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In short, the first asks us to do what we have been trained to do as imperial subjects: comment on the beauty of today’s sunlight filtering through the airborne specks of water.

The second, uncharismatic sort that he is, simply asks us to consider how much more green and fertile the garden might be in the future if it were to receive its full allotment of irrigation.

For today’s Chinese, this “boring” second vision is, still quite alluring. For us, it seems, the contemplation of the man-made rainbow is consistently much more attractive.

18 February 2011

Dignity: An Idea Gone Missing in the Land

Watching the recent coverage of the events in Tunisia and Egypt, I was struck by how often the pro-Democracy activists in those places, like the politically minded citizens I have known in Spain and Latin America, invoked the concept of “dignity” when asked to explain their motivations.

This, in turn, made me realize just how seldom we hear the term in today’s America.

To speak of dignity is to express the belief, according to a definition I recently came across, “that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment.” This being the case, it is probably not surprising that Americans have come to avoid the word like the plague.