OPINION> Liu Shinan
Heroism loses value amid moral decay
By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-25 07:48

A sense of justice is the minimum standard for morality in any society. If that sense is corrupted, the society is in danger of moral deterioration. Our society seems to be showing signs of a weakening sense of justice, as revealed by the following incident.

Last Friday, in Chongqing, a policeman was stabbed to death while trying to control a knife-wielding criminal single-handedly. No passers-by offered help even as he desperately sought it.

I was not mainly targeting these passers-by when I lamented the loss of a sense of justice; I was referring to some people who posted comments online disdaining or even cursing the policeman.

And when a newspaper com-mentator expressed indignation at the "unscrupulous words" of these people, they turned on the writer blaming him for "unscrupulously defending" the police.

I don't know how these people developed so strong a fury against the police in general. Most likely they have suffered the condescending manner of some policemen or were wronged or bullied by some ill-natured officers. But that does not excuse their cursing the policeman, who sacrificed his life fighting a dangerous criminal who was later found to have killed four pedestrians before he was spotted by the officer.

Zhou Xin was a police officer from a community station in Fuling district, Chongqing municipality. He was going to an eatery for lunch, not wearing his uniform, when he saw the thug with a dagger.

Realizing the man was posing a threat to the public, Zhou ordered him to surrender the knife. But the man thrust at him instead. A fight ensued and the policeman was stabbed three times by the thug, who was much taller and stronger. During the fight, Zhou asked pedestrians for help but none of them did anything.

If it is understandable that these pedestrians dare not join the fight for fear of being wounded, it is totally unacceptable that some appeared to be glad at Zhou's death. How could they be so heartless? No matter how reasonable they may be in resenting police for some unpleasant experiences, how could they delight in a courageous crime-fighter's death? No matter how many other policemen have done something wrong, no one has the right to insult an officer like Zhou, who fought for the safety of the people. Zhou was a hero, an unmistakable hero!

Respecting heroes is a good tradition in any nation's culture. The Chinese nation particularly worships heroism. In its thousands of years of struggles against foreign invasions and natural calamities, the Chinese people have greatly admired those who sacrificed their personal interests and even lives for the good of the nation and society. This is a valuable tradition.

However, for some years, these values have been challenged by some people, who disparage the promotion of heroism as ideological brainwashing and even inhumane. Many people no longer revere heroes. They're even reticent about saying they were moved by some heroic behavior. Even the above-mentioned article rapping the netizens who jeered the Chongqing police officer said: "You may not laud the hero, but you should not be so apathetic as becoming unscrupulous."

Such a compromising attitude just reflects the social mentality of shunning heroism.

Why has our society become this way? Americans even took their returned POWs in the Iraqi wars as national heroes. Why do we dare not acclaim a policeman who heroically fought a brutal criminal? What happened to our sense of right and wrong? Something must have gone wrong with our society.

Of course, things have not deteriorated to the extent that heroism is completely dead. The fact that tens of thousands of common people voluntarily went to the funeral of Zhou Xin proved that the broad masses still admire heroism out of a sense of justice. Those people who vilified the hero were only a small part of society. But their online comments are a bad influence. They should be vociferously repudiated. So far they haven't been.

E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/25/2009 page8)