文火

龟壳上的宇宙,缩头的乌龟不得全窥.达尔文说物竞天择,是为自然生灵之繁衍规则.宇宙生灵,遗传了乌龟的秉性,因而得以一代代的保全至今.乌龟背着重重的壳,一步一步的往上爬.
宇宙规则大约不变,人间之行为规则却未尝有定型.旧制为生存起,因生存灭.新者生而旧者灭,新者不日积尘腐败,再为更新者替之,如此新旧更替,如是世事变迁.
推翻旧制者,大者"革命",小者"创新".只可惜,规则因生存而生,倘不危及生存,又有几人愿以一力相抗? 于是要等旧制自然腐败,危机百姓,才有呼声响起,自救或有可及.
规则将腐未腐,如野火将熄未熄,是绝望与希望共存的平原,是社会企业的潜在规则.说其将灭,因对潜规则,人多有不忿,以此可知人心所向.说其未灭,只因它不曾害及性命身家,无人愿逆流而上,破除旧制.潜规则,于新旧间苟活,未全然的对,也非全然的错.如此便要长存下去,直到沉默里的爆发,亦或沉默的灭亡.
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以下,我随意点捡些事例,说说那野火的明灭.

(1)数十年前人们对大学的神往荡然无存.人们的观感,从"上大学,找好工作"至于"找不到工作,上大学".此变化,可谓必然,许多人十年前便已心知,却未敢跳出枷锁.对此类,我难有同情.
(2)一人之力,有时而穷,须众人精诚团结,才能有所作为.于是"关系"要"搞"且要"好",不"搞""好"不了.不"好"又怎作为? 有人误解国外不搞关系,只做实事.此是谬误.倘若同事相见不相识,团队又如何如臂指使? 但人不能滥交,要有节制,关系不能乱搞,须有分寸.60年代初,美国保险业,以推销员上门为主.其服务无微不至,从您家子女期末考试到隔壁老头开枪自杀,推销员无所不谈.如此,保险公司搞好了客户关系,却搞残了业绩报表. National Indemity乘虚而入,将所有业务邮寄处理,免去了业务员和客户废话.如此,公司成绩斐然.
(3)作一天和尚,撞一天钟,呆一天办公室,拿一天工钱.至于做事与否,你管的着嘛?经理瞪眼,撇胡子,怒发冲冠,但无济于事.于是他们投降了,又说这是潜规则.90年初,联邦快递发展了次日直达的业务.要求邮件连夜整理发送.初始员工消极怠工,未有一次连夜完成.应此公司改革,工钱不按时间计算,而按邮件处理量计算,每夜邮件有限,完工即可回家.此后员工干劲十足,半夜便将工作完成,都回家了.
(4)会上领导发言,洋洋洒洒.底下茶杯乱晃,白眼频翻.公司不开会,领导就失业.开会不废话,马屁都白拍. 然,开会亦有不开与开的艺术. Goolge和微软就很少开会,该讨论的事,就地讨论.不该与会的人员,一概少来掺和.这是不开的艺术.沃尔马每周六的百人会议,次次风格不同,笑料频出.领导讲话,与女裙一般,越短越好.故而哪怕是周六,经理们自愿开会.
(5)"为革命,保护视力,眼保健操,现在开始."口号喊的虽响,却让眼镜公司受益匪浅.口号响亮,只说不做,是人类十大文化遗产之一.Berkshire Hathaway之大不同处,在于只做不说.不谈口号,只做当作之事.
(6)"不走后门,何以至千里?"走后门之根本原因,多为信息闭锁.多数时候,拖亲代戚,上门送礼,只为打听一二.信息所以闭锁,只因权利者不愿共享信息,失了凭恃.GE继爱迪生创业一来,日渐坐大,出现权力派系,再有官僚风气,也不稀奇.Jack Welch上任不久,强迫信息公开,不出10年,官僚风气尽去,

刚读到这段,出自THE MEMORABLE ASSASSINATION,马克吐温:

And now we get realized to us once more another thing which we often
forget--or try to: that no man has a wholly undiseased mind; that in
one way or another all men are mad. Many are mad for money. When this
madness is in a mild form it is harmless and the man passes for sane;
but when it develops powerfully and takes possession of the man, it can
make him cheat, rob, and kill; and when he has got his fortune and lost
it again it can land him in the asylum or the suicide's coffin. Love
is a madness; if thwarted it develops fast; it can grow to a frenzy
of despair and make an otherwise sane and highly gifted prince, like
Rudolph, throw away the crown of an empire and snuff out his own life.
All the whole list of desires, predilections, aversions, ambitions,
passions, cares, griefs, regrets, remorses, are incipient madness, and
ready to grow, spread, and consume, when the occasion comes. There are
no healthy minds, and nothing saves any man but accident--the accident
of not having his malady put to the supreme test.

One of the commonest forms of madness is the desire to be noticed, the
pleasure derived from being noticed. Perhaps it is not merely common,
but universal. In its mildest form it doubtless is universal. Every
child is pleased at being noticed; many intolerable children put in
their whole time in distressing and idiotic effort to attract the
attention of visitors; boys are always "showing off"; apparently all
men and women are glad and grateful when they find that they have done
a thing which has lifted them for a moment out of obscurity and caused
wondering talk. This common madness can develop, by nurture, into a
hunger for notoriety in one, for fame in another. It is this madness
for being noticed and talked about which has invented kingship and the
thousand other dignities, and tricked them out with pretty and showy
fineries; it has made kings pick one another's pockets, scramble for one
another's crowns and estates, slaughter one another's subjects; it has
raised up prize-fighters, and poets, and villages mayors, and little
and big politicians, and big and little charity-founders, and bicycle
champions, and banditti chiefs, and frontier desperadoes, and Napoleons.
Anything to get notoriety; anything to set the village, or the township,
or the city, or the State, or the nation, or the planet shouting,
"Look--there he goes--that is the man!" And in five minutes' time, at no
cost of brain, or labor, or genius this mangy Italian tramp has beaten
them all, transcended them all, outstripped them all, for in time their
names will perish; but by the friendly help of the insane newspapers and
courts and kings and historians, his is safe and live and thunder in the
world all down the ages as long as human speech shall endure! Oh, if it
were not so tragic how ludicrous it would be!

距上个博客,约有半年不见中文. 非是无甚可写,只是久未有落笔的念头.偶发感念时,却因笔头生疏而弃落纸篓.数月后再拾来看,实如鸡肋,弃之可惜,于是就在此叙上一回儿.
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时间这东西,摸不着,看不见.我学物理,不得否认其客观存在,可用自然周期衡量.然宇宙生生往复,人却生老病死,富祸难料,哪有周期可言?我看城里人听大钟楼响一次,记一时,好似荒岛上刻石记日的流浪者,不知何往,亦不知为何要记那日期.见他偶逢假期,登山临水,看夕阳将熄,却不住偷望一眼手表.仅这一望刹那,红日前,悄然滑过秋雁,身周古木,巍影轻颤.可他的心因钟表牵绊,未有半刻脱得尘嚣,享受到天然乐趣.
小学楼道的标语,"作时间的小主人"多数人记得清楚.但时间如何衡量,却有翻手覆手的区别.说来好笑,相对论推导之初,问得便是这问题"时间如何衡量?"但我们不谈那宇宙的奥妙,只说说人.
时间可有价值?宇宙百亿年,地球五十亿,乃至上下五千年,于你何干?有,饮水思源,人之常情.也没有,宇内万象,历史车轮,不因你我存在而稍止.逝者如斯, 也不依你我脸色而暂缓.于是时间好似白纸,轻轻在笔头前卷动.你不动笔,白纸仍是白纸,莫谈它价值几许.纸卷长短,人生短长.笔触了纸面,人便生活了,鲜 活着.笔离了纸面,人便空虚着,远离了.
"人生"二字,空洞无物,如白纸.说人生,不如说生活.生活何解? 苦中作乐. 然而,"苦"不请自来,"乐"请了却未必来.因此,与苦刑僧不同,我想时间之价值,无非是"时而乐,乐其时"了.我因求乐,疏离钟表,乐而忘时,以此苦亦可成乐,好似糖浆加气泡的可口可乐.
有人读书不求甚解,我读书则不问时间.这非是说书不离手,而是读书十目一行,不欲速达.一目十行如走马观花,过场应酬.次数多了便心生厌恶.读书应似牵马观花,近观奇艳,如此花无二致,心境不同,便有乐处了. 
若问乐有何用? 须知委屈只得求全,全而不精,大约是乱世苟存之方.而乐者进而成功,退而成仁,不知这可做一用?
天下文章,不局于一类.我从小记流水帐,到如今大约也偶能成一二散文.好散文者,待时间之态度多有相近.令人费解的是,有人一生只写说明文,自己写的无趣,也终究不见说明书藏于书柜,岂不是两头落空?但回头想,若没有说明书,社会就乱糟了.