One day I stumbled upon an article “The Mystery of Wang Guozhen in the 1990s: Behind the Disillusionment is Inspiration”, which made me feel very shocked. The author Shan Tang is the director of the Beijing Morning Post Supplement. The article is very simple and it records the history of a college student in the 1990s, which is very representative. In 2015, Wang Guozhen's death led a group of middle-aged people to recall and reminisce their youthful years, and put that period of time into a brand of naivete. Wang Guozhen was hot in the 1990s. Tang believed that “Instead of saying that the youth of that era are more innocence, I rather say that they have no qualification from non-innocence. The generation cannot be self- disciplined to know themselves and must wear a disguise of love.”

We now need to analyze why people in the 1990s have to hide behind love to recognize themselves, because the 1990s was an era when social values broke. Young people did not have faith. Without world outlook and values, people became extremely empty. At this time, the works of Wang Guozhen, Xi Murong, Gu Long, Jin Yong and others became the spiritual food for the blank. Popular poems, like popular songs, express people's thoughts and feelings and represent social ideological trends of an era.

Art is easy to be attracted and can give a lot of inspiration. But art cannot replace philosophy. People need a lot of things, art can give too little. Philosophy must provide people with worldviews and values. But in the era when social values broke, people were poor enough to have nothing except poems and songs. Tang said: “Dignity, personality, freedom, love, and the like are not inherent but need to learn, but our generation can only grope in secret, and can only learn without teacher.” 

It is certainly good to study without teacher, but many people do not have enough wisdom and go astray. This not only led to money worship, but also corrupted party, officials, made unfair competition, and deteriorated public security. When China entered the 21st century the situation of anti-corruption is severe, just because of the legacy of the 1990s.

Faith is the spiritual pillar of a man. Tang said: “When I was in school, I was never told by anyone that we should fight for ourselves. Suddenly one day we found that we were not the pillars of our country and nation. It was the most important thing to support ourselves. At that time, we really felt that the entire world had collapsed. We felt infinitely desolate.” In fact, everyone needs to feed themselves. People in the 1930s and 1940s lived harder and needed more sweat to feed themselves. But at that time, many people still believed that they were the pillars of the nation because they have a firm faith. Faith can become a powerful motive that can make people work miracles. Not everyone can become great, but when people have firm beliefs, they will feel full of strength. When one can integrate into a flood of people and add a brick to a great undertaking, he has a sense of belonging, honor and self accomplishment, and he no longer feels empty.

Chen Xiaoxu, who was the actress of Lin Daiyu, suddenly became a monk at the peak of his career, and it once again makes people realized that money and honor were not satisfied. It is not uncommon for celebrities and rich people to become monks or suicide. In the eyes of ordinary people, they have everything, but in fact, they often lose themselves after success. The reason for getting lost is simple, because there is no faith. Today, with highly developed science, the number of religion believers in the world is still far greater than the number of non-religious people. From this we can see the importance of faith.

Like ordinary people, all great people and social elites also need faith. All great undertakings are done by human beings, and all human behavior is subject to thought. The beliefs of great men and social elites determine the direction of social development. Mao Zedong believed in Marxism and led China to become independent, prosperous, and powerful, together with some detours. Hitler believed in the racial superiority of Germany and therefore slaughtered Jews.

There are many tragedies in the history of China Communist Party. The most tragic tragedies did not stem from the personal qualities of leaders or the lack of internal and external conditions, but stem from theoretical errors. Heidegger and German people believed in Hitler, which are largely due to theoretical errors. From ancient times to the present, the degree of social development in any historical period and living standard ultimately depends on the level of theoretical development. Theory refers not only to natural science but also philosophy and social science.

German and Japanese fascists slaughtered civilians in World War II. After that, human rights seemed to be truly protected，but massacres continued. Between 1965 and 1967, Indonesia cracked down on the Communist Party and killed more than 500,000 innocent people, including 300,000 Chinese; during the Pol Pot administration from 1975 to 1979, more than 1.7 million people died in Cambodia. In 1994, Rwandan Hutu militia slaughters Tutsi and moderate Hutu people, and more than 800,000 people died in just over three months. Many scientists worry that the advancement of contemporary technology will destroy humanity.

 It is obviously not enough to solve these problems using only military and political means. Economic means are very important, but affluence cannot solve all the problems. After the Middle East got rich by oil, they then got poor because of the melee. After entering the 21st century, the rapid development of social productivity and science, human beings seem to enter heaven, but at the same time, international terrorism has intensified, and the horrific means of Al Qaeda and Islamic State are strongly contrasted with today's highly civilization. This is exposing the fatal defects of contemporary civilization. The develop- ment of science and technology cannot substitute for philosophical theories. Many core members of the inter- national terrorist organizations, like ISIS and Aum Shinrikyo, are senior intellectuals. Without scientific beliefs provided by philosophical theories, development of science and technology is likely to be a kind of abnormal development and will go out of its way at any time.

Many people think that culture is a fundamental issue, but culture contains many things. Writing poetry and singing are obviously not the main solutions. The most important culture is philosophy. People should be armed with advanced philosophy, and molded with noble thoughts. What kind of noble thoughts are suitable to mould people? Some people advocate returning to Confucius. Some people miss the spirit of Lei Feng. Westerners always place their hopes at religion, which advise people to be good. But it is religion that brought about the tragedy of “9.11” and ISIS atrocities. Religion is not necessarily bad, but it is not the main driving force of social development. People need analgesic tablets temporarily when they are in severe pain, but analgesic tablets cannot cure them. Religion can only bring some comfort to people's hearts. Therefore, humanity needs religion, but we can only rely on science to solve social problems.

Now the core values of socialism put forward by the Chinese government are: prosperity, democracy, civili- zation, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, honesty, and goodwill. These are the ideal goals of social development and the ethical norms that people should have. However, the tortuous history of the past made people have a strong rebellious attitude toward these contents. The tortuous history comes from theoretical defects. Conflicts often arise between these ideal goals and moral norms. Which should we obey? What principles should be followed when individual freedom conflicts with interests of the nation and others? Tragedies will be repeated, and extreme individualism will be even more if we simply emphasize social interests and ignore personal interests. The correct answer should be the parallel values of individualism, humanism, and evolution- ism. A new world outlook, methodology, and universally accepted philosophy must be established.

Can correct theory stop atrocities? Can a scholar do what Peacekeeper troop can't do? Today's philosophy and social science theory can't justify themselves, so people can't establish a firm scientific belief, because of which, various cults and strange social theories are popular. There are many unscientific and anti-scientific elements in these cults and theories. Therefore, anti-human ideology and behavior can easily put on a reasonable coat. It will ultimately rely on scientific beliefs to avoid the recurrence of tragedies and stop atrocities. Social progress requires the joint efforts of all people, but the perfection of theory is a necessary condition. To lay a firm foundation for the world, and to make peace for all generations, we must rely on scientific worldview, methodologies, and philosophy that can be justified.