你如何跳舞决非无关紧要

开发潜力，征服未知，拓展极限，拥有更多的愿望是驱使我们的动力。这人类本性一方面导致了许多成就，另一方面也造成无数滥用。我们社会中充满着这样的滥用或过激行为：无限自由，个人主义，资本主义，女权主义，极端保守主义，极端自由主义，政治上的极左和极右，宗教原教旨主义，恐怖主义，极端的科学技术，垄断性的商业模式，穷奢极侈的生活方式，宣扬暴力的娱乐和体育活动，金融及商界的欺诈行为，枪枝游说集团，过度消费，过度税收，过度使用自然资源，人为造成的气候变化，环境污染，人口爆炸，腐败，经济衰退，贫困，饥饿......

所有这些不导致一个和谐融洽的人类社会，而导致两极分化，冲突，仇恨，敌对和战争。我们从一个极端走向另一个极端，却没有意识到所有的极端主义来自我们里面共同的本性：贪婪，自私，无知，狭窄。我们不能也不愿从自身利益以外和自我角度以外来考虑问题。我们看不见整体和全貌，在其中我们仅仅是一个小点。我们依靠权势和实力来解决问题，却不明白失衡可能带来的后果。我们对私利永无休止的追求甚至可能导致文明的毁灭，如果人类的贪婪无知不受到制约和平衡的话。这并不是危言耸听。鉴于二战以来世界所发生的剧烈和飞速变化，地球母亲对我们的贪婪还能支持多久？人类之间的和平还能保持多长时间？

我不是唯一忧天的杞人。不管你意识到与否，探戈的流行反映了人们对正在失去的和平的普遍怀念，和对这个非人化的时代的反省。探戈让许多人着迷是因为他们在其中发现了一个不同的现实：人类的共同利益，相互依赖，一起生存，亲密合作，彼此联系。在探戈中我们在顺服他人，安慰他人和取悦他人中找到快乐，而不是在互相竞争中找到快乐。在探戈中我们找到了一个没有敌意和冲突的避难所，一个可以依靠的肩膀，一个通过沟通，合作，适应，和解和妥协来和谐相处的方式。在探戈中我们发现了宣扬爱的耶稣，倡导非暴力的甘地，主张朴素和回归自然的老子，和提倡中庸的孔子的智慧。在探戈中我们找到了和平，情爱，亲密，和一个我们希望现实世界也能够变得如此的，更美好的世界。

这就是为什么人们被探戈所吸引。这就是为什么我深为探戈也被人推向极端而感到悲愤。他们使这个爱的舞蹈变成了作秀，怪异，政治上正确，和以盈利为目的的舞蹈。这样做不仅改变了探戈的精髓，也出卖了它的理想主义，把它从一个教世界学会爱的舞蹈降低为与这一目的相反的舞蹈，把一个升华人性的舞蹈降低为减损人性的舞蹈，把一个象征着希望现实世界也能够变得如此美好的舞蹈降低为一个映照着我们想要改变的这个丑恶世界的舞蹈。

很多人现在承担起保护自然环境和合理使用自然资源的责任，因为地球是我们唯一的家园。难道我们不应该同样承担起保护社会环境和维持社会稳定的责任？新入探戈的人需要认识到，你怎么看探戈影响到你怎么学探戈和跳探戈。你可以把它只看成个舞蹈，或者你可以把它看成是教世界学会爱的舞蹈。你可以仅仅学习舞步，或者你可以学习如何与人成为一体。你可以用跳舞来显示自我，或者你可以用跳舞来显示爱心。你可以改造探戈，或者你可以让探戈改造你，并通过你改造世界。你如何跳舞决非无关紧要，因为通过跳舞你会留下影响，无论你选择怎样跳舞。

How You Dance Matters

Our desire to realize our potentials, to conquer the unknown, to expand the limits, and to possess more, is a part of what drive us. This very nature is the cause of our accomplishments on one hand and abuses on the other. Our society is full of such abuses or extremisms—unlimited personal freedom, selfish individualism, heartless capitalism, militant feminism, ultra conservatism and liberalism, extreme political right and left, religious fundamentalisms, terrorism, radical sciences and technologies, monopolistic business models, extravagant life styles, violent entertainments and sports, bank fraudulences, gun lobbies, over spending, over taxation, overuse of natural resources, manmade climate changes, environmental pollution, population explosion, corruptions, economic downturns, poverty, hunger…

All these result not in a cohesive and harmonious human society, but polarization, conflict, hatred, hostility and war. We go from one extreme to another without realizing that all extremisms come from the same human nature within us—greed, self-interests, ignorance and intolerance. We are unable and unwilling to consider interests and perspectives beyond our own. We cannot see the whole picture of which we are only a small part. We rely on power and might to solve problems, and we do not understand the consequence of unbalanced approaches (See Tango and Integrity). Our relentless pursuit of self-interests could lead to the destruction of civilizations if we let our greed and ignorance go unchecked and unbalanced. This is not alarmist talk. Given how rapidly and radically the world has changed since World War II, how long can mother earth support our greed and mankind remain peaceful with each other?

I am not the only one who worries. Whether you realize it or not, tango’s popularity reflects the universal nostalgia for the missing peace and the rebellion against the dehumanization of our times. Tango is fascinating to many because in tango we find a different reality—common interests, mutual dependency, togetherness, closeness, and connection. In tango we find joy in complying, comforting and pleasuring others instead of in competing with each other. In tango we find a refuge void of animosity and conflict, a shoulder that we can rely on, and a way to reach harmony through communication, collaboration, accommodation, reconciliation and compromise. In tango we find the wisdoms of Jesus who taught love, Gandhi who advocated nonviolence, Lao Tzu who pleaded simplicity and naturalness, and Confucius who argued for the golden mean. In tango we find peace, love, intimacy, and a better world that we wish ours could become.

That is why people are attracted to tango. That is why I am sad to see that tango too is polarized by the extremist tendency to make this dance of love a dance of show, a dance of exoticism, a dance of political correctness, and a dance for profit. By so doing they not only change the essence of the dance, but also betray its idealism and degrade tango from a dance that teaches the world to love to that against its ordained purpose, from that sublimates the humanity to that debases it, and from that symbolizes the world we want ours to become to that reflects the world we want to change.

Many people now take responsibilities to keep the natural environment clean and resources wisely used, because earth is our only home. Should we not also take responsibilities to keep the human environment clean and societies stable? People new to tango need to awaken to the fact that how you see tango affects how you learn and dance it. You may see it as just a dance, or you may see it as a dance that teaches the world to love. You may learn just how to do steps, or you may learn how to be one with each other. You may dance it to show your ego, or you may dance it to show your love. You may reinvent tango, or you may let tango change you and through you the world. How you dance matters, because by which you will leave an impact, either way.