Current Affairs
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Alan Greenspan does the Confucian Thing
He gives up the dogma of the self-correcting "free market" and embraces the idea of "temporary" nationalization of banks to get out from under the financial crisis. Confucius would agree: The Master said: "The noble-minded are all-encompassing, not stuck in… Continue reading
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How Others See Us
A sad story of a young Chinese woman killed by a drunk driver in New York raises some unsettling questions about American culture. Here is an excerpt from a translated blog post over at Roland's (original Chinese blog post here):… Continue reading
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Minxin Pei
This is a bit off my usual path of ancient Chinese thought, but last week a moderated a lecture given by Minxin Pei on the broad topic of "China Today." He focused mainly on recent economic issues and made some… Continue reading
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Heavenly Balance
Roland translates a Chinese blog post, "Is the CCTV fire an act of God?" (I would quibble here, preferring a translation: "Is the CCTV fire an act of Heaven" – original Chinese here). The post speaks to the horrible fire… Continue reading
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Driven to Distraction
Last week a discussion took place at Peony's and Manyul's blogs on Confucius' lament, in Analects 15.13, which runs something like this: "It is a rare man who would turn his mind to virtue when he could follow love instead." Well,… Continue reading
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On Throwing Shoes
A protester at Cambridge University interrupted a speech by Wen Jiabao to hurl both insults (calling him a dictator) and a shoe: The shoe, or course, is reminiscent to the treatment former President (wow, it feels good to be able… Continue reading
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Confucian and Taoist Perspectives on the US Economic Crisis
When stock markets made back some of their losses at the end of 2008, I was hopeful that the economic decline in the US might be easing. But no. The past few weeks have brought markets down once again. Credit… Continue reading
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Sun Tzu on the American Exit from Iraq
One of the benefits of teaching is the new ideas that are generated in conversation with students. That happened the other day. My class was discussing Sun Tzu and the impending US withdrawal from Iraq, focusing on a recent report… Continue reading
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One Last Time with Gusto: Bush Lost the War!
With the impending inauguration of Obama, a lot of revisionism about the Bush years is streaming forth from various sources. But as far as Iraq is concerned, I'm sticking with my old friend the Aardvark, who is now blogging under… Continue reading
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Women and Children First: Confucius Would Agree
The hair-raising crash landing and rescue of flight 1549 has been all over the news the past couple of days. It is mind-boggling that no one was seriously injured. As I processed the news I noticed something: the invocation of… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 