I often think of the American who influenced me to become a professional journalist. During 1908, walter lippmann, a sophomore at Harvard, lived in a student apartment on the Charles River. One spring morning, he suddenly heard someone knocking at the door. He opened the door and found an old man with silver beard and white hair standing outside the door with a smile. The old man introduced himself: "I'm william james, a philosophy professor. I think I should tell you by the way that I appreciate the article you wrote yesterday. " I came across this detail when I was reading Ronald Steele's The Thick Biography of Lipman in the library of Fudan University on an autumn night when I was 0/8 years old. That night, the seed of a dream inadvertently fell into my heart that I had never cultivated.
For many years after that, I was immersed in Lippmann's illusion. I fantasized that I could be as knowledgeable as Lipman, so I lived in the university library for four years. My reading method is the most stupid one, that is, reading in rows according to the arrangement of bookcases. Fantasize about becoming a lippmann-style journalist, and convey the most rational voice with his own thinking in an era of turbulent transformation. I entered the biggest news agency in China, and in six years, I traveled almost all the provinces in China. I fantasize that I am as diligent as Lipman. He wrote a column for 36 years and wrote 4000 articles in his life. These two figures alone are awe-inspiring I also opened my own column in the newspaper and forced myself to write a book every year. I also dream of being as famous as lippman. In college, he was nicknamed "the future president of the United States" by his classmates. At the age of 26, he met President Roosevelt while running New Harmony magazine. The president smiled and said, "I have known you for a long time. You are the most famous man under the age of 30 in America. "
It's hard for you to refuse lippman's life. In any industry, there are always one or two masters who make you feel excited when you think of them. They are far ahead, and their backs are ethereal and magnificent, which gives ignorant latecomers the courage and dreams to follow.
Of course, I didn't become Lipman, and it seems that I will never become one.
I can't get rid of my timidity and the oppression of life. I hid in the beautiful Jiangnan city, got married and had children early, and regarded my career as a means of making a living and getting rich. I make myself a "financial writer" and squander my ideals in the business circle where the risk of public opinion is not too great. Lippmann's words are often used by me to comfort myself: "We have all become spiritual immigrants."
Over the years, I have been fidgeting occasionally when I recall Lipman's words. This talented guy wrote a lot, but only a thin copy of Public Opinion was translated into Chinese, which was his work at the age of 32. In this book, he shows the fragility, vacillation and distrust of "public opinion". He pointed out that the complexity of modern society makes it difficult for ordinary people to grasp clearly. Modern people are generally engaged in a single job, busy making a living all day, and have neither time nor mind to care deeply about the world they live in. They seldom take part in the discussion of public affairs seriously. They often form their own opinions based on impressions, prejudices and common sense. Because of this, the society needs the media and some elites to sort out the current politics in order to resist the blind use of the masses by political forces. These sounds changed from unfamiliar to familiar, and gradually became more and more harsh.
Although it is out of reach, I will never forget this person. I often think seriously about the direction of this country and the mission of this generation, which may be the last "legacy" that Lippmann left us. We can't help but be immersed in thinking about that great history. When the material prosperity reaches a certain stage and the gap between the rich and the poor is enough to turn society into another evolutionary form, do we have enough talents and theories to meet all the challenges? When will our contempt for ideas, indifference to culture and resistance to introspection be punished? For individuals living in this era, these are unanswerable questions.
Over the years, I spent most of my time combing and writing the corporate history of China, trying to find some answers in this extremely complicated but not vast topic. I want to calm down and do something, and reserve some slightly systematic materials for the reflection and liquidation of the latecomers. I also try to prove that many codes or undercurrents of this society may be submerged in the long river of China's economic and enterprise growth.
I did the closest thing to lippman.
In 2005, I accidentally learned in a copyright transaction that the biography of Lipman I read in college was a pirated book without the authorization of the author Ronald Steele. So, I managed to find a translator, only to learn that Steele was still alive and living in seclusion in a small town in the western United States. I contacted him by email. Steele was very angry about the piracy that year. When he learned that I wanted authorization, he first expressed distrust, and then sent a friend from China to Shanghai for an interview to confirm. After three years, in June 2008, I finally bought the Chinese copyright and published the latest version of lippman's biography. Things went through many twists and turns, but the ending was what I wanted-I finally paid tribute to Lipman in my own way.
In my life, Lippmann's dream has long since vanished, leaving only some voices that sound far away, but will make people have firm confidence at some moments. 1On September 22nd, 959, Lippmann said at his 70th birthday party, "We take it as our duty to explore from the outside to the inside, from near to far. We examine, summarize, imagine and speculate on what is happening inside, what it meant yesterday and what it may mean tomorrow. What we do here is what every sovereign citizen should do, while others have no time or interest to do it. This is our profession, not simple. We have the right to be proud of this and have the right to be happy about it, because this is our job. "
"Because this is our job."
Over the past 20 years, time has shattered countless dreams, diverted countless rivers and displaced countless youths, but only it still shines slightly under the stars.