Month: January 2020

Hey Everyone! today I’d like to talk about the BBC documentary Genius of the Ancient World Confucius. This documentary was really interesting because it filled me in on the life and teachings where I wouldn’t have been filled in otherwise. Confucius had a very top down architecture for governing both families and societies. “It cannot be, when the root is neglected, that what should spring from it will be well ordered” (The Great Learning 14). Confucius’ ideals spoke of mutual respect between young and old and it’s through this ideal is how a just society functions. Confucius also valued education and merit as a basis for leadership. This ideal requires the leader to be an expert in their trade in order to lead. This is not how modern day society is run. Compared to Confucius’ ideal modern society  today’s society is often governed by people who don’t have the educated background.

This documentary, as well as the reading on  was very interesting because it allowed me to brush up on the aspects of Confucianism that I had learned before. This material also taught me more about Confucius background that I never considered before.

The lecture last night in Shelton Auditorium was nothing short of fascinating, but also depressing. The keynote speaker, Fleet Maull, had an absolutely amazing story to tell full of tragedy and hope. It was interesting that he started off by saying that he spends one third of the year in retreat, yet does not feel very religious. He founded the Prison Dharma Network, which is a Buddhist program the offers hope to inmates and is in almost all fifty states. He started a small meditation group in the prison chapel while he was incarcerated for drugg-smuggling. The popularity grew so much and he completely changed his life around after serving over ten years in prison. He is even featured in the film Path to Freedom. 

Something that Maull brought up struck me as true failure on behalf of the United States was that one in one-hundred Americans is in prison. The United States also has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world and the is going through the worst opioid epidemic in history. These are facts that are not acceptable that we need and can do better as a society to change. We should start by looking to Scandinavian countries for advice on prison systems that are based on transformative healing vs shame-based prisons, which are what the United States currently have. The prison systems’ philosophy hurts everyone involved from the inmates to the clerks to the parole officers.

One way this lecture related to class content was that one of the speakers talked about how we assign meaning to crime and that crime exists because we have created it. We give meaning to what “deviant behavior” means, and that often just unconventional behavior of marginalized populations can be see as “deviant”. This reminded me of our class discussion on Taoism and how a twenty dollar bill only has value because we assign it value.

In music, many values are portrayed through the artist’s lyrics. Across all genres, including rap, pop, and country, common themes of trust and honesty are shown. Drake’s hit “Trust Issues” is about trust in relationships because he believes people may judging him based off his money. He quotes, “All I care about is money and the city that I’m from”, stating many only care about what he has, not caring about who he is as a person. In Tao Te Ching’s poem #17 the author writes about his feelings on trust. He quotes, “Without fundamental trust there is no trust at all” (Tao Te Ching 17). Similar to Drake’s song, the author is explaining that without trust a relationship can not grow. As it is for many, it takes me time to fully open up and trust someone. In these two examples the author and singer are addressing one must be open to getting to a trustworthy level in a relationship in order for the relationship to work, which I agree with. In the country hit, “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood, Carrie sings about how her ex was not honest and cheated on her. She sings, “Oh, maybe next time he’ll think before he cheats”. In relation to the same poem in Tao Te Ching’s Daodejing intro, the poem quotes, “be careful in valuing words” (Tao Te Ching 17). Cheating goes directly along with the poem as they both touch on the value of keeping your word (in the songs case, staying loyal). These values in songs express societies “norms” as they have been shown through the media (writing and music).

Both Confucianism and Taoism are ways of life and are philosophies that are practiced by many worldwide. The two were established in China and have rich traditions. Both are associated with a specific founder. Their respective traditions have some overlapping ideas, but they also have some various philosophical differences. Taoism seems to be more of a self-conscious philosophy where the individual practicing needs to be very aware and conscious of his/her thoughts, behavior, and attitudes. Confucianism is more focused on relationships with others and social harmony.

Although there are several differences and similarities between the two philosophies, and I look forward to identifying and appreciating these as the semester continues, it is difficult to summarize all the similarities and differences in one blog post. Attached is a Venn Diagram of some of the key points that I have noticed from our readings thus far.

[embeddoc url=”http://blogs.butler.edu/ghs208spring2020/files/2020/01/ConfuciusvsTaoismVennDiagram-1.jpg” download=”all”]

Hello everyone it pleases me to discuss the reading Tao Te Ching today. In Tao Te Ching, the reading for today, poems are use to elucidate the values of the Daoist school of though. While reading these poems you can see many similarities of modern American ideals. For example, using clear and unbiased judgement when making decisions. We see this discussed in poem 3 of the reading, “Therefore, the True Person governs by emptying the heart of desire and filling the belly with food, weakening ambitions and strengthening bones” (The Tao Te Ching 7). While this doesn’t align perfectly because too often time we let anterior motives govern our actions. This conjunction between these two tell us that daoism can be used to describe a good way to govern our country.

The take away i got from this reading is daoism is a philosophy of balance. We as Americans prefer to govern and judge with balance an this have parallels with the Daoist school of thought.

It is common knowledge that there are differences across cultures. We do not eat the same foods, speak the same language, worship the same God, among many other different values, attitudes, behaviors, and more. However, when reading Ha Jin’s stories, I began to question the impact that American culture has had on other cultures. For better or for worse, American culture has found its way in influencing other countries and those cultures.

“After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” is a humorous example of this influence. The fast food restaurant is a commonplace for Americans, but Cowboy Chicken modified the cultural landscape in China. Wedding parties wanted their wedding dinners at the restaurant and patrons wanted to learn more about the American way of running restaurants. A real-life example of this is how McDonald’s has become part of the cultural landscape far beyond the borders of the United States.

When reading “A Tiger Fighter is Hard to Find,” I questioned what impact the Hollywood movie scene had on the production of the film in the story. If there was pressure to produce an “Americanized movie,” this could have influenced the negative treatment of the actors and animals on set.

I am reading a book called “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy” by Pietra Rivoli. This book examines that life of cotton from an economist’s perspective. America is the number one producer of cotton on the globe, but China is the number one producer of cotton textiles on the globe. America’s supply of cotton and demand for cheap cotton textiles has changed the labor environment in China.

The labor environment in China could be several blog posts on its own but examining these stories by Ha Jin and the trade patterns that exist do make me question if the America’s cultural influence on other countries has been too strong. Every culture is unique and should be appreciated for its differences. Do you think America has had too much of an influence on other country’s cultures, including China?

The yin-yang symbol holds its roots in Daoism/Taoism, which is a Chinese religion/philosophy. In the short clip attached, John Bellaimey explains why we all contain the spirit of yin and yang and what each side of the symbol represents. The dark side is associated with femininity and shadows. The yang is the lighter side that represents brightness, passion, and growth. John Bellaimey breaks down the yin-yang symbol and its meaning into simple metaphorical examples and clarifies the meaning and history behind the symbol, which is commonly misunderstood by those not educated in the Chinese culture.

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-hidden-meanings-of-yin-and-yang-john-bellaimey

While the yin-yang symbol emphasizes balance and the importance of having both sides of what the symbol represents, American culture is far from embracing the symbolic representation or any deeper meaning that the yin-yang symbol represents. During class discussion, several American culture values were brainstormed by the group. One of these values, success, stood out to me greatly. Americans are focused on being incredibly busy with achieving, regardless of the form of that achievement. There were several lines from “Tao Te Ching” that emphasize the importance of balance even with a value like success:

11: “Clay is fired to make a pot. The pot’s use comes from emptiness….Having leads to profit, Not having leads to use.”

24: “According to Tao, Excessive food, Extraneous Activity Inspire Disgust.”

With the importance of success in the American culture today, it is difficult to find usefulness in emptiness and avoid extraneous activity. However, the teachings of Taoism emphasize the importance of balance and not focusing too heavily on one thing. The opposite of success is failure, but Americans do not value failure nearly as much as its opposite. Taoism emphasizes the beauty in this balance of accepting both as the way of life.

Something I found particularly interesting about Daodejing was how similar its teachings were to other religions practiced throughout the world. Most of the ideas match other religions such as living for others and correcting faults within ourselves. These notions were even more interesting when looking at some of the passages that mirrored Christianity even though they were created hundreds of years before Christ. Something that was also interesting about these teachings was the idea of being peaceful and passive. This contradicts the Western ideas that one should act and “work hard” to attain their goals. This could contribute to the different philosophies when it comes to living and working in the east versus the west.
Another aspect I thought was particularly interesting was the view of women within the texts. The idea of “mother” is used several times. I was surprised to find this language based on how Christianity tends to use father. Especially for a text written thousands of years ago, I did not expect such high esteem to be placed on female characteristics. Although later the Daodejing refers to women as passive and men as active, I was shocked that women would be so included in the teachings.