Shirley Shia and CAPA-BC preparation group (Feb 2023)
In the last issue, we talked about "everyone's participation". How can we maintain efficiency and unity under democracy? Speaking of unity, let's take an elderly person as an example. Before he died, he gave his seven sons seven chopsticks, each of which was easy to break; when the seven chopsticks were put together, it was difficult to break. No, no, if unity were that easy, that old man would have won the Nobel Peace Prize long ago. In real life, most Chinese Americans are elites in various fields, and their abilities are proportional to their temperaments. Let's imagine each person as a gear with thorns. When a bunch of gears are stacked together, they will inevitably cut each other. These gears need to be assembled on a conveyor belt and lubricated with oil to play a huge role. We need to find and optimize these conveyor belts and oil, which is human nature.
We know that where there are people, there will be a left, a center, and a right because everyone's judgment of a subject is related to their personality, preferences, upbringing, professional training, personal experience, and the bias of the information that each person encounters. If we must find a "principle" to summarize, it is that people's views on anything are normally distributed, which is the "inverted bell-shaped" curve we usually talk about. Extreme left and extreme right are a minority, and most people are in the middle. Most of the time, which side a person stands on is related to human nature. What is human nature? In my opinion, human nature is inherently selfish and has nothing to do with good or evil. Everyone speaks and acts out from "selfishness" or "self-interest", which is what we usually call "actions speak louder than words." Therefore, don't expect others to always agree with your ideas, and don't have too high hopes for persuading others.
A healthy society (community) can produce the best results for selfishness. There is a type of selfishness that will resonate with everyone, and that is the hope that our future generations will have a better living environment. In this one-person, one-vote democratic society, individual power is far from enough. We must unite and support each other. Many people have a misconception about democracy that each person's opinion must be satisfied for it to be true democracy and freedom, which is impossible. However, ensuring efficiency and unity under the premise of democracy and freedom is not difficult. We propose a basic principle of "minority obeys majority" democratic centralism. Specifically, if an organization needs to take action on a proposal, everyone can express their opinions after a rational debate, weigh the pros and cons, and the decision-making body can vote, then act according to the majority's opinion. Once the decision is made, the minority can hold reservations in their thoughts and may not even need to cooperate in action, but they should not cause inefficiency or even division in the organization because their opinions were not satisfied. It should be noted that in the next discussion, the original minority may become the majority and become the main force of the next action. This organizational principle can effectively mobilize the enthusiasm of the majority of people and promote the development of affairs. This "minority obeys majority" principle based on equality for all is not the tyranny of the majority, but also restricts extreme individualism, and ultimately ensures that everyone can fully express their opinions while also uniting every member as a whole, allowing everyone to contribute to the organization.
Another principle to maintain unity is mutual respect and understanding. Specifically, in discussions, focus on the issue, not the person, and use civilized and cultured language, instead of labeling those with opposing views as "stupid" or other derogatory terms. As we have seen during the election a few years ago, the left and right wings attacked each other, the extreme left and moderately left were at odds with each other, and the extreme right and moderately right were also in opposition. With the limited number of Chinese Americans, following such a way of discussion, the group would be split after a few issues.
In community building, we still have a long way to go. On the one hand, Chinese Americans should dare to speak and act, while on the other hand, they should preserve the "gentleness, humility, and respectfulness" that is revered in Eastern culture. Balancing these two aspects will elevate your life to a higher level. The Confucian saying "cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the nation, and pacify the world" can be applied to our current situation, with "governing the nation" referring to community governance and "pacifying the world" referring to balancing the relationship between Chinese Americans and other ethnic groups in the United States. Improving one's speech etiquette, respecting each other, and accommodating each other will be more conducive to the success of these major goals of "governing the nation" and "pacifying the world." Humans are emotional creatures, not machines. Imagine if two people spoke harshly to each other during a discussion and mentally blacklisted each other. Even if they share the same opinion next time, they wouldn't want to work together. Of course, the quality of interpersonal relationships also has many historical reasons. If A offended B because of something in the past, and the two worked together in an organization, there would be a grudge between them. In this situation, we hope that personal grievances will be set aside for community building, and both sides can be magnanimous. Life is short, and it is better to forget past grievances with a smile.
The Chinese in America are lucky: they have the opportunity to deeply understand two completely different cultures and experience two different countries' systems, as well as witness the deepening of the information revolution led by the internet and mobile phones. We hope that the organizational principles we propose of "everyone participating," "minority obeying the majority," "each matter being discussed separately," and "mutual respect" can create a new organizational concept of "efficient democracy" and "freedom under unity," while also establishing a supportive community. When times are good, everyone can cooperate and help each other, share resources and information, and progress together. When there is injustice, everyone can unite and speak out to defend the interests and status of the Chinese American community. Finally, it should be reminded that there is a learning process for everything, and making mistakes or taking detours is unavoidable. Everyone is feeling their way across the river, and the stones may sometimes hurt their feet. When faced with difficulties, everyone should not be discouraged and should encourage each other and learn from experiences and lessons. We believe that with our intelligence and diligence, as long as we step out of our comfort zone and correct our misunderstandings of "democracy," we can do well in building this organization and establishing a strong community with a promising future!
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