A few days ago, I had lunch with my uncle, and he told me a story about a gangster and a child. Many decades ago, the gangster was an extortion enforcer and collected money from local businesses in Guangzhou. With no desire to risk his life in deadly gang leadership battles, he paid a snakehead to smuggle him into the US, worked as a restaurant cook, and eventually became a US citizen.  

   While working at the restaurant, he heard two co-workers, a 14-year-old boy and his father, quarrelling. The boy told his father that a customer had ordered take-out food without monosodium glutamate (no MSG). 

   However, his father said, “Chinese food doesn’t taste good without it.”

 
   His son argued vehemently, “the customer might be allergic to MSG, and she could die from it!” 

   His father rebutted, “most people are not allergic. She probably read somewhere that MSG is not healthy, but we’ve always made food with MSG, and no one’s ever died from it.” 

   His son persisted, “well, SHE could die or get sick. Or even if it doesn’t affect her, she still wants it without MSG, so we should make it the way she wants.”

   His father ignored him, and cooked the food with MSG. 

   His son fumed for the rest of the night.

   The gangster walked over to the father to console him.

    “You might be frustrated with him now, and he’s going to get into countless arguments with you in the future, but you’ll be proud of him some day. Think about it. He’s not being selfish. He doesn't gain anything from arguing with you. How many sons argue with their fathers on behalf of strangers for fundamental principles?"

   Decades later, the gangster met the father at a clan party. After exchanging pleasantries, the gangster asked about the father’s son. The father beamed with pride, saying that his son was a world-class professor, an award-winning inventor, and an advisor to ministers in three countries. He then remembered the MSG argument and the gangster’s reasoning, “in Old China, might made right, but now right makes might.”