非官方研究評論 Unofficial Civil Research
特別聲明
What is reasonable is real; that which is real is reasonable
存在皆合理
S. Wong
14.3.2020
The strategy of UK in dealing with the covid 19 seems to switch to the
containment of pandemic by delaying its spread until most people have
antibody by infection or injection.
Pandemic is considered to be a crisis which will definitely cause
adverse effect on the economy, especially the financial markets.
However, I over estimated the capacity of US government in tackling the
pandemic problem. To my astonishment, recently, the NYSE was witnessed
a series of record index drops due to tons of panic put-orders flooding
the market. Someone might say that the market was emotional and over
reacting. Yet if you are smart enough and take 'over-reaction' into
account in advance, there is nothing as 'over-reaction', and neither
nor 'under-reaction'. Everyting in the market is normal and reasonable
in the eyes of smart speculators. They can even turn risks into
opporunities. Why? Economist tells us that the market is always
rational while forseeable risk is not real risk at all; only
unforeseeable and uncotrollable risk is disastrous. To sum up in a
rhetorical expression, there is a renown saying:
| 'What is reasonable is real; that which is real is reasonable.'（凡存在皆合理） |
The citation originated from 'Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts' by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel published in 1820. (黑格尔著作《哲学原理》）. The original wording is as follow：
| Was vernünftig ist, das ist wirklich; und was wirklich ist, das ist vernünftig. |
As a matter of fact, if you feel that something does exist but unreasonable, it is most probabily because you are ignorant about the ulrimate cause deep behind the fact. Don't challenge it with arrogance and over-confidence but explore the reason in a modest manner. Here is another old famous chinese saying dispatching such message:
| 滿招損，謙受益 (Haughtiness invites losses while modesty brings profits.) |
It originated from an ancient chinese literal work SHANG SHU (i.e. 'Documentary Collection of Royal Sercretary'), which was claimed to be collected and edited by Confusius more than two thousand years ago. Here is the original expression:
| 《尚书·大禹谟》：“满招损，谦受益，时乃天道。” (Haughtiness invites losses while modesty brings profits. This is the law of heaven) |
The wisdom is also in consistence with the thought of another great chinese thinker LAOTSE(老子) in ancient China. In chapter 45 of his work Dao De Jing(《道德經》), he said,
| 大成若缺，其用不弊。大盈若沖，其用不窮。大直若屈，大巧若拙，大辯若訥。靜勝躁，寒勝熱。清靜為天下正。(Who thinks his great achievements poor shall find his vigour long endure. Of greatest fulness, deemed a void, exhaustion never shall stem the tide. Do thou what's straight still crooked deem; Thy greatest art still stupid seem, And eloquence a stammering scream. Constant action overcomes cold; being still overcomes heat. Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven.’ |
Nevertheless, what we see in our society are tremendous number of
youngsters keep challenging the establishment with overwhelming
self-confidence in some abstract ideas that they believed to be
absolutely true and correct for building a 'perfect' society, not one
less. No concession is to be tolerated.
Youth are naturally curious and vigorous on the one hand but impetuous
and restless on the hand. It is wise for them, including all those
'infantile' adults bearing a simple and naive mindset like youth to
learn from the above mentioned teachings of our former sages.
Everybody should never go extreme to the extent that let ignorance and
arrogance bring regret to himself and his beloved ones in the future.
Remarks:
1. UK policy change
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/uk-moves-to-delay-phase-in-bid-to-tackle-coronavirus-spread.html
https://youtu.be/S0pZUvIaZhs
2. Source of English translation:
http://www.xuelaxuela.com/html/2015/07-01/6006.html
