Confucius said that a gentleman has three fears: fear of heaven and earth, fear of ghosts and gods and fear of the words of saints. Although I don't agree with him, I agree that one should be afraid.

Fearless people are people without a bottom line, and people without a bottom line are people without principles. This kind of person has no scruples and acts recklessly, and doesn't care about other people's evaluation, public opinion and legal sanctions, not to mention the nonexistent God. So I stubbornly believe that even those rural old ladies who are superstitious about immortals and bodhisattvas and backward and conservative are much cuter than those who are full of ink but fearless.

Although I am an atheist, I think: In a sense, "complete materialist" is terrible. Kant said: "It is a moral necessity to set the existence of God." I don't believe in God, so I'm not afraid of God's punishment, but I'm afraid that others will point at my back, my conscience and legal sanctions, so I dare not do bad things. There is always a bottom line in my heart.

I don't approve of being afraid of the sky, but when it comes to the bottom line, I have a question. What should one be afraid of? I think as a person of a specific era, he should be afraid of the moral norms of his era, that is, he must follow these norms, even after a few years, how stupid and ridiculous these norms seem. I say this because most people don't know what the future world will be like. If all people do not follow the social norms at that time, but treat their words and deeds according to their own morality, it will inevitably lead to chaos and even collapse of the whole social order. Of course, some advanced thinkers are excluded. They can imagine where the future society will develop, and they can also see how unreasonable the secular society is from a detached perspective. But such people are a minority after all, and in general, they must be tolerated by their times. Because people who don't accept and recognize the mainstream society, in turn, can't be accepted and recognized by the mainstream society.

For example, the idea of loyalty to the monarch is so stupid and undesirable now, but in ancient times, without this idea, a person would be so rebellious and popular all over the world. Why are Guan Yu and Yue Fei so influential among the people and so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people? Since the Yellow Emperor, thousands of years of history, martial arts, strategy and literary talent are more than them, but if you look at who has the most temples in China, there is no need to discuss it. In the final analysis, it is because of their loyalty that they have achieved the Millennium status and reputation behind the vertical shaft.

Take Yue Fei as an example. His achievements against Jin Wei are well known. Now it is a Manchu family. Was it meaningless or even wrong for Yue Fei to act in those days? No, his literary talent will last forever, because gold was a foreign country at that time, and there was no reason to be indifferent to foreign invasion. Qin Gui, by contrast, is much more shameless. He was not afraid of the condemnation of the ruling and opposition public opinion at that time, nor of the criticism of future generations. He openly "betrayed the country", which can be said to be truly fearless, but our later people did not rehabilitate him because of the current Manchu family, because he violated and trampled on the moral norms at that time, and he was not a thinker. He could foresee the national integration hundreds of years later. "Therefore, Yue Fei may not be called a national hero, but Qin Gui will always be a traitor."

Give another extreme example to explain why we should fear and follow the moral norms of our time, even if it seems unreasonable in the future. For example, in ancient times, especially since the Southern Song Dynasty, there were strict requirements for women's behavior. The so-called "three obedience and four virtues", especially on the issue of chastity, puts forward that "starvation is small and dishonor is big", which seems inhuman today, but since it is recognized and accepted by the whole society, these give it rationality and legitimacy. So in my opinion, in ancient times, if a girl couldn't cook and sew, she was definitely not a good girl, although many girls couldn't do these things now. And some women, dressed lightly, show their faces all day. I'm sure this woman's moral corruption is extremely bad, and she is not a good woman. Although female white-collar workers are like this now, although some of my classmates live together, they have no opinion.

This is not because I am feudal and conservative, but because in a specific era, everyone will use every moral norm of the society at that time as a sandbag and build a dam in the deep heart. This is the bottom line of being a man and a person's conscience. Imagine, if the dam has a water outlet, can you still ensure that the flood does not flood, the dam does not collapse, and the rest of the dam is intact? That is to say, in ancient times, if a woman dared to break through the moral taboo of lifestyle, it was hard to imagine that she would do well in other moral aspects. Now women don't have this problem, because the mainstream of society has acquiesced in some problems. Similarly, the so-called loyal monarch is also true.

Some people say: wisdom plus shameless invincible. Yes, personally, if a person has a very utilitarian and selfish mind, it is "wisdom". Shameless people are people who have nothing to fear, that is, people who do whatever it takes. What do you think unscrupulous people can't get? But for society, such people are very destructive, which is the sorrow of society. One of the important reasons why there are so many problems in China society is the lack of faith. Now many people are fearless. Therefore, it is urgent to solve the problem of China in transition, rebuild social ethics and solve the crisis of faith.