The Preface My Chinese Readers Never Got to Read

What I would have told readers in China — if the government hadn’t censored me

This must be the season of censorship — or of hope for something better. As I watched the extraordinarily brave democracy protestors in Hong Kong, I found myself reminded of a foreword that a Shanghai-based publisher asked me to write for the Mandarin edition of my book One Simple Idea, a history and analysis of the positive-thinking movement. But government censors gutted about one-third of the book, including my introduction of American metaphysics to Chinese readers, and my attempt to compare it with Eastern traditions. Below I provide what I wrote in hopes of a day when no idea can be deterred or erased.

__________

The Simple Idea that Changed the World

Preface to the Chinese Edition

Humanity has faced many urgent questions over the past century: What is the best way to structure a society? What economic system is the most humane and effective? Is ecological meltdown avoidable?

One of our most pressing questions, however, is deeply personal — it can be answered only by inner experience: Does what we think determine the course of our lives? Are thoughts causative?