Current Affairs
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Mencius at the Federal Reserve
It may be shrouded in financial technicalities, but the action of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Treasury Department to limit the effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis has a Mencian ring to it. Here is Timothy F.… Continue reading
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We are all Confucians now (or we can be if we want)
A reminder (ht, the Western Confucian) of the universality of Confucian ethics and thought. This is from a story on descendants of Confucius gathering at Qufu for Qingming: James Kong, 14, stood out in the crowd.… Continue reading
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Tibet: Media Bias versus Media Control (with reference to Han Fei Tzu)
I’ve been quiet on Tibet since my first post. It takes time to absorb the events as they unfold, and to hear various points of view. But one thing has struck me of late, the question of media… Continue reading
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Do Children Need Fathers?
That may seem an odd question to some, but it is inspired by a piece over at Slate by Emily Yoffe. A couple of excerpts: In the last 50 years, there has been an extraordinary decoupling of marriage… Continue reading
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Breaking News: Mencius Right, Legalists Wrong
Nothing like some current psycho-social scientific research (hat tip: Zhongnanhai) to verify claims that have been around for a couple of thousand years: Common game theory has held that punishment makes two equals cooperate. But when people compete… Continue reading
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Richard Perle, Please Read Mencius
One of the architects of the Iraq war, the unrepentant neo-con, Richard Perle, reflects upon the past five years of failure in a short piece in the NYT today. He remains completely in character: he was right and… Continue reading
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Tibet
Bad news out of Lhasa: Violent protests erupted Friday in a busy market area of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans clashed with Chinese security forces. The protesters burned shops, cars, military vehicles and… Continue reading
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Eliott Spitzer and Mencius
I am reading Mencius with my class now; so, when I heard the news today of Eliot Spitzer’s embarrassment, I wondered what Mencius might say. I found this passage which, while evincing a rather different sensibility toward mistresses… Continue reading
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Douglas Feith as Mao Zedong
One of the planners of the Iraq war, Douglas Feith has a book coming out (ht: TPM). The Washington Post has a story about it today. The problem for Feith is: how do you rationalize what… Continue reading
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The Master would not be Happy
Another familiar story on the sexual revolution in China: The no-tell motels in Beijing’s university districts pulsate with sex. Every weekend, lusty college couples make a beeline past greasy spoon restaurants and bootleg video game shops for the… Continue reading
The Useless Tree 