My computer has not been connected to the internet yet, though I once intended to do so. It is said that there is reactionary stuff on the net as well as a flood of pornography, so I am scared. Not long ago somebody suggested curbing the net，I fully agree with it. Honestly speaking, free spreading of information should not be allowed absolutely. But if I knew something about it, I would say there is no other way to curb it unless you cut it off, because it is both too fast and sinister. Information is exploding in a modern society so that it is too difficult to censor every piece of it, therefore prohibiting it would be a more convenient method. It would be a little more difficult without the net if I were a businessman or a scientist. But why should I care for businessmen or engineers? Huge quantity of information is flowing on the high speed internet, but as a writer, I could do without knowing it. So please cut the internet off so that I would no longer be upset to hear about it.
Internet is a tool for transmitting information. There are also tools for dealing with information and they are all kinds of personal computers. Just think of it, you have no way to connect to the net without a computer. Further more, pornography could also be delivered by magnetic and optical disks. Computers must be banned, that’s the basic thing. But this time I feel somewhat grudging. I bought a PC about ten years ago and now I am using my fifth one. I have spent a lot of time and energy on PC. I even write my own software, not to mention the money spent. I use my PC writing, making scientific research, calculating and doing statistical works. By the way, it is happy to do statistical work by using a computer, without it, the work would become a great sorrow.
However computer learns no good and has sunk into a porn vendor, which is its own fault, no one could offer help. I would like to say a few words in favor of computer just for the sake of my 10 year’s relation to it. In early stages computers were harmless. These giant machines, which looked like air conditioners humming while operation, were unable to present porn. The latter products such as 486,586 with advanced hardware are guilty. They could do either good or bad. So please ban it. But it is not quite sure whether out-of-date computers are still available now. So we may ask IBM to reopen its production line to produce PCs of former models. The foreign devils must glare at us upon hearing of this and ask if we are sick. The answer should be like this: it’s not we but you who are sick. But we should prevent them from sending our business representatives into a lunatic asylum. Even if all computers are banned I could survive. I may use pen for writing and use abacus for statistics. If I do not know how to use an abacus I may still count numbers by using sticks of ice suckers, though it may be ill-mannered to pick up ice sucker sticks all around. But fortunately I rarely do statistical works nowadays.
Besides computers, film and TV also spread vicious information. In this aspect I hold a stout attitude and consent to a strict control. First of all, foreign cinema and TV products are not in accordance with the situation in China and should be shut off completely. Secondly, the people in the profession in China are from elites to amateurs, and many of their products are not good enough. I am a novelist who earns less money and has nothing to do with cinema and TV industry. Wang Shuo, Feng Xiaogang and a great number of other film stars are with an inferior educational background than I am but they have all made big fortune. Strict censor is necessary, but on the other hand, it is impossible to check every page of message on the net; it is neither easy to supervise a series of TV play with 120 episodes. So banning them all would be much better.
During the 10 years of the Cultural Revolution, we lived on with only watching 8 exemplary dramas. I am not the same with a young man who could not maneuver without audio and video. For me a book is enough. With so many words said I forget the pop music. Such rubbish should be banned from the very beginning. If young guys have time they may do more exercises in order to improve their temperament and at the same time acquire better health. Well, so many are banned that a day will come sooner or later when I myself would be banned. Even though my novels are with healthy contents, it is hard for me to explain that every line of my stories contains good information. Further more, at that time I might be so frightened that I reduce to an idiot and be not competent enough to defend myself. Since film and TV could be prohibited, why not novels? We are fond of reading but there are still illiterates, they must be consent to banning the book. OK, I would give up writing and be a porter at the railway station. I am in good health and qualified to be a porter. Other writers might not be strong enough to be a porter. I agree with the compression of life space only if mine remains untouched, but the result is beyond my imagination.
Hemingway once expressed such an idea in his book《For Whom the Bell Tolls》: all human beings are as one, somebody else’s grief is just your grief. So ask no “for whom the bell tolls”, the bell just tolls for you. But I feel strange with such an idea. I am longing for seeing other guy’s misfortune. More than 50 years ago, a protestant clergyman in Germany said: “At first I kept silent when they arrested communist party members, for I was not a union member; then I kept silent again when they arrested Jews, for I was an Aryans; later on I kept silent a third time when they arrested Catholics, for I was a protestant……, finally when they came to arrest me, no one could say a word for me.” As we all know, China is not Nazi Germany and I am not a protestant clergyman. So I am unwilling to remember these words.
责任编辑：wangpeng6151
