XX Fitness 是一家不错的健身俱乐部。自从想要把健身作为一件大事来抓以后，这家俱乐部成了我每天必去的地方，主要是去它的游泳馆。室内的温水游泳池，5条25英尺的泳道， 旁边有一个能容15人的按摩浴缸（Jacuzzi），另有一间蒸汽桑拿和一间干桑拿，换衣间宽畅整洁，独立的淋浴室就有8间。我一直很奇怪的是，大部分来这家俱乐部锻炼的人，都是聚在杠铃，跑步机， 垫上运动，健身课程周围，光顾游泳馆的人很少。在这安静舒适的锻炼场所，每次来，至少有一条空泳道等着我。

突然有一天，游泳馆的情况变了。那天我按自己的日程安排，下午4点钟走进俱乐部，远远就听见从游泳馆里面传来“啊”“啊”的吼叫声，走进游泳馆更衣间，见一个20来岁的小伙子，一边脱衣服一边手舞足蹈地张嘴大叫， 身边一个50来岁，像是越南或菲律宾裔的男人，大概是小伙子的父亲，边脱衣服边说，“声音小点，声音小点！（Quiet，Quiet！）”小伙子不理，仍然不停叫嚷，直到穿好游泳裤，两人一道走去泳池。

那天下午，我的游泳锻炼被这两父子搅黄了。小伙子身体壮实，躯体功能正常，但很明显是个严重智障的病人，父亲大概想通过教他游泳来帮助治疗。泳池的泳道都是3.5英尺深，有父亲在场，小伙子不会有生命危险。 小伙子站在泳池中，叫着，闹着，打水，狂欢，旁若无人，喊叫声响彻整个游泳馆，旁边泳道的人根本无法游泳。其父对这种状况也不制止，倒是在一旁安然游起泳来。

这样的情况下，泳池中当然不会再有其他人，几位在使用按摩浴缸的老年人见此境况，悄悄地离开了。我见两父子那不发泄完能量便不罢休的架势，也取消了我的锻炼。

接下来几天，都遇到同样的情况。有人告诉我，他们一家人来这里锻炼的时间一般是下午三点半到四点半，最好是避开这段时间。我遵从这个建议，把我的游泳改到下午两点，确实没有再见到他们。

有一天下午4点钟左右，我突然想去游泳馆试试看，却遇到了更神奇的事。小伙子仍然是在那里叫着闹着，换完衣服，便在换衣间当众撒了一泡尿！这时我有点忍无可忍了，抱着一腔为民除害的激情， 跑到前台去向管理员投诉。当班管理员很平静，“这家人的情况我们知道，. . .你等等，我去叫经理。”经理来了，我又激动地诉说了一番。经理也很平静，耐心听完我的诉说，叫了一个手下的管理员， “你去处理一下！”管理员领着我，提了一只拖把和一个消毒桶，走进男更衣间。他认真把地板拖擦干净，消了毒，便要离去。“对这家人你们能做点什么吗？”管理员怂怂肩，对我笑笑，走了。

那天回到家，把这件事情和我的感受向妻谈了，她说：“不要再多想了，这里和中国不一样！你知道，他这样的残疾人在这里是处处都受到照顾的，除了免费医疗保险外，只要证明锻炼对他有益， 可免费去大多数健身俱乐部锻炼。”

一番话点醒了我！

在我的母国，无辜的大众遇到这样的事，不要说血气方刚的年轻人会立即爆发 “正义的” 过激语言和行动，就是“充满理智的”各级管理部门，也会为“广大群众”的利益，把这家人请走，或拒之门外， 让游泳馆里保持一种和谐的气氛。因为在那里，所有的人，包括我自己，从小受到的教育是，多数永远比少数重要，世界上绝大多数人是正常人，正常人的利益不应该受到极少数“不正常人”的干扰， 并坚定地认为，这在道德，伦理上都是 完全正确的。非但如此，我们在那里渡过的前半生，见惯了这类的畸形宣传：那些被“代表最大多数人的最大利益”的人虐待的“少数”，至死还在为那“人类最壮丽的事业”唱赞歌。 这大概也就是我在智障小伙的行为面前义愤填膺的原因。

社会学中有一个词，“多数人暴政（Tyranny of the majority）”，就是基于这种思考的“正义性”所导致的不正义。人们把美国称为民主国家，然而美国的真正国家机制是一个共和国。差别在哪里？民主国家， 意味着多数人的统治。少数人的权利如何得到保障呢？美国的奠基者们已经认真思考过这个问题，建立了更为持久的政治体系：共和国。用这个精巧平衡的政府系统，来保障多数人和少数人的权利， 来保障狼和羊在一起生活的可能性。我们这些从专制社会中逃离出来的人，更青睐全民选举胜于选举团制度（Electoral College），根子大概也在于此。

人类社会有两种多数和少数：自然的，和人为的。前者例如由种族，地缘，残疾，疾病，衰老，特殊性格等等原因造成。后者则包括宗教传播，和为了消灭或控制另一部分人的统治手法，如政治洗脑，而形成。

一个好的社会制度，应该能够保护自然造成的少数免于“多数人暴政”，因为成为这样的少数，并非少数们的责任，而且这些少数的头衔，很可能会随机地落到任何一个人的头上。当一个人成了社会中的少数时， 社会应该帮助他享有属于他的权利。大闹游泳馆的智障小伙，他的行为，是不是也可以理解为他的一种权利呢？要使他的权利不会损害到他人的利益，需要一套更为完备的硬件和软件设施，而不是简单地把他清除。 当俱乐部不具备这样的设施时，管理者们也只能如此处理。

一个好的社会制度，不应该成为制造和保护人为多数的机器。当一些人，一个党派，一个社会团体，宣称自己是代表最大多数人的最大利益的时候，历史证明，而且永远会证明他们代表的只会是他们自己的利益。

游泳馆地下的那泡尿，虽然一直令我不爽，但我慢慢想明白了一件事：为什么世界上那样多的人都想往这“日薄西山”的国度跑。不光是灾难深重的海地难民，更有那些衣冠楚楚的“战狼”，那些无产阶级革命先辈的儿子儿孙， 因为他们的理智或直觉告诉他们，他们有朝一日也可能会成为“多数人暴政”下的少数。不是吗？即使你有用不完的钱，大如天的权，你不会失势吗？不会老吗？不会病吗？不会遭到意外吗？当你成为少数的时候，在这里， 你还会有一些属于你的权利，在那里，你没有。

（2021年11月）


English Version -------------------------------------------------


Why do people like to immigrate to the United States?


XX Fitness is a good fitness club. Since I determined to pay good efforts on my health, this club has become a place I must go to every day, mainly to its swimming facilities. Indoor heated swimming pool has 5 lanes, each lane is 25 feet long, and there is a Jacuzzi next to it that can accommodate 15 people. There are also some other equipment in the same hall: a steam sauna and a dry sauna, 8 separated shower rooms. I have always been surprised that most people who come to this club to exercise are gathered around barbells, treadmills, mat exercises, and fitness classes, very few people visit the swimming pool. In this quiet and comfortable exercise place, every time I come, there is at least one empty lane waiting for me.

Suddenly one day, the situation in the swimming pool changed. That day, according to my schedule, I walked into the club at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. From a distance, I heard the roar of "Ah" and "Ah" from the swimming facility hall. I walked into the locker room of the swimming pool and saw a young man, in his 20s, while undressing, opened his mouth widely and screamed hardly, a 50-year-old man of Vietnamese or Filipino descent, probably the young man's father, said to the young man while undressing, " Quiet! Quiet!" The young man just ignored him, still yelling, until he put on his swimming trunks, both of them walked to the pool together.

That afternoon, my swimming exercise was disturbed by the father and son. The young man has a strong body and normal physical functions, but he is obviously a severely mentally retarded patient. His father probably wants to help him with the treatment by teaching him to swim. The swimming lanes of the pool are all 3.5 feet deep. With the presence of the father, the son will not be life-threatening with the water. The young man stood in the swimming pool, shouting, clamoring, splashing water, carnival, as if the whole world belongs to him selves. The shouting sounded through the swimming pool, and the people in the next lanes could not swim at all. His father did not stop his son, but swam peacefully on the side.

Under such circumstances, of course, there will be no other people want to swim in the pool. Several elderly people using the Jacuzzi saw this situation and left quietly. Thinking that the father and son would not have the intension to give up without venting their energy, I also cancelled my exercises.

In the next few days, I encountered the same situation. Someone told me that the time for their family to exercise here is usually from 3:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon, and it is best to avoid this time interval. I followed this suggestion and changed my swimming to 2.00 in the afternoon. I did not see them again.

One day at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I suddenly wanted to go to the swimming pool to have a try, but I encountered something more magical. The young man was still screaming and shouting there. After changing his clothes, he pissed a pee in public in the locker room! At this time, I was a little bit intolerable, and with a passion for eliminating a public scourge, I ran to the front desk to complain to the administrator. The person on duty was very calm, "We know the situation of this family ... wait a minute, and I’ll get the manager." The manager came, and I excitedly said something again. The manager was also very calm. After patiently listening to my story, he called one of his people, "Go and deal with it!" The man led me, carried a mop and a disinfection bucket, and walked into the men's locker room. He mopped the floor carefully, disinfected the floor, and then left. "Would you do something to this family?" The man shrug his shoulders, smiled at me, and left.

When I returned home that day, I talked to my wife about this matter and my feelings. She said, “Don’t think about it anymore. This is not the same as in China! You know, disabled people like him are taken care of everywhere here. In addition to free medical insurance, as long as proved that exercise is beneficial to him, he can go to most fitness clubs to do his exercise for free."

These are some words woke me up!

In my home country, what will happen for innocent people encounter such a thing? The hot temper young people may immediately explode excessive language and actions in the name of “justice”. Even the "reasonable" management departments at all levels will also concern on the benefits of "great majority", they may ask the family to leave, or keep them away, so that a harmonious atmosphere can be maintained in the swimming facilities. This is because all people there, including myself, have been educated since childhood that the majority is always more important than the minority. The vast majority of people in the world are normal people, and the interests of normal people should not be interfered by a very small number of "abnormal people". People there firmly believe that this idea is completely morally and ethically correct. Not only that, during the first half of our lives there, we were used to this kind of malformed propaganda: those “minorities” who were abused by those who “represent the greatest interests of the most people” was still praising the "most magnificent cause of mankind" till death. This is probably why I was filled with outrage in the face of the behavior of the mentally retarded young guy that day.

There is a word in sociology, "Tyranny of the majority ", which implies the injustice caused by the "justice" of this kind of thinking. People call the United States a democratic country, but the real state mechanism of the United States is a constitutional federal republic. Where is the difference? A democratic country means the rule of the majority. How can the rights of the minorities be protected? The founders of the United States have seriously considered this issue and established a more durable political system: the Republic. Use this delicately balanced government system to protect the rights of the majority and the minority, and to protect the possibility of wolves and sheep living together. Those of us who have escaped from an authoritarian society prefer universal elections to the Electoral College system, and this is probably the root.

There are two types of majority and minority in human society: natural and man-made. The former is caused by factors such as race, geography, disability, disease, aging, special personality and so on. The latter includes religious dissemination and ruling methods such as political brainwashing in order to eliminate or control another group of people.

A good social system should be able to protect the minorities caused by nature from the "tyranny of the majority", because being such a minority is not the responsibility of the minority, and the titles of these minorities may fall randomly to any one person in the world. When a person becomes a minority in society, the society should help him/her enjoy the rights that belong to him/her. The mentally handicapped young guy making a noise in the swimming pool, can his behavior be understood as a kind of his right? To prevent his rights from harming the interests of others, a more complete set of hardware and software facilities is needed, rather than simply removing him out. When the club does not have such facilities, the managers can only do so.

A good social system should not be a machine that creates and protects only the majority. When some people, a party, or a social group declare that they represent the best interests of the most people, history has proved and will always prove that they represent only their own interests.

That soaking urine on the floor of locker room of the swimming hall has always made me uncomfortable, but I slowly figured out one thing: why so many people in the world want to immigrate to this "approaching to its grave" country. Not only the disaster-stricken Haitian refugees, but also the well-dressed "wolf warriors", and the children and grandchildren of those proletarian revolutionary ancestors, because their reason or intuition tells them that they may one day become a minority under the "tyranny of the majority". Isn't it? Even if you have inexhaustible money and great power, won't you lose power? Won't you get old? Won’t you be sick? Won’t you be in accidental? When you become a minority, here, you will still have some rights that belong to you, there you don’t.

(November, 2021)