By Jan Vicente B. Pekas
Upon reading all the praises about this Chinese writer, Lu Xun, I decided to try and look into some of his works. This was someone who captured my attention a few weeks ago with his words “I grieve at their misfortune, but am furious at their refusal to resist”. The first one I was able to read was his work “A madman’s diary”, a story about a deranged and paranoid villager, so convinced of everyone wanting to eat him.
Perhaps it is the issue of translation but it did take me a while, to go through the story, despite it being a short one. The madman in the center of the story was called so seemingly because he is convinced everyone wanted to eat him and his view of the act’s wrongness, which includes his pleading for the others to change their ways.
Going through the different sections of the work in a confused manner, a line captured my attention again. It goes “Is it right because it has always been like that?”, The context in this matter is the madman questioning the long-standing act of cannibalism, and its justification only coming from its long history and the fact that everyone has done it for a long time.
Again, I am reminded of our situation in the country. Where corruption has been rampant for so long that perhaps we have begun to think it as just part of life, when in reality it is every bit as evil and wrong as cannibalism.
Anyone who speaks out with even just a hint of dissatisfaction is declared a madman, a terrorist, and is swiftly dealt with. Their character assassinated and stigmatized to be something so hideous, as if to call out corruption is a terrible offense.
Inequality too is something that has existed for so long, we start to think the rift between the poor and the rich is as unscalable and imposing as Mt. Everest.
Corruption, poverty, inequality, for someone who has not yet crossed the threshold of old age, truly feels like they have always been there terrorizing the people.
To fight back against the powerful, rich, and the ruling class is to be mad. To think of sharing wealth instead of directed to the few, is to be very mad. The madman, in a despicable place, is perhaps the one we should listen to.
Because in a place where people are starved , oppressed, and exploited, the ruling few cannot possibly be called sane.
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