customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Luisa Tam

The Chinese idiom, “virtue is one foot tall, the devil ten feet,” means it requires constant vigilance and courage to ward off evil, because the potential to commit evil lives within all of us.
Although it is a common belief that evil exists in everyone, we always have a choice not to commit evil deeds.
The truth is, sometimes there is no clear-cut way to define who or what represents good or bad. Every act defines a person, but it doesn’t excuse someone, who has done good deeds all their life to carry out a single act of evil.
Virtuousness is built out of lifelong habits of action and thought. We cannot collect virtuous behaviours like they are brownie points for us to redeem and bail us out from difficult situations.
Violence certainly is not a means to an end. But sometimes, good people do bad things and vice versa. They do bad things because of bad decisions they have made, or they might have been put in a situation out of their control.




In a hugely polarised society such as Hong Kong, especially now after months of anti-government protests, there is no clear-cut distinction between right and wrong. This makes it difficult for many people to take sides and rightly so.
This is because there needs to be people willing to stand their ground of neutrality and act as buffers to prevent the final nail in the coffin of dialogue and reasoning.
People who are against neutrality criticise those who take such a stance of having little or no strong opinion or using neutrality as a way of self-preservation.
However, by not choosing sides neutral people can act as a diplomatic bridge and keep the communication going, and give the two sides a neutral ground upon which to negotiate truces whenever an opportunity arises.
Even people with good intentions can sometimes be so consumed with anger that they lose their way. In the current political climate, there needs to be neutral forces to act as buffers to keep people with extreme stands from clashing, and find ways to encourage both sides to channel their anger into effective and constructive actions.
Society is split, but government can’t fix it, say majority of Hongkongers
There shouldn’t be any more provocation to incite violence on either side and make them do more damage to our city, damage they will surely regret later.
Lots of families have fallen out over the ongoing anti-government protests because they hold opposing political viewpoints. I even heard of a woman contemplating a divorce because her husband is pro-establishment while she sympathises with the opposition.
Truth be told; not everything is black and white in this world. Like it or not, there are many grey areas. In any social or political conflict, black-and-white thinking is dangerous and could spell disaster. It can drive arguments that split society with little or no room for compromise, because it only accepts an all-or-nothing outcome.
This extreme attitude forbids the coming together of diverse views and various or even opposing approaches to achieve coexistence or any form of cohesiveness.




Unfortunately, the all-or-nothing approach seems to be the norm these days, and has become a common tactic or defence mechanism in the city.
It might do Hong Kong some good to take a leaf out of Switzerland’s book, which has adhered to a policy of armed neutrality in global affairs for centuries.
The tiny alpine nation’s non-interventionist stance has earned its unique place in world politics. Now it serves as a valuable buffer and contributes to stability in Europe as well as the international community.
The country has been active in providing humanitarian initiatives for decades, but remains fiercely politically neutral as demonstrated by its long-standing absence in military alliances and political unions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and the European Union.
Neutrality is not cowardice but an act of peace; think about it as a form of soft power or peaceful resistance to counter bellicose attitudes.
A divided city: protesters say frustration with government brought them to streets
Now more than ever, we need to promote neutrality and resist “confirmation bias” that promotes the resistance of logic and reasons, and only interprets and accepts new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.
As a result, such bias will very likely further drive a wedge between Hongkongers and cause more disagreement and hostility.
For those who abhor violence, being unbiased and helping to promote neutrality is our hope to bring back peace to a city that once prided itself on being one of the safest in the world.
Meanwhile, if we paint people on both sides with the broad brush labelled “evil”, we will only surrender the opportunity to allow our fractured society to heal, and the offenders to rehabilitate.
Only by staying unbiased can Hongkongers see the complexity of the ongoing political and social chaos, and come to understand there are no black-and-white solutions.
The more we can accept both good and bad in the current situation, the more appropriately we can respond as society as a whole and remain intact.
Luisa Tam is a correspondent at the Post


Hong Kong judge urges ‘severe’ sedition penalties, jails 2 in first Article 23 law sentences

Prosecutors accuse Hong Kong ex-opposition lawmaker of inciting riot against ‘white shirts’

Hong Kong court jails 8 for up to 4½ years for rioting during 2019 PolyU siege

Hong Kong man pleads guilty to sedition for wearing clothes with pro-independence slogans

Hong Kong protests

Hong Kong must learn there is no black and white when it comes to anti-government protests, and sometimes good people do bad things

Anti-government protests have divided Hong Kong and split families in an era when certainty of purpose outweights the ability to talk and understand a different point of view. Photo: Felix Wong

News

Hong Kong

Politics

Society

Opinion

Comment


Life is about grey areas and we must understand that if our city is to survive



Life is about grey areas and we must understand that if our city is to survive.


Blowing Water

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Blowing Water | Hong Kong must learn there is no black and white when it comes to anti-government protests, and sometimes good people do bad things

Life is about grey areas and we must understand that if our city is to survive