The Logic Of Crisis

Zhao Mengmeng / Wen

Today's world is facing great changes not seen in a hundred years. At this historical turning point, how should we deal with challenges and turn crises into opportunities? Therefore, Jared Diamond, an American scholar, makes a comparative, narrative and exploratory study on the crises and selective changes experienced by the seven modern countries, Finland, Japan, Chile, Indonesia, Germany, Australia and the United States in his new book "upheaval", which provides a calm thinking for the restless world.

It is an important methodological feature of this book to apply some analytical paradigms of personal crisis to the study of national crisis. In diamond's view, insights that help people cope with personal crises can also provide insights into the problems that plague countries. Never say "a good crisis." Crisis can change a person's growth path, or become more confident by resolving the crisis, or become depressed and even choose to commit suicide when they are unable to overcome the crisis; the same is true for a country. Crisis can also change the track of prosperity and decline of a country or a civilization, or turn danger into safety, or become the last straw to crush an elephant and the ant nest that destroys the thousand Li dike.

Although the state is not a simple amplification of individual, the experience and path of individual in dealing with crisis is not meaningless for the country to deal with the crisis. First of all, a lot of achievements have been made in personal crisis research, especially after decades of development, crisis treatment as a discipline has been relatively mature, accumulated a large number of cases and knowledge, formed a relatively stable training course, crisis treatment has become a treatment project that many clinics can provide. In addition, for ordinary people, personal crisis is closer to our lives and easier to understand.

In the book, there are 12 factors in the book, namely, self-evaluation, crisis response, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation, self-evaluation Constraints.

There are similarities between the way individuals deal with crisis and the way countries deal with crisis. The author lists 12 factors that affect national crisis: consensus on crisis, willingness to take responsibility, clear boundaries and clear national problems to be solved, obtaining material and financial help from other countries, learning from other countries' experience in coping with crisis, national identity, self-assessment, experience in dealing with past national crises, patience in dealing with failures, and flexibility in specific situations Sex, national core values, and not constrained by geopolitics. From it, we can find that these factors have corresponding relationship or some degree of similarity with the above-mentioned personal crisis coping style. Perhaps it is in this sense that ancient Chinese talents paid attention to the connection between self-cultivation and family harmony and the rule of law and the peace of the world.

For example, the internal crisis caused by Japan and the crisis caused by external factors, such as Japan and Indonesia, are discussed. "Although Zhou was an old state, his life was reformed." The real way out lies in keeping the right and innovating. Crisis means breaking the usual extreme situation. Historical experience or the way of dealing with it is no longer suitable for the current new challenges. To break the situation, we must find new solutions. In fact, the new and the old are not completely divided. Individuals or countries can not completely change and abandon everything in the past. A country that successfully resolves the crisis is the mosaic coexistence of the new self and the old self described in diamond's book. To resolve the crisis, the key is to identify the trade-offs, which work well and do not need to be changed, which are not feasible and need to be changed. What is applicable should be retained, not totally negated; what is not applicable should be changed boldly and should not be conformed to. The national people and the government should be aware of this, and should not be like the "spring and Autumn Annals" criticism of "observe the classics and do not know the appropriate, change things and do not know their rights.".

After analyzing the crisis that has ended, the author turns the perspective from history to the present. Taking Japan, the United States and the world as examples, the author analyzes the current ongoing and potential crisis, among which there are some insights. In the face of crisis, some countries have found new ways to face the problems and become more powerful after crisis baptism. Just as Nietzsche's famous saying goes, "Whoever can't kill me will make me stronger." However, some countries fall into excessive self pity, do not recognize the crisis, and even enter the irrational moment. Just like individuals in crisis treatment, the state must learn to take the initiative to take responsibility for action instead of regarding itself as a helpless victim; it should be patient with uncertainty and crisis, actively learn from the experience of others or other countries, instead of holding the optimal attitude that others' experience is not enough and only has its own mode. After all, what really destroys a country is itself, not all kinds of scapegoats.