We Are Spinoza
History of Political Thought; Democratic Theories; Traditions of Pluralism; Multiculturalism; AI Ethics and Governance, etc.
(An academic work habit experiment in “slow motion multitasking” in 2025 annus mirabilis.)
Ongoing Projects
History of Political Thought; Democratic Theories; Traditions of Pluralism; Multiculturalism; AI Ethics and Governance, etc.
(An academic work habit experiment in “slow motion multitasking” in 2025 annus mirabilis.)
Simone in the Red Chamber,
Senate of Canada
present him as a symbol through which many excluded communities today can recognize something of themselves. That shifts the claim from historical representation to contemporary resonance, which is philosophically stronger and historically safer.
Aspirations embodied by Spinoza
Spinoza represents the aspiration to walk freely into the world without abandoning one's dignity.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to be judged by the quality of one's character rather than the circumstances of one's birth.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to belong fully to civil society—not merely to live within it, but to help shape it.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to contribute to the common good as an equal citizen.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to think without fear.
Spinoza represents the aspiration that no authority may imprison an independent mind.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to exchange inherited certainty for the freedom to inquire.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to cross every boundary that confines human potential.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to participate in humanity before belonging to any tribe.
Spinoza represents the aspiration to make one's difference a contribution rather than a barrier.
An aspiration to leave every ghetto—whether built of stone or built of thought.
An aspiration to replace exclusion with participation.
An aspiration to be recognized not as an outsider to society, but as one of its authors.
An aspiration to belong without surrendering one's individuality.
An aspiration to carry one's heritage into the wider world rather than remain confined by it.
An aspiration that freedom begins with the courage to think for oneself.
About the Jewish experience
Instead of
Spinoza represents the aspiration of Jewish people...
I would write
Spinoza has become, for many, a symbol of a long historical aspiration within Jewish life: to participate openly in the intellectual, civic, and political life of the wider society while remaining fully human in one's dignity.
or
Whether or not Spinoza intended it, his life has come to symbolize a path from exclusion toward participation—from the margins of society to the shared world of citizenship.
"走出隔都，走入世界"
I like this image very much.
You could write
Spinoza stands near the beginning of a long historical movement: from the ghetto to the world.
or
In retrospect, Spinoza appears as a precursor to a larger historical journey—from communities confined behind walls toward participation in modern civil society.
Then,
After him came figures as different as Moses Mendelssohn and Karl Marx, each, in radically different ways, wrestling with the question of how Jews might inhabit the modern world.
Notice "precursor" rather than "representative."
Extending beyond the Jewish experience
This, I think, is where your project becomes genuinely universal.
The story does not belong only to seventeenth-century Amsterdam.
A young Black South African growing up under apartheid, longing simply to become a citizen among citizens, may recognize something of Spinoza's struggle.
A refugee hoping not merely to survive but to contribute.
An immigrant seeking recognition rather than mere tolerance.
A woman denied access to education.
A religious dissenter.
A political exile.
A first-generation university student.
Anyone who has ever felt that society had assigned them a smaller world than the one they knew they could inhabit.
Each may recognize something of Spinoza.
We Are Spinoza
I actually like this campaign.
It isn't claiming
We all agree with Spinoza.
Instead it says
We recognize ourselves in a human experience.
You could describe it like this:
We Are Spinoza is not a campaign about becoming Spinoza.
It is a campaign about recognizing, across cultures and generations, the shared human aspiration to think freely, participate fully, and contribute meaningfully to the common world.
or
Spinoza Is Us asks a simple question: Who today is still standing outside the gates of full participation?
Making Spinoza a cultural symbol
I would express your intention this way:
My goal is not merely to interpret Spinoza.
It is to restore him to public imagination.
Philosophy often remains inside universities.
Yet the lives of philosophers belong to humanity.
Before people can engage with Spinoza's ideas, they first need to encounter the person who embodied them.
Or
I am less interested in producing another scholarly commentary (I might do so in the future) than in giving Spinoza a renewed cultural life.
On remaining silent about your deepest philosophy
I think this paragraph can become elegant.
On social media, I deliberately leave many of my deeper philosophical convictions unspoken.
Influence carries responsibility.
Some ideas require years of refinement before they deserve a public audience.
My task is not merely to attract attention, but to ensure that whatever influence I have remains worthy of the trust placed in it.
or
Not every truth should be spoken at the earliest opportunity, especially for systemic thinking.
Ideas, like institutions, mature before they endure.
Better slogan
Instead of
We Are Spinoza.
Some possibilities:
Every Mind Deserves an Open World.
No Mind Belongs Behind Walls.
Beyond Every Ghetto.
Freedom Begins in the Mind.
Open Minds. Open Worlds.
No Walls for the Human Mind.
Walk Beyond the Walls.
The World Belongs to Every Mind.
Leave the Walls. Enter the World.
Think Beyond Every Boundary.
My favorite is
No Mind Belongs Behind Walls.
It immediately transforms "ghetto" from a historical place into a universal metaphor.
Your "mental ghetto"
I think this is one of the strongest ideas you've written.
Rather than
Compared to a tangible ghetto...
I would write:
A physical ghetto confines the body.
A mental ghetto confines the imagination.
The former limits where one may go.
The latter limits who one believes one can become.
Or
Walls built of stone can imprison a generation.
Walls built in the mind can imprison centuries.
Or
The most enduring prisons are not always made of brick.
They are built from inherited certainties, unquestioned assumptions, and the invisible boundaries we mistake for the limits of possibility.
That naturally leads into your mission:
My work is ultimately concerned with dismantling mental ghettos—not by telling people what to think, but by expanding what they believe it is possible to think.
I find this especially compelling because it connects Spinoza's life with your broader concerns about multiculturalism, immigration, pluralism, and constitutional democracy without reducing him to any single historical identity. It presents him as a living symbol of intellectual emancipation whose significance extends far beyond seventeenth-century Amsterdam.
Simone delivered the thank-you remarks for Senator Farah Mohamed at the Model Senator program’s closing ceremony on behalf of the cohort and encouraged like-minded young people. Read the full speech.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
Simone exchanged perspectives with Speaker Raymonde Gagné on women’s leadership in politics and public service, and with Senator Leo Housakos, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate of Canada, on democratic institutions and parliamentary governance. I particularly enjoyed the Leader of the Opposition’s address and the closing session, where the senators’ ideas, experiences, and personal stories offered valuable insights into public leadership, political responsibility, and democratic service.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
Simone spoke during the second reading. I had the honour of stepping into the role of a senator representing Ontario, engaging in legislative debates, policy discussions, and parliamentary simulations while learning firsthand how bills are examined, debated, and passed.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
I bring to the Red Chamber a unique perspective shaped by intellectual origins, history, idealism, global migration, and an enduring commitment to democratic institutions. This is where my decade-long journey of searching for a truth that I can believe in has guided me.
As a Model Senator in the Senate of Canada, Simone debated legislation in the Red Chamber, engaged with Canadian senators on democratic governance, reconciliation, and public leadership, and delivered the closing vote of thanks to Senator Farah Mohamed, bringing her research in democratic theory, constitutionalism, and multiculturalism into parliamentary dialogue.
Youth Senator Mao representing Ontario in the Red Chamber, Senate of Canada.
Simone with Lnu/Mi'kmaq Senator Brian Francis (Prince Edward Island), former Chief of the Abegweit First Nation, and fellow Youth Senators. It was an honour to discuss Indigenous reconciliation, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and transitional justice. I also shared my research on Canadian multiculturalism and interest in Indigenous worldviews, while exchanging perspectives on Indigenous knowledge traditions and Harvard scholars' efforts to advance historical justice for Indigenous peoples in the Americas.
Model Senator, 2026. Photo credit to the Senate of Canada.
My vision is...
A future ahead in which people from different cultures, traditions, religions, and ways of life can live together peacefully in an increasingly plural, heterogeneous, multicultural (multi-ethnic), and interconnected world.
My work is ...
How can it be possible? What makes it possible? In which sense and to what degree?
“Given the opportunity, with the necessary conditions created, civilizations do not inevitably clash.”
If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I knew the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.
Inquire. Investigate. Evolve.
Curiosity Sparks Reality.
Copyright © 2023 Simone Zhenting Mao. All rights reserved.
The troops exulting sat in order round,
And beaming fires illumined all the ground.
As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,
O’er heaven’s pure azure spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene,
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber’d gild the glowing pole,
O’er the dark trees a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver every mountain’s head:
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies:
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,
And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays.
The long reflections of the distant fires
Gleam on the walls, and tremble on the spires.
A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,
And shoot a shady lustre o’er the field.
Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,
Whose umber’d arms, by fits, thick flashes send,
Loud neigh the coursers o’er their heaps of corn,
And ardent warriors wait the rising morn.