PureInsight | June 20, 2005
[PureInsight.org] Once upon a time, a man married a woman whom he had never met before. On the wedding night, he was pleased to find that his wife was at least an average looking woman. The only flaw was that she was born with a large lump on her neck. At first he was disturbed by the lump on her neck, but he got used to it over the time. They slowly became very much in love with each other. As a result, the lump on his wife's neck became a distinctive trait and his wife became the most beautiful woman in the world to him. Now he decided that a woman's neck without a large lump to be abnormally small. Such a neck seemed lacking something and rather plain to him. The moral of the story is: once you get accustomed to thinking of the abnormal as the norm, you will treat the norm as the abnormal. There are many fine illustrations of this strange phenomenon in life.
Allow me to give you a real story that has recently taken place in Canada as a modern day illustration.
This year Canadians celebrated Victoria Day on Monday, May 23, 2005. In Canada, the celebration of Victoria Day occurs every year on the Monday prior to May 25th. It celebrates the birthdays of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II. Victoria Day was established as a holiday in Canada West (Now Ontario) in 1845, and became a national holiday in 1901. Canada has a tradition of firing cannons and fireworks to celebrate Victoria Day every year.
A friend of mine moved from China to Canada with his wife and son. He wanted to live near his work, so he settled down in a suburb near his work. The only drawback was that the Chinese population is low in that area. On the Victoria Day celebration this year, he finally brought his family to the city to spend the holiday.
In the downtown area, they happened to see a group of Falun Gong practitioners practicing the Falun Gong exercises. My friend used to practice Falun Gong in China prior to the persecution. Now that he saw a group of Falun Gong practitioners freely practicing Falun Gong outdoors, he decided to join them and started practicing the exercises too.
After a while, his wife's face turned ashen and she suddenly started trying to drag him away. He asked why she was behaving so strangely and this is what he found: His wife saw a group of policemen pulling cannons towards their direction. Then they parked the cannons and started adjusting the directions of the cannons. She jumped the conclusion that the police were going to fire upon these Falun Gong practitioners!
While his wife was trying to pull him away, a policeman walked up to one of the Falun Gong practitioners. His wife became more frightened and said to her husband, "Look! That policeman must be saying, 'If you refuse to leave, we will fire the cannons upon you.'"
Although my friend knew it was legal to practice Falun Gong outside of China and especially Canada, he was infected by his wife's hysterics and became worried. He talked to a Falun Gong practitioner nearby and found out that the police were going to fire the cannons to celebrate Victoria Day. When they saw a group of Falun Gong practitioners in meditation with their eyes closed, they decided to inform them out of courtesy before they fired cannons so that the practitioners wouldn't be startled by the terribly loud noise.
It was just a false alarm.
For the people of China, this may appear to be a ridiculous joke. However, it was not funny at all for my friend whose family members have been locked in the forced labor camp for practicing Falun Gong. As a result, his family members, including his wife, would panic every time they saw a police officer on the streets in China. When my friend told me this story over the phone, I knew it was not a joke he had made up for my entertainment. It filled me with sorrow.
The people of China have become used to the unreasonable, unlawful treatment we received, as well as the deceitful news reports on the TV and newspapers. We thought we had been living in a perfectly normal society. We did not know we were living in an abnormal, twisted society and were not treated as a human being.
For example, we are used to the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) being termed "the public servants." The Chinese media often call them "public servants." But in actual fact, these "public servants" override all Chinese laws and treat the people of China as their slaves and subject them to deprivation at will. Apparently, the people of China have become used to calling people by wrong titles.
For example, Article 2 of the Chinese Constitution stipulates: "All power in the People's Republic of China belongs to the people."[1] But in actual fact, the corrupted officials of the CCP have seized all of the nation's power, money and resources. The people of China are unemployed and starving. The Chinese Constitution has become a work of fiction.
For example, Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution stipulates: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration."[1] But in actual fact, those people who courageously express different opinions from the CCP have been locked in prison. Those government officials who wish to truly do things for the Chinese people have been elbowed out. Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted and murdered for appealing to the CCP. The Chinese Constitution has indeed become a work of fiction.
The sad thing is that the people of China have become used to all of these abnormalities. One will be upset to know there is a corrupted government official in one's country, but one will become numb when the entire country is ruled over by corrupted government officials. Eventually, one will even see it as a norm and will be shocked to see an honest government official.
For example, when an innocent citizen suffers persecution and injustice, the society and the public is supposed to sympathize with him and take his side. In China, however, the CCP will brand the innocent man as a political activist or an anti-revolutionary. The CCP will even frame the innocent man on national media to instigate the people of China's hatred towards him and to justify the CCP's persecution against the innocent man.
Similar to the large lump on neck, these abnormal phenomena have become the norm to the people of China because they have been frequently exposed to them for a long time. The people of China no longer know what a normal society should be like. This is why my friend's wife has accepted it as a norm that the police may fire cannons at people at will…
Note:
[1] Constitution of the People's Republic Of China: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/newLaws/constitutionENG.php
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/6/14/32742.html
