Althouse: "In a free country I would happily spend my life in the library doing research."

August 10, 2011

"In a free country I would happily spend my life in the library doing research."

"But I live in a country where I cannot in good conscience merely live such a life. I feel that I have no alternative. I have to voice my criticisms of our messed up social reality. Otherwise I would be uneasy. I would not be able to sleep well."

17 comments:

ndspinelli said...: Honor, a dying attribute.; 8/10/11, 4:15 PM
traditionalguy said...: Inciting State Subversion sounds so legal and all. The entire Fox News staff would get life sentences under such a law here.

Soros's personal President could appoint Media Matters as Special Prosecutor, and make them all beg for mercy.; 8/10/11, 4:16 PM
richard said...: Tom Freidman needs to talk to this man and tell him all the woderful thigs the Chinese government is accomplishing and the great future it envisions for its people.; 8/10/11, 4:22 PM
AllenS said...: Re-research this:

Dow 10,719.94 -519.83 -4.62 %
Nasdaq 2,381.05 -101.47 -4.09 % S&P 500 1,120.76 -51.77 -4.42 %; 8/10/11, 4:43 PM
Fred4Pres said...: It takes heroes to change the world for the better. There are still some out there.; 8/10/11, 4:58 PM
Peter said...: Living in a country that mostly respects the individual's freedom of conscience, it's hard to imagine the amount of courage it must take to do such a thing in a country where people can just be 'disappeared' for decades (or suffer 'unfortunate' accidents in prison).; 8/10/11, 5:07 PM
Patrick said...: I agree, Peter. Makes you appreciate the good ol' USA in all of its effed up glory.

Pretty much the only thing worse is everything else.; 8/10/11, 5:24 PM
Irene said...: When I first read the quote, I thought it was delivered by some angst-ridden, bitter utopian, lefty American academic.

Whoopsie.; 8/10/11, 5:34 PM
edutcher said...: Tell me again what good pals of ours the Red Chinese are.

WV "alswight" What Congressman Frank wants us to believe about the banking system after he finished with it.; 8/10/11, 6:00 PM
Sydney said...: Irene,
Me, too! LOL; 8/10/11, 6:32 PM
Drew said...: Mr. Ran was a reluctant critic, saying he would rather be traveling, drinking wine and reading. “In a free country I would happily spend my life in the library doing research,” he said in one post. “But I live in a country where I cannot in good conscience merely live such a life. I feel that I have no alternative. I have to voice my criticisms of our messed up social reality. Otherwise I would be uneasy. I would not be able to sleep well.”

It's funny. If you told me this was a New Yorker who wrote this, I would automatically assume he was some entitled hipster and latter-day yippie who probably works at Media Matters and posts his rants to Daily Kos. But you tell me he's a Chinese dissident, and my viewpoint instantly changes.; 8/10/11, 6:32 PM
Kirby Olson said...: And the left wants to make this country more like China.; 8/10/11, 6:53 PM
Paul said...: That blogger knows what it is like to live in a COMMUNIST country. Sadly so many socialist here have no idea how close a socialistic country is to communism.

Yet when their socialistic policies fail many of them turn to that very communism this blogger knows all about.

I sure wish Sorros and his crew would spend time in the rice fields of China. But we know they would never do it.; 8/10/11, 6:55 PM
blake said...: Irene, Sydney--

Ha! Me, too. I figured it was some Madison blogger.

wv: oveless

'ove is all you need.; 8/10/11, 8:31 PM
Lyle said...: Fucking China. It won't ever be able to live down the immorality of its authoritarianism.; 8/10/11, 8:33 PM
SunnyJ said...: Lest we forget that WH advisor Anita Dunn has Mao as one of her favorite philosophers and his mug hangs on the WH Christmas tree.

My irony meter just burned out.; 8/10/11, 8:44 PM
roesch-voltaire said...: Kirby perhaps folks on the left, like myself, admire China for its dedications to educations, half of our graduate programs in STEM are Chinese, and their willingness to support the development of infrastructure and new technologies, but most of us are well aware the repressive nature of China-- think about the lefty movement to free Tibet. To my mainland Chinese friends who are bursting with pride, I ask if they have read The Corpse Walker by LIao Yiwu and what they think about his views; you might want to read it if you haven't; 8/11/11, 8:42 AM