asonableness in living. The end product
is, strange to say, a worship of the poet, the peasant and the vagabond.

Ill. THE SCAMP AS IDEAL
To me, spiritually a child of the East and the West, man's dignity consists in the
following facts which distinguish man from animals. First, that he has a playful
curiosity and a natural genius for exploring knowledge; second, that he has dreams
and a lofty idealism (often vague, or confused, or cocky, it is true, but nevertheless
worthwhile) ; third, and still more important, that he is able to correct his dreams
by a sense of humor, and thus restrain his idealism by a more robust and healthy
realism;
and finally, that he does not react to surroundings mechanically and uniformly as
animals do, but possesses the ability and the freedom to determine his own reactions
and to change surroundings at his will. This last is the same as saying that human
personality is the last thing to be reduced to mechanical laws;
somehow the human mind is forever elusive, uncatchable and unpredictable, and manages
to wriggle out of mechanistic laws or a materialistic dialectic that crazy
psychologists and unmarried economists are trying to impose upon him. Man, therefore,
is a curious, dreamy, humorous and wayward creature.
In short, my faith in human dignity consists in the belief that man is the greatest
scamp on earth. Human dignity must be associated with the idea of a scamp and not
with that of an obedient, disciplined and regimented soldier. The scamp is probably
the most glorious type of human being, as the soldier is the lowest type, according
to this conception. It seems in my last book. My Country and My People, the net
impression of readers was that I was trying to glorify the "old rogue." It is my hope
that the net impression of the present one will be that I am doing my best to glorify
the scamp or vagabond. I hope I shall succeed. For things are not so simple as they
sometimes seem.
In this present age of threats to democracy and individual liberty, probably only
the scamp and the spirit of the scamp alone will save us from becoming lost as serially
numbered units in the masses of disciplined, obedient, regimented and uniformed
coolies. The scamp will be the last and most formidable enemy of dictatorships. He
will be (he champion of human dignity and individual freedom, and will be the last
to be conquered. All modern civilization depends entirely upon him.
Probably the Creator knew well that, when He created man upon this earth. He was
producing a scamp, a brilliant scamp, it is true, but a scamp nonetheless. The
scamp-like qualities of man are, after all, his most hopeful qualities. This scamp
that the Creator has produced is undoubtedly a brilliant chap. He is still a very
unruly and awkward adolescent, thinking himself greater and wiser than he really is,⑤⑤
still full of mischief and naughtiness and love of a free-for-all. Nevertheless, there
is so much good in him that the Creator might still be willing to pin on him His hopes,
as a father sometimes pins his hopes on a brilliant but somewhat erratic son of twenty.
Would He be willing some day to retire and turn over the management of this universe
to this erratic son of His? I wonder. . . .
Speaking as a Chinese, I do not think that any civilization can be called complete
until it has progressed from sophistication to unso-phistication, and made a
conscious return to simplicity of thinking and living, and I call no man wise until
he has made the progress from the wisdom of knowledge lo the wisdom of foolishness,
and become a laughing philosopher, feeling first life's tragedy and then life's
comedy.
For we must weep before we can laugh. Out of sadness comes the awakening and out of
the awakening comes the laughter of the philosopher, with kindliness and tolerance
to boot.
The world, I believe, is far too serious, and being far loo serious, it has need of
a wise and merry philosophy. The phil