The Useless Tree

Sam Crane

  • Ignoring Sun Tzu, Again

        My friend, Abu Aardvark, has an excellent post on the problems of the Iraq war.  The bottom line: Tactics working against strategy – that’s been the concern I’ve been expressing for many months now. I haven’t been reassured. … Continue reading

  • “Confucian” Societies can Change

         Here’s a follow-up to Tuesday’s post on "Confucianism without Women,"  a story in Salon.com (hat tip China Law Blog) about a World Bank report that shows a change in social norms in South Korea away from male birth… Continue reading

  • Ancient Chinese Thought for the Modern American….Military?

         I noticed this NYT article a few days ago but did not read it beyond the headline and first paragraph: When Troops Need More Than Knowledge of War A dozen students sit at long white tables, some intently… Continue reading

  • Why We Work

           Barry Schwartz argues today in the NYT that work – and by that he means our career or employment or professional aspirations and accomplishments – is not simply a matter of money but also a matter of… Continue reading

  • Confucianism Without Women

         An op-ed in the LA Times by Joshua Kurlantzick takes up the gender imbalance problem in China: Lanzhou exemplifies a more insidious, possibly more dangerous threat to China’s development than financial imbalances, environmental disasters or unemployment: The People’s… Continue reading

  • Names and Realities

         The big Chinese Communist Party Congress, the Seventeenth since its inception, has just come to an end in Beijing.  Good times!  A new Central Committee has been "elected" (apparently there were only about 8% more candidates than seats… Continue reading

  • Blindsight

         When I see things like this, a paragraph from a New Yorker story on how the brain works, I can’t help but think of Taoism: We assimilate information unconsciously all the time; at any given moment, we process… Continue reading

  • Birthday Thoughts

         Today is Aidan’s birthday.       He would have been sixteen.      As I think about his life, and what he gave to me, a passage from Chuang Tzu comes to mind.  Without him, I would not… Continue reading

  • America: A Legalist Society

         Ancient Chinese Legalists, like Han Fei Tzu, had a dim view of human nature.  They believed that we are all selfish and venal and that the only way of attaining  order and stability in society is through extensive… Continue reading

  • Philosophy of the Family

          As is obvious now to regular readers, I am not an academic philosopher.  Beyond a rather pedestrian background – the usual survey of Western political thought, some Rawls, a little Singer, a bit of Derrida and the like… Continue reading