Blindness

The old professor asked the whole class:

• You all understand that blindness means not seeing the scenery around, the organs of sight, the eyes and nerves, being faulty. Blind people suffer many disadvantages compared with the rest of society because they have lost a sense for contacting and perceiving the world.
  That is biological blindness. But there are many other kinds of blindness that are no less dangerous. Which of you can tell me another kind?

The class buzzed with discussion, and then the students took turns standing to speak.

- Illiteracy: looking at letters without knowing what they mean.

• Foreign-language blindness: not being able to communicate with foreign visitors, meeting them and just smiling blankly.
• Computer blindness: in the age of 4.0, not knowing how to use a computer, so that whatever has to be written, drawn or calculated is done on paper with a pen and rubbed out again and again.
• Moral blindness: having no outlook of kindness, love, sacrifice and service, liking only selfish enjoyment, and sometimes even doing wicked things that harm others.
• Spiritual blindness: lacking a correct understanding of the supernatural worlds, so that one either denies them or believes recklessly in the manner of superstition.
• Blindness about the ecological environment: having no outlook or responsibility for protecting the shared ecological environment, and throwing out too much plastic waste.

The atmosphere in the class was enthusiastic and lively. When no one else spoke, the old professor said:

• There is one more kind of blindness: blindness about the market for farm produce. Farmers plant on impulse, and when they hear a rumour that something fetches a good price, they all crowd in to plant it; once it is grown they don't know whom to sell to, and the goods pile up and are thrown away, which is heartbreaking.
  This fault arises because, before planting, they could not see where it would be sold.

One student stood up and said:

• Professor, I think this blindness is systemic; it's not the farmers' blindness alone. Many units, agencies and experts must get involved to SEE the market's capacity to absorb farm produce and then give guidance to farmers on what to produce.
  For example, aircraft are guided by satellites and air traffic control; self-driving cars are guided by many intelligent sources; missiles are guided by the magic eye of radar... In the same way, farmers must be guided by a whole system of government and experts to choose suitable farm produce to grow. In general, agriculture must be invested in with a guidance system.

The old professor nodded, pleased. 🍍

Farmers in the new era must receive more training than before. Farmers must have knowledge no different from a technical officer's.
Then a whole system of government experts must use information equipment to forecast demand for farm produce at home and abroad, and then allocate it region by region for farmers to produce.
Producing, then being unable to sell and having to throw it away, is a great offence against heaven and earth. This offence is unintentional, because the farmers are blind. The farmers' blindness comes from our lack of an agricultural guidance system. The lack of an agricultural guidance system looks as though some very irresponsible people have left the farmers to swim on their own in the stormy, complex sea of the market.
Now that science has advanced, we have many means to scan the market for farm produce all over the world. Guiding agriculture is a responsibility of the whole of society.