I am hesitating over whether to write this post in English or Chinese. I know few people, including those who always say that they want to learn English or improve English, actually want to read English because reading the native language is always more comfortable and it is human nature to take the easier path if they have an option. But sometimes I feel more comfortable to type in English. The second language for me is like the password to a private world that I only want to share with a particular group, the group with patience to read and listen.
In this small-sized group, I have no idea yet how many of you know the name of Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern involved in the "notorious" affairs with Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. Maybe for many of us, she is no more than a name, a name in a scandal and a name connected with disdain and disgust. For me, she had only been a name of disgrace until I watched her speech at TED: The Price of Shame. Her speech was similar to Miss YUAN Shanshan's in that both addressed the online culture of humiliation. The difference might be that it was harder for Monica Lewinsky to confess and face up to her past experiences in the public. If the past suffering has become a scar, who would like to expose it, tear it and stare at what is hidden inside to make sure it is all over and you have been completely over it? Maybe not completely yet. Maybe the shadow will rest in a corner for good. Maybe some still say to her, "You deserve all your pain." But nobody really knows what exactly happened in her relationship with the former president. Nobody knows who suffered most in that tangle. Everyone who read that piece of news only interpreted and consumed the story from an outsider's personal perspective, and personal perspectives are biased opinions per se--good or bad, they are not truth itself. As American diplomat Henry Kissinger once said, "To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it." Do you know everything about this woman's story?
I am not nosy about anybody's personal life, let alone a woman in another country, but I am truly touched by her speech and also glad to see none of the comments are negative (so far as I have read on TED page) probably because none of us wants to experience cyberbullying no matter what mistakes we make. And you?
Treat others as you want to be treated.
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