandishment they should be aware that the communists are already near.

   Search the world to see if there is a modern political foundation which is appropriate and substantial that most people admire, and millions of people risk their lives to enter. The United States, here, the Constitution is fundamentally clear; the principle of division of power is very reasonable; the real potential here is democracy and freedom. It is considerable  a wonderful masterpiece of humankind in present time that bases on natural law, and the appreciation and respect of human rights and the substantive entity of the individual.

   However, in order to preserve the political system, the balance of society and the substantial and beautiful culture, the citizens always have to show great vigilance at any agenda that raises or exploits the vile passions to degrade the basic humanity and gradually to deprive the people of basic freedoms; especially before supporting new propositions from political parties that cross the line of human principle, particularly those propositions which are for the interest of targeted groups but require no responsibility on any of them.

   To be a citizen of the United State from any ethnic group, we never forget that liberty and freedom is a blessing – as well as the air we are breathing. The greater the blessing is, the greater the vigilance and responsibility we must provide to preserve. “Before doing anything, think of its consequences”- this is the proverb that Vietnamese usually use in daily life. And yet, are we living in the prosperous era and peace? Is the value of human virtue as well as the value of spiritual civilization promoted? Or conversely, are all of those fundamental values damaged or destroyed by us, even by just only one vote? For humanity – both us and our children’s generations, these questions may help us to be more interested in our individual responsibilities while confronting all of the problems in our daily life.

   Biased faction, fanaticism make man blindfold, closing eyes to glorify the victory of “our own party” in the meantime the necessity is  a lucid mind to conserve the eternal value of humanity. To human and other beings, these principles: “Humaneness - Righteousness - Propriety – Wisdom and Integrity” are always effective in bringing about a real peaceful society. Expect! The ethnical Vietnamese youth treads in the elder’s footsteps to preserve humaneness and righteousness to all from the clear conscience  and in behaviors; true respect in interactions with others; deeply and widely understanding all what happening around and related consequences now and in the future. Those are “the five fundamental virtues” in correlation and interaction which have pertained to the Vietnamese culture for thousands of years. We should bring those into play and let them continue to take root, grow and develop for the betterment of society, or just keep adoring the party that brings satisfaction for low and vile self-instinct and temporary interest or securing political seat shouldn’t we?

  We will extremely regret one day awakening in the outdated wagon lamely drive us to the graveyard of Marxism -Leninism where we threw over everything and risked our lives to escape. And this is a final question for us – who appreciate and respect freedom and humanity:  Are we choosing to start right now to make an urgent inner change to improve ourselves for a healthier, better and more peaceful society in which we spend our life to pursue happiness, or are we continuing insensitively glorifying the changes that push us further away from human morality and principle, neglecting society with more chaotic and greater anguish? For instance, what do we think about free abortion or 15 year old girls can buy things for contraception without parents’ knowledge, or legalizing drug, or securing political seat of “own party” regardless the consequences of inevitable unpeaceful society, etc…? A free society where people lack interest in preserving the spirit of the truth, goodness and fairness to be inclined to the improvement of humanity, will have to have uncountable rules and regulations - but never be enough to maintain social peacefulness because freedom will be destroyed by itself, especially through the political ploys, and real peace can only derive from clear conscience and humaneness in every interrelation. .

   Not fortunate as the native citizen, the Vietnamese-Americans are from the ethnic group that experienced the pretty long history of fighting for existence and tasted uncountable loss and affliction. Hence, we should prove our outperformance in judgement, selection and participation; looking through what happening in front of our eyes; look at the whole picture with the real freedom and the value of the quintessential value of human culture that we all want to preserve. And, let’s us foresee the outlook of our society, then ask ourselves how we can help to prevent any reverse natural law as well as contrived transformation to turn our society into the type that no one of us expects.

Vinh Tuong