Positive, Optimistic Idealists Are the Medicine That Saves the World
Recently, after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, two sharply different camps emerged: one supports solving problems through war, the other calls for peaceful means. Analyzed closely, those who support war hold a pessimistic view, believing things have deteriorated to the point where only war can solve them; those who oppose war hold an optimistic view, believing peaceful means can solve all kinds of social problems. Their outlooks on everything are utterly different, their values are entirely different, and when making major decisions, their choices diverge sharply.
In my view, people should be positive, their mindset sunny, and they should treat everyone with kindness rather than hating anyone to the point of using force. I believe the principle of "universal love for all beings, life above all" should not be only doctors' value but the consensus of the whole people. Remember history, forget hatred—that is a more progressive view of history. Human civilization moves forward, not backward. War, an irrational act of violence, should not draw cheers in any age; in the civilized twenty-first century, people should learn to solve problems through dialogue. Leaders of all countries should compete to bring well-being to their own people and make their lives better, rather than starting wars to shift contradictions when corruption is rampant, people's livelihoods wither, and contradictions sharpen at home—otherwise the people have the right to overthrow them. Ordinary people just want to grow old in peace; they do not want to watch "heroes" and "great emperors" perform.
People only strive for ideals they believe achievable; they will not work for goals they consider impossible. So the optimist strives for a positive goal, the pessimist for a "realistic" (in fact negative) goal, and in the end both reach their own goals. Each then confirms through practice the correctness of his own expectations and becomes all the more convinced that his thinking is rational. Over time this forms a mental habit. In fact, to an optimist like me, the pessimist's rationality is incomplete.
Our world is sometimes dominated by pessimists—for example, those who ignited World War II were, in the final analysis, pessimists. Sometimes it is dominated by optimists—for example, those who ended World War II, in whom we see the shining light of a beautiful and positive humanity.
In my view, we should not merely be negative extreme nationalists but positive internationalists and humanists. If every nation cares only about its own interests and ignores justice, then in the end there is no justice, and citizens become bellicose types numb to the disasters of other nations. Since extreme nationalists keep their eyes on their own nation's interests, they do not care whether something is cruel to other peoples as long as it affects their own interests—that is utilitarianism; the utilitarian sees only utility, not true justice.
A healthy nationalist should be someone who, through his own positive striving, works to advance every cause of his own nation and raise its well-being, while also feeling deep sympathy for and gladly helping the people of other nations in disaster. It was exactly such people who ended World War II: they did self-interested things yet also possessed altruism. These people are a group of positive, optimistic idealists—the medicine that saves the world after catastrophe. The Nobel Prize is awarded to idealists because most of humanity actually encourages this idealistic spirit.
War once depressed me greatly, but I soon recovered my optimism. No matter what difficulties we face today, I believe most people will recognize that violent means only provoke more violence and hatred, solve nothing, and that in the end we will move toward peace, obtain justice for those innocent victims, and stop the violence.