Why should a non-Taiwanese care about Taiwan
Joseph McHugh
September 16, 2008
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" Martin Luther King Jr. said, and his words are stunningly apt. His words do not mean that every violation of human rights represents an immediate existential threat to everyone else. Each small country in the world that violates human rights is a not set to take over the world. But King's words have a richer meaning than that.
It is not just the injustice itself that threatens us, but far more important is the refusal to see it, the refusal to look, to identify what is happening, in short to be willfully blind. King maintained that whites were damaging, not only blacks, but also themselves by refusing to recognize the injustice of Jim Crow.
Everyday we constantly are called on to make choices, to assess situations and to make judgments. The quality of our focus, our honesty with ourselves about what is happening, these are crucial to our success or failure. We must choose the right friends, the right job, the right mate, and time and time again we must judge what is good for us and what is bad for us.
If we lie, or evade reality we do enormous damage to our ability to achieve our goals. Lying to our friends only pushes us further away from them. The refusal to acknowledge or take seriously their virtues makes them invisible and divided from us. If we carelessly over-assess our abilities we take the wrong job. If we fearfully underestimate ourselves we stagnate.
A representative government represents the will of individual people as expressed democratically. A democratic government which lies, or evades reality jeopardizes the individual lives it represents and it shames them all as equivocators.
Taiwan exists. It's an entity with certain properties that are real and observable. For our government to pretend that it is something that it is not, or to muzzle the truth of what it truly is, denigrates and endangers us all.
Taiwan is an independent country. It is a free country. It is a civilized country. Its people are peace loving. Its accomplishments are observable.
And the Chinese missiles aimed at it are real.
Why then does our government pretend otherwise?
The position of Taiwan in the world community is the equivalent of the following situation. You are a hard working individual who builds and maintains a small home that is your pride and joy. Suddenly your neighbor in the mansion next door claims your house as his own, and he trains a battery of guns on you claiming that you "better be careful" because he'll take your house one day, killing you if necessary. Alarmed, you go to the police department. They advise you to simply be quiet. Don't make waves and maybe the maniac will cease his threats. Above all they say, don't assert your rights. That's just a provocation.
Not satisfied with this answer you go to an international human league, ostensibly dedicated to protecting human rights globally. You are stopped at the door. You're not a member they say. But I'm a human being you reply. We will not acknowledge you as such they retort.
Such a situation not only is intolerable for the poor property owner with guns trained on him, it's also miserable for the people who refuse to protect him. Mentally they must contort reality to fit their evasions, and they have relinquished any right to protection they may need in the future.
The fact is that a community of nations that respect human rights is in everyone's interests. Imagine moving to a neighborhood where there is no one but criminals; how much better our lives are when we live with people who respect individual rights.
Every time we refuse to recognize the legitimate claim of a person or people we do damage to our own mental well being by damaging our integrity; and we foster an international climate where freedom loving nations are demoralized. Dictators exist by lying; civilized nations live by telling the truth. Indeed, one form of justice is identifying fearlessly the virtues and vices of others.
And we all know that once someone starts down a path of distorting the truth, it´s hard to come back. The cancer spreads. Each new lie is a cover for an old one.
The cause of Taiwan is the cause of the world. It's the tyrant against the individual, the productive versus the looters, the peaceful against the violent.
It's our cause.
I've always maintained that we need not pick a fight with China. But the truth always must be told, by individuals and by governments. The first step is to educate yourself. Learn the facts. Then judge those facts fearlessly, and remember there are some things more important than saving face.
It is not just the injustice itself that threatens us, but far more important is the refusal to see it, the refusal to look, to identify what is happening, in short to be willfully blind. King maintained that whites were damaging, not only blacks, but also themselves by refusing to recognize the injustice of Jim Crow.
Everyday we constantly are called on to make choices, to assess situations and to make judgments. The quality of our focus, our honesty with ourselves about what is happening, these are crucial to our success or failure. We must choose the right friends, the right job, the right mate, and time and time again we must judge what is good for us and what is bad for us.
If we lie, or evade reality we do enormous damage to our ability to achieve our goals. Lying to our friends only pushes us further away from them. The refusal to acknowledge or take seriously their virtues makes them invisible and divided from us. If we carelessly over-assess our abilities we take the wrong job. If we fearfully underestimate ourselves we stagnate.
A representative government represents the will of individual people as expressed democratically. A democratic government which lies, or evades reality jeopardizes the individual lives it represents and it shames them all as equivocators.
Taiwan exists. It's an entity with certain properties that are real and observable. For our government to pretend that it is something that it is not, or to muzzle the truth of what it truly is, denigrates and endangers us all.
Taiwan is an independent country. It is a free country. It is a civilized country. Its people are peace loving. Its accomplishments are observable.
And the Chinese missiles aimed at it are real.
Why then does our government pretend otherwise?
The position of Taiwan in the world community is the equivalent of the following situation. You are a hard working individual who builds and maintains a small home that is your pride and joy. Suddenly your neighbor in the mansion next door claims your house as his own, and he trains a battery of guns on you claiming that you "better be careful" because he'll take your house one day, killing you if necessary. Alarmed, you go to the police department. They advise you to simply be quiet. Don't make waves and maybe the maniac will cease his threats. Above all they say, don't assert your rights. That's just a provocation.
Not satisfied with this answer you go to an international human league, ostensibly dedicated to protecting human rights globally. You are stopped at the door. You're not a member they say. But I'm a human being you reply. We will not acknowledge you as such they retort.
Such a situation not only is intolerable for the poor property owner with guns trained on him, it's also miserable for the people who refuse to protect him. Mentally they must contort reality to fit their evasions, and they have relinquished any right to protection they may need in the future.
The fact is that a community of nations that respect human rights is in everyone's interests. Imagine moving to a neighborhood where there is no one but criminals; how much better our lives are when we live with people who respect individual rights.
Every time we refuse to recognize the legitimate claim of a person or people we do damage to our own mental well being by damaging our integrity; and we foster an international climate where freedom loving nations are demoralized. Dictators exist by lying; civilized nations live by telling the truth. Indeed, one form of justice is identifying fearlessly the virtues and vices of others.
And we all know that once someone starts down a path of distorting the truth, it´s hard to come back. The cancer spreads. Each new lie is a cover for an old one.
The cause of Taiwan is the cause of the world. It's the tyrant against the individual, the productive versus the looters, the peaceful against the violent.
It's our cause.
I've always maintained that we need not pick a fight with China. But the truth always must be told, by individuals and by governments. The first step is to educate yourself. Learn the facts. Then judge those facts fearlessly, and remember there are some things more important than saving face.
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