The Forth Nuclear Power Plant sparked a moral struggle recently. Since
some people are strongly for the plant while others are strongly against
it, the issue has now developed into a situation that resembles the club
law.
People who support the construction of the Fourth
Nuclear Power Planet are mostly those who live away from the power
planet, who thus have vested interest in the location of the plant. But
those live next to site for the power plant are all against it. A
referendum was once held for the
people in Gungliau, the proposed site of construction, and, of course,
no one agreed to have the plant built right where they inhabit. Yet now
the politicians are talking about having another referendum, this time
by all the inhabitants in Taiwan. Why are people doing all this?
Because they want to deny that the people of Gungliau has the right to
decide this matter. This is clearly another kind of violence. Just
like in the story of 」 The Lottery」, the people who are not chosen to be
stoned to death are all for the continuation of the lottery; they never
feel the lottery is unfair. But when they are chosen, just like the
case of Mrs. Hutchinson, they explode by claiming 「the lottery is not
fair」. So I guess when things do not happen to us, we tend to see the
situation in a very, very different way.
At these moments of group violence, only a few
brave souls dare to raise their voice in dissent. In A Brave New
World by Aldous Huxley, the Savage, a man who is considered to be
incongruent with the prevailing ideas and values, symbolizes a newborn
idea and an innovation. For the wild man defies traditions and dares to
be different. He is the man that brings new ideas to the brave new
world. He is just like the young man in 「The Lottery,」 who has bravely
stepped out of the village and ventured into the new world of other
villages. Their similarity lies in that they both dare to ask the folks
why they are doing these in-human things. They both dare to imagine a
life that is different.
Nowadays, we need more folks to be like the
Savage, or the man in 「The Lottery.」 For they have the guts to stand
out and say 「 NO」 to the rest of the citizens. If the Nuclear Plant
will pollute our world, maybe we should stand with the Gungliau people
in refusing to build another of these plants.