Oct 14 2008
最近读的几本中文书笔记备录：
1. 《刚鉴易知录》（唐史）：初唐无聊，中唐故事多，晚唐最有意思：极富戏剧性，像武侠小说，爱不释手。问题：为什么潘镇“割据”而不“独立”？什么使中国难以分裂？
2. 《剑桥中国隋唐史》（崔瑞德，费正清，三联）：关于陈寅恪的评价，“陇西-山东”框架，私铸货币和通货膨胀，中央管理货币的尝试
3. 薄一波的《若干重大历史事件的回顾》（人民出版社）：毛泽东的霸道，刚愎自用和小气：十五天从反右到反左。刘少奇的“走狗式”（李斯，范蠡）的下场：桃源经验，“三分天灾，七分人祸”，党内民主制度不健全，西楼会议，七千人大会？
4. 《政治儒学》（蒋庆）： 踩在学术和博客的边缘，文章罗嗦冗长 。读上去感觉好像一个面壁的愚儒在振振有词地证明皇帝的新衣确实存在。唯一可取的是第三章，儒学与民主政治，二者平等而不兼容。不可用西学的概念来解构儒学。联想：中国的“政治”和西学的“政治”是一个概念吗？
Oct 13 2008
Per this WaPo article,
The decision to hire McCain (as a naval liaison to Congress) fell largely to the commander of naval operations, four-star Adm. James Holloway, who had known Jack McCain during his liaison days and thought that his son might be aptly suited for the same line of work. “John was a personable young guy who had been brought up in the right atmosphere,” Holloway recalls. “I mean, he had that kind of social education that came from seeing his parents entertain a lot of people from Congress. . . . He had good genes, and he also had a good sense of humor and social skills at a cocktail party. He was a guy who could play poker and help with arrangements, a good fellow.”
Compare that with Obama’s rise, this story echos a larger debate between aristocracy and meritocracy, doesn’t it?
Oct 10 2008
Two days in a row I have been reading news reports on the sickening anger among McCain supporters. WaPo had an article yesterday: “Anger Is Crowd’s Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally” and today Politico had a follow up. Reading them gave me shudders: there even have been cries of “kill him” at a recent rally.
The reports reminded me of what happened to JFK. Although he is now canonized as one the greatest Presidents, when he lived he was too hated by a whipped up crowd. So much so that after he was shot, before Lee Oswald was identified, the overwhelming public assumption was that he was killed by a Republic partisan. People flooded local Republican offices with angry mails and phone calls blaming them for the assassination (”Before the Storm“, a biography of Barry Goldwater).
Honestly, I start to fear for Obama’s life. I know it is a very dark thought but I can’t shake it off. American politics always has violence in its DNA. What is even worse is the self-denial in order to sustain the mirage of “a shining city on the hill”, as if the assassinations were just brief exceptions. I remember Benedict Anderson talked about that while building a collective imagination of a nation, there has been constant manipulation of memories of past violence. And this is very true today. By not remembering the circumstance surrounding JFK’s assassination, the nation lives as if it has always been a tolerant and civil polity and that JFK was a tragic hero. In fact, JFK was a martyr and the nation didn’t become what it is today until after he is killed.
God helps us all.