标签：the masses

The Blame for “Health” Scams Shouldn’t Be Put on the Audience

Culture & Public Commentary2017.06.25
The Blame for “Health” Scams Shouldn’t Be Put on the Audience
Yet another commissioned piece from *China Science Daily*. Last time, I finished the commissioned piece in half a day; perhaps that efficiency left a good impression on the paper. This time they came looking for me again to write something, and lately I’ve been so busy I’m almost falling ill. I had originally meant to refuse, but after taking a look at the topic and thinking I’d probably be able to dash off something fairly quickly, I tried writing it. In the end I finished it in two hours, meals included. It was, after all, just an essay, so the standards didn’t need to be too high, and that was…
China science commentary science communication
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2017年6月25日
Lectures on the General History of Science 13: Science in the Age of Enlightenment

History of Science & Technology2015.05.28
Lectures on the General History of Science 13: Science in the Age of Enlightenment
Today we are talking about eighteenth-century science. From the Glorious Revolution in England in 1688 to the French Revolution in 1789, the eighteenth century can be said to have been a century of transformation in history. The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution both took place in this century, and the independence of the United States and the rise of Russia also both occurred in this century. But in terms of the history of science, the eighteenth century seems to have been a relatively uneventful period. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before it were the sweeping and magnificent Scientific Revolution; and the nineteenth century is called the century of science, with…
technology history of science course Kant
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2015年5月28日
On Civil Servants

Culture & Public Commentary2014.11.30
On Civil Servants
I’d promised two current-affairs commentaries plus two book reviews every week, but my habitual procrastination put me off for a whole week. Starting today, I’m officially kicking into gear. The commentaries and reviews may be very short in length; their main purpose is to keep me in writing shape. The long-parked conference travelogue will also be produced sometime in the next few days. Today is the day of the national civil service exam. I hear that this year’s number of applicants has fallen to the lowest level in five years. Perhaps that is because civil service pay has declined; perhaps it is because young people nowadays are increasingly opinionated; or…
culture China freedom education
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2014年11月30日
On the New Three Kingdoms and Artworks in the Age of Mass Media

Culture & Public Commentary2010.05.23
On the New Three Kingdoms and Artworks in the Age of Mass Media
I only glanced at a few episodes of the New Three Kingdoms television drama, and I haven’t read many related reviews either. At present I also do not want to offer any comment on the drama itself; works of that sort are not worth criticizing. I am merely using New Three Kingdoms to recall certain general phenomena of audiovisual works in this era. When watching New Three Kingdoms, and when in earlier years watching various remade historical costume dramas, I often could not help thinking: why can’t you just make it properly? Why must the screenwriters insist on adding so many melodramatic, soap-opera-style gimmicks? Why can’t they show more respect…
culture commentary art the masses
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2010年5月23日
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 09-12-26

Life & Notes2009.12.26
Notes from Today’s Xindao Salon, 09-12-26
Last week was all normal; there just wasn’t much of anybody and nothing much going on, so I won’t record it. Next week will also continue as usual. Today, Guawang brought along a classmate. Though there weren’t many people, the discussion was still quite lively. We talked about the relationship between elites and the masses—whether some new idea becomes widespread because the public blindly follows a small number of authorities? We also mentioned the “pleasure machine (brain in a vat),” the choice between love and chemical substances? purpose and meaning, scientism, paradigm shifts, sympathy, departmental divisions… I don’t remember the specifics for the moment; I’ll fill them in again in…
everyday life the masses scientism elite
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2009年12月26日
Miscellaneous Thoughts on Marching in Step

Culture & Public Commentary2009.08.11
Miscellaneous Thoughts on Marching in Step
Let me begin with a story. Here’s how it went: this morning I went to campus to watch the formation training, and stood outside the fence around the gymnasium watching. Beside me was a middle-aged man who seemed to be visiting Peking University; he picked up his camera and took two photos, and immediately a thug-looking fellow came running from far away, yelling for him to delete the pictures. The man obediently complied and left. Seeing this, I then took out my own camera to shoot as well, and sure enough that fellow immediately charged over again, shouting for me to take out my camera and delete the photos. Of…
China freedom commentary education
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2009年8月11日
“The Philosophy of Online Games”

Philosophy & Thought2008.12.09
“The Philosophy of Online Games”
For a philosophy to spread widely and be remembered by later generations, a distinctive and resounding name may well be of some help. What could my philosophy be called by others? Terms like critical philosophy, philosophy of technology, philosophy of history, and pluralism have already been overused; things like philosophy of the stars and philosophy of media also seem insufficiently precise. Suddenly it occurs to me that perhaps it could be called “network game philosophy.” The two words “network” and “game” can indicate the distinctive features and central concerns of my philosophy. Under this heading, almost all the questions of traditional philosophy—ontology, epistemology, axiology, and so on—can be developed. Moreover,…
philosophy media internet game
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2008年12月9日
[Western] Ortega y Gasset: The Revolt of the Masses —☆

Culture & Public Commentary2008.02.14
[Western] Ortega y Gasset: The Revolt of the Masses —☆
[西]Ortega y Gasset: “The Revolt of the Masses,” translated by Liu Xunlian and Tong Dezhi, Jilin People’s Publishing House, October 2004, 16 yuan——☆ I read this book on the train while I was going home; thanks to a delay, I happened to finish it in one sitting. But the excerpts below were not entered into the computer until the last day before I returned to Beijing, which shows how completely I wasted my time at home. This is a wonderful book, so much so that I wanted to classify it as a “★” recommendation. After much hesitation, I lowered it by one grade, because I felt that the book’s mode…
book reading notes sociology the masses
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2008年2月14日
The Difference Between “Argumentation” and “Bamboozling”

History of Science & Scholarship2008.01.22
The Difference Between “Argumentation” and “Bamboozling”
Sometimes, out of irony, I also call activities such as argument, persuasion, and admonition “brainwashing.” But if we really press the matter, I must insist that “argument” and “brainwashing” are by no means equivalent. In fact, we can all feel the difference between the two; otherwise we would not laugh at the “brainwashing” displayed in Zhao Benshan’s comic sketches. First of all, the purposes of “argument” and “brainwashing” are simply not the same. On the one hand, the former requires the other person to “actively” come to accept it, whereas the latter only requires the other person to “passively” receive it; on the other hand, the former is oriented toward…
scholarship modernity democracy science communication
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2008年1月22日
The Globalization of Media Culture

AI & the Future of Technology2006.12.26
The Globalization of Media Culture
Abstract: In this article, the author attempts to argue that in the contemporary world, economy, politics, and culture alike have all become inseparable from (mass) media—that discussions of globalization cannot possibly proceed in depth while ignoring media technology; furthermore, the process of globalization and the expansion of media culture can almost be regarded as one and the same thing. The author holds that the significance of media culture lies in media itself as a kind of culture, rather than in the information that media disseminates. In the main text, the author lists eleven constituent elements or manifestations of culture: modes of communication and exchange; material entities/products; political/social order; entertainment; values;…
culture technology media modernity
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2006年12月26日