Is the public ideology forum a utopian fantasy?

By/ weihong Rong/ 2024Jul16

【This article is an english translation。For accurate ideas and views, please refer to the original version : 开放式意识形态论坛】

Due to social injustice and various reasons, human history have been full of social turmoil even wars. Such as the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Palestinian-Israeli war that are ongoing…. Ordinary people under war live a very hard and miserable life . Everyone with a conscience wants the war to end as soon as possible. However, despite several year’s efforts in the international community, the wars could not be stopped. This shows that the ideology, methods and means that are now using are problematic. We need to reflect. New solutions need to be considered. The wars should not continue indefinitely.

In order to solve this problem, I proposed a solution – to establish an [Public and Competitive Ideology Forum（PCI forum）] to discuss these problems. Details of the proposal are as follows. The object of this proposal is to stimulate discussion， I hope more people would come up with more and better solutions.

For detailed considerations of this proposal, please refer to the other series of articles. Such as [Critique of Market Fundamentalism]. etc.

After the [Public and Competitive Ideology Forum] was proposed, many people questioned the feasibility of this plan. Some even think of the scheme as an utopian fantasy. This article answers these questions.

Question 1: There are 8 billion people in the world, and if the forum is open and free to participate, the number of participants will be very large, it will be chaotic and unmanageable.

In fact:
1) Although there are 8 billion people in the world, only a few people who are interested in politics. For example, there are an estimated two to three thousand graduates of a Chinese university living in a city in North America, but only over one hundred are willing to participate in the political discussion group of the alumni association. In the group, there were only a dozen people who actively spoke and participated in the discussion. The graduates of this university should be relatively high-quality and more capable of thinking among the Chinese population, and the proportion of people who are enthusiastic about political discussions is still so small, that the proportion of people who care about political topics in other groups will only be smaller. The vast majority of people are not interested in politics. There are even fewer people who are willing to devote time and energy to discussing political issues. Even if you tell them that social injustice can lead to social unrest and even war. When war happens, your hard-earned house will be destroyed, the men in your family will be captured for war, and the rest of your family may be Killed by bombs…… They are still not care and just busy on earning money…

Some people may argue, who says I don’t care about politics? I’m usually very concerned, but I just don’t say it. Merely participating in political studies, (or reading newspaper articles, watching TV, ….etc. ) does not count as caring politics. The criterion for judging whether a person care about politics is whether he/she is able to speak out his/her opinions and criticize the unfairness and injustice of society. If you don’t participate in the discussion, there are two problems, 1) that proves you are not thinking seriously about it. Only by speaking out your opinions can you prove that you have thought about it seriously. If you don’t say what you think, just browse the press and media, it’s likely that you’re not concerned about politics, but you’re being brainwashed. You may be just swayed by other people’s opinions. 2) If you don’t speak out , there will be no discussion, you can’t know if your points of view are problematic . Perspectives that have not been examined from multiple perspectives are often immature and have all sorts of flaws. There is a great chance that you will be brainwashed by news papers and TV programs when you get only information from them. Wrong ideas and concepts that are not criticized will remain in your mind, accumulate and become more and more serious, and eventually develope to a stubborn ideological disease like religious belief.

That is why there are so many devout believers of the imperial power or democracy religions in today’s society. Moreover, once people believe in a religion, their minds become rigid and they are unwilling to accept facts and logic. They also hate each other. For example, once a democracy believer enters the imperial power group and says something critical of the autocratic system, he will be kicked out of the group regardless of whether what his saying is factual or rational. The same is true vice versa. Even close friends and relatives can turn against each other.

The religion belivevers cannot treat other people’s opinions rationally. Once they hear others criticize their religious beliefs, they are very disgusted and upset, and hope that pagans stay as far away as possible from them.

Question 2: Can a referendum solve these problems?

The answer is no.

A lot of people are keen to vote, thinking it’s political participation. In fact, voting can only be regarded as the most basic participation. True engagement is the engagement of ideas. Voting under the encouragement of other people’s minds is not political participation, it is passive brainwashing. It’s being taken advantage of by other people. This is the reason why a lot of disasters happen. The social elite love this the most: encouraging ordinary people to actively participate in voting, but not allowing them to participate in the exchange of ideas. Because your vote is just an instinctive action under the influence of their thoughts (or under the temptation of profit, such as giving a lunch box if you come to vote for him).

If you don’t care about politics and don’t put forward your own political propositions, you are tantamount to completely ceding the position of public opinion to others and leaving your own life and property at the mercy of others. Because socio-ecology is dominated by ideology. As a result, the society is hijacked by a small number of so-called intellectual experts. And these experts are often bought by interest groups after they become famous, creating ideology theories that favor interest groups, including war economics. There have been many disasters in human history as this result…

Some people may wonder, if you say few people care about politics, why there are so many people, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, marching on the streets every time there is a social upheaval? In fact, most of the people who protest on the streets just followed the trend. They were encouraged by the public opinion of that time. In fact, turmoil occurs because a certain ideology has gained the upper hand in public opinion and instigated a social trend. Other people just follow the bandwagon only.

As a result, there are only a few hundred thousand people in the world who really care about politics and are willing to devote time and energy to the discussions. And the vast majority among these people are the type of following crowd . That is to say, they believe whatever others say. For example, like this person (link: professor regrets that Trump was not killed). Is it because of interest that she has this view? I don’t think so. Trump’s death will not benefit her. Is it because of different ideas with Trump ? People with such noble souls should advocate resolving disputes through exchanges of ideas. So the conclusion is she’s just a catharsis for hatred. Why hatred she herself even does not know. This hatred is instilled by others. She was brainwashed by the opinions of the mainstream media. And those opinions are not through the process of criticism. They are poison.

It is estimated that only about 10,000 people who have independent thoughts can participate in the discussion in the forum . So， although there are 8 billion people in the world, after a round of screening ( After a month ‘s discussion , people who can still reasoning move on to the next round. ) there may be only 10 forums left.

Speaking untill here, do you feel familiar with this plan? That’s right, it’s the Olympic spirit! Let the human mind be in an open, fair and just playing field. In fact, the idea of Public and Competitive Ideology Forum is based on The Competition Philosophy of Humanity (proposed in 2002).

The Public and competitive Ideology Forum is the equivalent of an Olympic event in the field of ideas. If the Olympic movement stimulates people’s physical strength and makes human physical strength faster, higher and stronger, then the ideology forum is to stimulate people’s mental wisdom and make human thinking more rigorous, rational and creative……

Question 3: Will the forum debate fall into an endless, inconclusive cycle? For example, the United Nations has been discussing this issue for several years, but there has been no result, which makes people anxious.

The answer is no.

The clash of ideas will not drag on for a long time, and the winner will soon be decided. Winning or losing is much faster than a war, which often last for years or even decades. Many of the past and present dominant ideologies and theories (e.g., Marx’s communism, Lenin’s dictatorship of the proletariat, Dai Jitao’s theory of one doctrine and one leader, Mao Zedong Thoughts , The Four Basic Principles, The authoritarian system, The three represents theory, The final conclusion of history, The ideology of democracy and freedom, Universal values……. And so on. In fact, these theories simply do not stand up to serious discussion and careful scrutiny. In an open, competitive ideology forum, these ideas and theories will quickly fall apart and there is no market for them. The reason why these ideas were or are still popular in society is that the imperial authoritarian government or The deep state government use resources and power to carry out propaganda monopolies and use all means possible to prevent the exchange of ideas.

According to estimates, a debate on ideology can be decided in a matter of months. And once everyone makes the truth clear, social unrest, war issues (including the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Palestinian-Israeli war…) will stop naturally.

Question 4: Who will decide the outcome of the forum debate?

Many people wonder that even if there are only 10,000 people actually participating in the debate, there is still a lot of talks, and there may be a situation where no one can convince the other side. Who will decide the winner in this case?

In fact, there is no need to worry about that. Since ancient times, there has been a saying, “Justice is in people’s hearts, and there are gods wathcing three feet over your head “. A fair conscience is an invisible god who judges right from wrong. As long as we allow and encourage free and open debate, there will naturally be an outcome, without the need for adjudication. Those falsified facts, illogical and bizarre theories are often unjustifiable, and they will be ashamed of themselves when questioned by other people. After several rounds of debate, he will gradually lose his voice and eventually withdraw from the forum.

Only after big waves swept the sand can the gold be left; Only through passionate debate in the forum can we pursue the truth.

Generally speaking, the reason for the situation of mutual bargaining and endless cycle of debate is often due to the fact that one side uses power and resources, or deliberately creates and raises the threshold of reasoning, and does not give the other party a chance to refute; Or simply use force to prohibit you from speaking, and only allow those theories that have been whitewashed and spread rumors and have confused logic to speak out. This kind of system has created huge manupulating space and opportunities for those ”heroes“. They know that their ideological theories are absurd, but they still insist on talking nonsense. Because the other side cannot refute them. Didn’t Lenin, for example, know the absurdity of the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat? Didn’t Mao Zedong know the absurdity of the theory of the anti-rightist struggle and the Cultural Revolution? Don’t the democrats know the absurdity of Democratic theory and universal values? ….. They know. The reason they stick to these theories of thought is that they feel they have a way to silence their opponents. or forbid them to speak out, or put them in jail, or secretly kill them, so that the opponents can be physically destroyed…… They are afraid, and will never allow open, fair and just competition.

The sacred temple that should have been upholding fairness and justice in pursuit of truth has turned into a playground for the powerful men to compete over who is more skillful and strategic, who is more capable of playing tricks, ……to prevent the other party to speak.

The public and competitive ideology forum will deprive the opportunity of so-called “heroes ” to manupulate in the dark, and let them lose the stage of long-sleeved dancing.

Question 5: Even if it doesn’t make sense, some people are brazen and insist on doing that, what should we do? Even the United Nations has repeatedly passed resolutions condemning Israel’s war crimes, have they stopped to do so? So the forum can not solve the problems.

It is true that the forum does not have enforceable power. Just stay at the level of moral judgment. However, only barbarians need to be controlled by force, civilized people can be restrained by morality. Because the civilized people sitting in the Luxurious palace are face-conscious.

The reason why Israel does not accept the results of the UN vote is that the ideology of imperial autocracy and the ideology of democracy and freedom currently occupy the mainstream of public opinion. The adherents of these two ideologies are huge. And it’s one or the other. People around are still not profoundly understand these two ideologies. This is tantamount to providing a shield of unquestionable legitimacy for both regimes in their respective camps. For example, when people criticize Israel’s war crimes, the Germany chancellor responds, “Israel is a democracy, and it is absurd to criticize Israel.” Democracy has become a natural umbrella. The current situation is: I am a democracy, who am I afraid of ?! If you don’t accept democracy, do you want to accept autocracy （Autocracy has indeed been criticized for many things and has become notorious)? Because I’m a democracy, I’m doing everything right. No matter how many of you vote against me, you’re all wrong. Voting doesn’t tell the story. The truth is often in the hands of a few people. Your purpose in opposing me is to maintain the autocratic system. You are only the defenders of the autocracy, the axis of evil. We are the side who represents the direction of historical development. You are ridiculous and barbaric, I don’t even bother to pay attention to you, there is no need to accept your criticism and accusations. …。 This is why they dare to flout United Nations resolutions. Because they have a large number of believers, both nationally and internationally (This is actually an illusion caused by the lack of ideology debate. For example, in Harvard and other universities, in Israel , dissidents are violently suppressed). Although the resolution was passed by the majority, they, as a minority, were actually dissatisfied in their hearts, believing that the other party had used tactics to pass it (when dissatisfied in hearts, will not accept it verbally, of couse will resist in actions). They have the ideological support and confidence to despise critics. The ideology determines the state of a society.

“The democracy ideology is the truth; the democracy ends systems; the leaders elected by democracy is the Virgin” — these ideas have become a deep-rooted religious belief. That’s why they dare to be so unscrupulous. Even if they do such hurtful things such as murder, arson, and genocide, they still feel that they are right. They have a sense of institutional superiority over the other side . They think they have the condescending rights to destroy the inferior races . This is a bit like the insane rebels in the past under the imperial (communist) system who arbitrarily ransacked homes, deprived property, and tortured and killed landlords and capitalists (even women and babies). Because they held the “truth” in their hearts (such as the truth of workers and peasants that Lenin firmly believed in), they had no sense of guilt for the crimes they committed.

PCI forums allow and encourage broad and in-depth discussion of these issues among the general public. The debating can enable more and more people to break religious superstitions and change their ideological concepts. The formation of these religious beliefs has a long history and is determined by the social interest structure. The problem now is, under the current institutional framework, it is difficult to explore deep-seated ideological issues. The Interest groups do not allow ordinary people to discuss ideological issues in depth . That is why the United Nations has been unable to stop the wars for several years. Focusing only on superficial phenomena, without deeply studying the essence of things, and without exploring the ideological causes and mechanisms of the wars, …… it will be difficult to solve these problems. It is especially true that if only people within the current institutional framework are relied on studying and discussing them, because these people have selfish distractions to protect their vested interests. This situation makes it even more difficult to solve problems. If we don’t change the current ideological concepts and operating methods, the situation will remains the same even waiting more years.

Moreover, if these ideological problems are not accurately resolved, even if a new leader is elected , and an armistice is achieved under some kind of forceful means of the new leader, the quality of the armistice will not be high. Because the soil that caused the problem remains. In the future, when another leader comes to power, the same thing will happen again.

The PCI forum provides a new means of operation that may be helpful in solving these ideological problems. It provides an environment where everyone can calmly analyze and study problems in depth, and gradually break down the religious beliefs of the Imperial or democratic systems. Both ideologies are problematic.

Question 6: What should we do if it is unable to reach a consensus on some issues?

Some issues involve positions rather than logical rights and wrongs, and it is indeed difficult for both sides of the debate to reach a consensus.

For example, in southern Tibet, Scarborough Shoal, Diaoyu Island…… Which country do these areas belong to? For a time it is really difficult to argue with a conclusion acceptable to both sides. However, through extensive and in-depth discussions, weighing the pros and cons, other mutually agreeable solutions can be reached, such as putting aside the dispute for the time being and establishing a temporary condominium ,…… And so on. In any case, the solution obtained after rational discussion is better than the two sides fighting with each other.

The PCI Forum provides a platform for direct and frank communication between the two sides of a dispute. Through extensive exchanges, it is possible to avoid the growing hatred that eventually develops into a tragedy of war. We should not provide opportunities for the rulers with bad intentions who fear that the world will not be chaotic. Always Prevent them from taking advantage of these contradictions to sow antagonism, operate conspiracies, create wars, and profit from wars…… .

Question 7: This plan has been proposed for many years, why is the government unwilling to accept it?

Although this plan has been proposed for many years, because it adheres to a fair and equitable position, there is no beneficiary for specific person or party, so it is difficult to get the support of a certain group in power.

For example, when imperial power ideology (such as the theory of three represents) is propagated, the imperial power authority will profit from it , and the authority will naturally be favored of it. The imperial authority, in turn, would reward the scholars and experts who advocated the theory of the three represents. Therefore, scholars, experts, and professors are all vying to publish books to propagate the three represents theory, including the right to invent the theory.

In the same way, the propaganda of democratic ideology, universal values, etc… can also be favored by capital, so as to obtain funding from capital groups. Because in the democratic ideology , capital can control the media, control ideas, and thus control elections. Then gain power from elections, use power to obtain benefits, and realize the closed loop of funds…… That’s why there are so many democracy foundations in countries around the world that are funded by financial capital……

Based on the above analysis, the conclusion is that the PCI forum is not an utopian fantasy, but a practical and feasible solution that can quickly bring peace and prosperity to human society. The reason why this plan has not been adopted for a long time after it was proposed is that it focuses on the stability and prosperity of society as a whole. Unlike traditional political theories , there is no specific beneficiaries for any personnels and parties. Further more this plan weakens the autorities’ vested improper interests. Therefore, no ruling group is willing to support such a plan.

However, the wars take a huge toll of property and life every day. Military spending is in trillions of dollars, not counting the direct and indirect losses caused by the wars. People in war zones are suffering immensely. The sooner the wars end , the sooner the people will end their suffering. So, if there’s no better solution for the time being, it is recommend to try the PCI forum solution.

This forum welcomes more questions from netizens. We will discuss each of them in detail.