於 open democracy 中讀到的文章. 有關理性與市民社會和公共空間的討論比較多, 較少談愛(作為一種溝通的動力). 看文章時, 想到熊一豆對香港的 "涼薄" 的批批, 在一個涼薄的社會裡, 是難以建立一個溝通性的公共空間.
在這裡引講述愛的一段, 全文見 open democracy:
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A much more promising power is love.
I’m not talking here about romantic love, or love in the infantile
sense of being made happy, but what Martin Luther King
called “the love that does justice”, signifying the deliberate
cultivation of mutually reinforcing cycles of personal and systemic
change.
“The essence of love”, says the “Institute for the Study of Unlimited Love”
at Case Western University, “is to affectively affirm as well as
unselfishly delight in the well being of others, and to engage in acts
of care and service on their behalf, without exception, in an enduring
and constant way.”
This is universal love, unconditional love, attached only to the equal and general welfare of the whole.
This is love that contains a radical equality-consciousness, a force that breaks down all distance and hierarchy.
This is a love that respects the
necessary self-empowerment of others, eschewing paternalism and
romanticism for relationships of truth and authenticity, even where
they move through phases of conflict and disagreement, as all do.
This is a love that encourages us to
live up to our social obligations as well our individual moral values,
connect our interior life worlds to public spaces, encourage collective
judgments and create open networks of self-reflective and critical
communication.
This love is active, not passive,
explicitly considering the effects of oppressive and exploitative
systems and structures on the welfare of others, and not just focused
on the immediate circle of family and friends – a deep and abiding
commitment to the liberation of all.
This is a love that seeks not to
accumulate power, even in the face of oppression, but to transform it
so that ‘victory’ means more than a game of revolving chairs among
narrow political interests.
This love forms an essential
counterbalance to an excess of reason, adding in the discrimination,
humility, intuition, ethical commitments and emotional intelligence
that are essential ingredients of wisdom.
This love helps us to understand when
and how to uphold and apply rationality even in the toughest of
circumstances – by increasing self-awareness of our biases, prejudices
and blind spots, sustaining our objectivity about our own strengths and
shortcomings.
This love releases us from fear and insecurity, and our diminished sense of self.
This love gives us optimism and hope,
an expansion rather than contraction of our critical faculties,
openness instead of closure.
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