Latest Posts
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Can Capitalist CEOs be Good Confucians?
Here’s a story from yesterday’s China Daily: A high-priced class for high-flying businessmen, teaching Confucianism for moneymakers, will enroll its first students in Beijing next month. It has been dubbed "the boss class." The two- to three-day course… Continue reading
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Koeans, Stem Cells and Sincerity
The news that Dr. Hwang Woo Suk, who appeared to be stem cell researcher extraordinaire, cheated, has cast a shadow over science generally (how could such fraud not be caught earlier?) and Korean science in particular. I have… Continue reading
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A Taoist Christmas
I have blogged on a Taoist view, or my Taoist view, of Thanksgiving. But what about Christmas? What would a Taoist make of that? First, and most obvious, a Taoist would stand apart from the central… Continue reading
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Friday I Ching: Looking Back on the Year in Politics
It’s back: Friday I Ching blogging. The Dongzhou killings demanded my attention last week but today, as we move into the holiday weekend, I have carved out a bit of time to consult the oracle. The… Continue reading
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Johnny Be Good
Unlike my friend Dan Drezner, who is struggling mightily to be positive, I take a rather more philosophic view of the move, via free agency, of Johnny Damon from the Red Sox to the Yankees. This… Continue reading
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Are There Any Noble Leaders Here, Either?
Reflecting on my last post, I have to recognize that contemporary American politics is also painfully short of noble leaders, as defined by the Tao Te Ching. Remember this excerpt: The people are impossible to rule,and it’s only because… Continue reading
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The Tao of Dongzhou
The Tao Te Ching is not a very good guide for contemporary politics. The notion that "it’s impossible to govern once you’ve filled people with knowing (65)" is just too prone to authoritarian abuse (maybe Bush and company… Continue reading
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Winter Solstice: Are We Afraid of It?
Let me step back a moment from my political blogging on Dongzhou and turn to an odd little question, which may be philosophical, about winter solstice: are we, at some deep unconscious level, afraid of it? … Continue reading
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This Just in…
..Twelve days after the Dongzhou killings, the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, has published its second story (the first had been rescinded shortly after it ran, suggesting uncertainly among propaganda officials on what spin to put on the… Continue reading
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Why there will be more Dongzhous
I am focusing on the Dongzhou killings of late to the exclusion of some of my usual blogging features (Friday I Ching; Sunday "Modern Love") because I feel a certain political urgency. We bloggers need to do what… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 