By: Aaron Sakulich
Issue date: 2/9/07 Section: Ed-Op
Originally published: 2/9/07 at 5:27 AM EST
Last update: 2/9/07 at 5:26 AM EST
In writing this column, I usually focus on crass matters of a pecuniary nature. Psychics, occult enthusiasts, believers of the paranormal, people who have seen UFOs, and other con men are well known for being able to sucker money out of those who lack skepticism. But it could always be worse. If you’ve been taken for a ride, chances are you’re out of some cash. At least you’re still alive. Not so lucky are the less-skeptical inhabitants of parts of the rest of the world.
Tientsin, China, in 1900 was no place for non-Chinese folks to be. The Chinese, tired of foreign powers meddling in their affairs, were ready for rebellion. They besieged the part of the city containing the foreign embassies; originally built so that the government could keep track of foreign diplomats, the Europeans turned this area into a veritable fortress, holding off the Chinese for almost two months before they were supplied with fresh arms and men.
They were fighting a combined force of government troops and guerillas known by a variety of names, but the one I see most often is The Fists of Righteous Harmony, commonly known by their nickname, the Boxers. These men believed that they did not need weapons, for the bullets of their enemies would bounce harmlessly off their skin; they also had faith that once the battle was joined, millions of spirit soldiers would rise from the dead and fight alongside them.
It was a short-lived rebellion.
The European nations banded together and turned China into a slaughterhouse. The Chinese government was forced to sign a humiliating treaty that more or less gave the European governments everything they had.
Am I saying that the Chinese of the time should not have rebelled? Absolutely not. They were being treated terribly and had every right to rebel. What I am saying is that blind faith led them directly into a meat grinder. If they had not had blind faith in their own magical abilities, if some of the leaders or thinkers of the time had been more skeptical about unproven, unprovable claims, then the rebellion wouldn’t have been the hollow exercise that it was. (I should note that the Boxers didn’t slouch when it came to slaughter; the country was rid of foreign missionaries, Roman Catholics and Christians in general practically overnight.)