The Analects by Confucius - 8 out of 10 for personal impact, but surely 10 out of 10 for hundreds of millions of Chinese, intellectuals, luminaries and others

 

The Analects by Confucius

8 out of 10 for personal impact, but surely 10 out of 10 for hundreds of millions of Chinese, intellectuals, luminaries and others

 

 

There are two possibilities for the under signed: either Confucius works within the Communist system, Xi and his enablers use the old sage and his teachings as evidence, proof, China is different from the West, forget democracy and western values, we know better, and then for me this disqualifies it, or the Communists lie, corrupt the values, misinterpret their idol, and just falsify the truth to keep control

 

This could well be the most important book in the world, except for the Wisdom of Chairman (nay, they call their dictator president these days, it was chairman for Mao) Xi, maybe the Bible, seeing that there could be more Christians than dedicated Confucian followers, and we could consider some Hindu classics too.

Nevertheless, for all the source of wisdom that is allegedly in there, yours truly was not impressed – just kidding, but also admitting to the ignoble lack of gravitas, the disrespect shown to one of the celebrated, greatest thinkers in the world, due in large part to the totally negative opinion I have of Communist China…

 

Time for a spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer telling you should not read these lines, for they are insensitive, most likely unfocused, all over the place, not bothering to say anything (well, we could find some time, eventually, as Manuel from Fawlty Towers http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/waldorf-salad-by-john-cleese.html says) about Confucius and his damn Analects…

Xi and his apparatchiks rely on Confucius and the doctrine of respect for elders and authority, and no matter how easy it is to understand that those two ideas makes sense, the association is still distasteful, to say the least…speaking of authority, it is documented by Robert Cialdini in a classic of psychology

Influence by Robert Cialdini is the masterpiece in which you find the Six Principle of Influence, and one of them is Respect for Authority, manifestations of which include drivers not using the horn at traffic lights when an expensive car is there, the mass suicide in Guyana, that took place decades ago, a place that Maduro wants to invade

 

There is also a famous experiment in which participants have been asked to use electricity to punish those who gave wrong answers in a test, because that was the agreed experiment, and following the authority, men and women wet on inflicting pain, even when the voltage reached 220 volts and more, which could be deadly

The catch to all that was that they had no electricity, the flawed answers were given by actors, hired to express intense pain, only to see what humans do, when told to continue beyond ‘common sense limits’, actions that are explained by the fact that we show this Respect for Authority that can be speculated by vile tyrants

The way it looks to me is that the Chinese communist party is using Confucius and his teachings to obtain obedience, insisting that this is in the ‘tradition’ of the Chinese ancestors (they also claim a history that goes back to ancient times, without interruptions, but they do not have evidence for that, hence they fabricate it)

 

Quite a few of the sayings, stories told in The Analects seem modest, but it is also true that, if we have a feeling of déjà vu, we know these things, they are ‘old school’, etcetera, we must also realize that it was Confucius who said those ‘clever things first’, and indeed, most of what is in the treatise is accurate

He talks of leaders that care for those they have in their care, but I cannot help and express the conviction that, whereas Xi and company claim Confucius as inspiration, guru, role model, the reality of a Communist system is atrocious and either Confucius justifies their claims, and then they are both vile, monstrous, or the Communists lie, take the old sage and just mock the real significance of what he said

 

One of the best books I know on merits of the Eastern Ways is Outliers http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/10/the-malcolm-gladwell-quicklet-bundle-by.html by Malcolm Gladwell, which proposes the ten thousand hours of practice, exercise over ten years, which translates into three hours of work in the field every day, insisting that genius is ninety nine percent perspiration

The chapters on the East are remarkable, explaining that that large part of the world has relied on the cultivation of rice, which in opposition to maize, wheat demands all the attention, a huge amount of work, throughout the year – in the West (or global North as it is now called, says Johnson in The Economist) farmers start in spring and end some time in autumn, for the major operations, while in The East they can never rest with their rice, and that is now seen in their attitude to work, and the progress made

 

Confucius must have a role in all that, and his emphasis on rest for rules, authority, the elders is clearly laudable, I have qualms, as said before, about the nature of the connexion with the communist system, otherwise, another Major Difference between West (or Global North today, albeit this term could, surely will change over time) and East would be on the importance of personal versus community wellbeing…

The West is more ‘liberal’, however much the landscape is changing, insisting on Personal liberties, the ability that individuals have to prosper, do want they want, whereas The East is more focused on community, which is the priority, maybe to the extent where the individual is neglected, and why not, crushed by totalitarians…

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”