In praise of Epoch readers
The Epoch Times reader base is a powerful, energetic, highly engaged, versatile, and well-educated community. This vast readership extends from the shores of America to Canada, Latin America, and around the world. You, the readers, are knowledgeable, passionate about ideals and dedication, possess a profound understanding of the world, maintain an open attitude towards facts, and are always ready to participate in supporting moral perceptions and the cause of freedom. You are a powerful global community, even though many of you may be strangers to each other, coming from different regions and backgrounds.
I recently became aware of this when I spent the past few days reading thousands of personal emails from readers, with many more yet to be opened due to technical neglect or possibly my own mistake. These emails were sent over the past year, and I have been dedicating my time to reading through them these past few days. I feel unsettled for not having read them sooner, but during the reading process, I deeply sensed the intense turbulence of our era and understood how kind-hearted people are navigating through the various complex social environments they encounter.
While I have not finished reading all these heartfelt emails, I want to say this: in all these correspondences, I see your wisdom and pure passion. Many of you are dedicating time to promoting mutual understanding and advancing public affairs, which deeply moves me. I can affirm that you are changing the world, each and every one of you.
It is well known that the readership of this paper is vast, international, and a very special community. You are not meek sheep, nor are you the often mocked “non-playing characters” on social media. You discern right from wrong, understand how to interpret surface phenomena, read beneath appearances, integrate perspectives from history and various disciplines, comprehend the relationship of public psychology and its impact on power, and much more.
You may have felt lonely and helpless at times, but I can assure you that this is not the truth. You are a magnificent, glorious, and epoch-making part of society. You are a generation of change, saying “absolutely not” to authoritarian trends in recent years, achieving goals many deemed impossible, bringing about genuine transformations in many areas, and restoring the values that build civilization.
Furthermore, you believe in your chances of success, refusing to accept claims that you cannot change the status quo. You have always understood that such claims only hold true when you do nothing.
Instead, you choose action. You do what you can, organize dinner clubs, host book clubs, share articles with friends, discuss ideas on social media, resist censorship, read deeply and reflect, educate your children, care for grandchildren, pray, and even actively engage in various community activities despite immense social pressure.
In times like these, such actions demonstrate moral courage. Going against the tide, facing great risks, you choose to believe that doing the right thing will yield rewards. You have fought against and conquered your inner fears, striving to uplift yourselves, create new groups, and reignite hope in life.
You stand up, at times feeling isolated and facing countless forces in the world: mainstream media, seemingly the entire medical field, academia, and some of the world’s most influential billionaires. You look at these powerful groups, recalling the biblical story of David facing the fearsome giant Goliath with a slingshot. You know it is possible because you deeply understand these legends, history, and moral urgency.
And you have achieved it. People seem to see a turning point. Because of your outstanding performances, we witness hesitations in executive powers and retreats from mainstream media. We see the most influential people in the world, who once told you what to do and what not to do, now astonished and frightened by your skepticism and non-compliance. Moreover, during these difficult years, you persist in reading, thinking, and taking active steps.
You leverage all the freedoms you have to reclaim liberties for everyone, or at least provide an opportunity for freedom to fight back. You speak out, participate in rallies, engage in conversations, vote, make new friends, and establish new communities of shared hardships. You openly discuss your thoughts and feelings, listen to others.
There have been times when you silently helped lonely, injured, lost, slandered, and disqualified individuals. You do what you can: write encouraging notes, invite others into your homes, contribute food, lend money in times of need, connect people, comfort those too desperate to ask for help, extending a helping hand based on a small intuition that proves to be correct and timely.
Through these small acts of kindness, you have saved many lives.
For years, the message instilled in people was that of surrender and submission. Yet, you refuse to bow down and accept fate. You were not born to give up and submit. You were born to lead dignified lives, to enjoy beautiful days, and to help uplift others. Some elite individuals may think you are incapable of doing so. Sometimes, you may doubt yourselves. Nevertheless, you unite, tapping into an inner reservoir of energy you didn’t know you had. The feeling is empowering, the harder you strive and follow your instincts, the stronger and more fulfilled you become.
You diligently seek sources of hope. You find hope in music, old books, classic films, children’s insightful questions, fond memories of beloved teachers, parents’ familiar sayings, and passages from the bible. The truths you find in these avenues far exceed what following mainstream ideas and traditional beliefs can offer. Yes, through your efforts, you have achieved many goals!
During email exchanges with reader friends, what surprised me the most was the level of expertise displayed in these emails. In my columns in this paper, I cover serious topics, historical themes, economic issues, family matters from laundry to cooking, as well as pieces on music and art, celebrating outdoor activities, dinners, groceries, and anything meaningful. I frequently receive letters from Epoch Times readers, whose understanding of each topic seems deeper and broader than mine. You selflessly share your stories and wisdom.
Each reader views themselves as partners with other readers, us, the named authors, and all the wise individuals who contribute to the successful operation of this paper. We are grateful for this.
Though we have collectively gone through many terrifying experiences, they are purifying and inspiring moments, times of learning and growth. We are all documenting the era in our precious lives, telling future generations how civilization seemed lost but gradually began to return, stories that may sound somewhat akin to war destruction or natural disasters.
It is challenging to navigate through the dark veil and still have dealings with the unwavering administrative machinery that always seems to be watching. Nonetheless, we now possess many reliable weapons. We have the prescription and blueprint of how to secure victories.
We deeply believe in the power of moral courage, as we have witnessed it firsthand. We have seen the powerful recede, retreat, and even collapse. This is not exciting because we enjoy seeing others humiliated but because these experiences inspire us, letting us know that we can take action.
Yes, we can take action. This is the community The Epoch Times has built: informed, wise, articulate, warm-hearted, visionary, deeply engaged. The modern world has never experienced anything like this. Most of us have never experienced it before, but we are all collectively learning, growing, understanding the meaning of learning, taking action in our own lives, and seeing the impact of these efforts on the community and society. This is the way to rebuild the almost-lost world of humanity.
What a great change all of this has brought! Undoubtedly, it has been an honor to experience all this with you throughout my life. Dear reader friends, I sincerely thank you!
Author bio:
Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute based in Austin, Texas. He has published thousands of articles in academia and mainstream media, authored 10 books in five languages, including his latest work “Liberty or Lockdown” (2020). He is also the editor of “The Best of Ludwig von Mises” (2019). He regularly writes economic columns for The Epoch Times, covering a wide array of topics including economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.