The Useless Tree

Current Affairs

  • Neither Confucian nor Taoist

       A rather bleak picture of middle class urban China painted by this Reuters story (hat tip, CDT) The problem of grown only children having difficulties sustaining relationships is particularly pronounced among the affluent middle-and upper-classes who have accumulated enormous… Continue reading

  • Wrong Reasons

         I have had a couple of posts recently on the question of how to treat children who commit horrible crimes.  As I have suggested, both Confucians and Taoists would disagree with the movement within US law of late… Continue reading

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • Black Confucians

         Confucius focuses on the family: it is in the cultivation of our closest loving relationships, especially those between parents and children, that we create and expand our Humanity.  In the Analects he writes more about the filial obligations… Continue reading

  • Ancient Thinkers at the Party Congress

         The Chinese Communist Party is holding its 17th Party Congress, a grand affair that happens every five years or so and produces a new line-up of top Party leaders and establishes a new Party line.  It’s a grand… Continue reading

  • Taoism, Libertarianism and Markets

        The headquarters of libertarianism in the US, the Cato Institute, has discovered Taoism – or, at least, its vice-president, James A. Dorn has (hat tip, Western Confucian).  In a short article, he latches on to the obvious libertarian… Continue reading