If Confucius was alive today, i am 100% positive that he would have a field day talking upon numerous aspects of our society (for me, i think he would be talking about COVID-19, and how [still] many young people aren’t taking it seriously). Re-reading Analects of Confucius (posted by Dr. McGrath) this morning helped me understand new things that I would otherwise not have picked up on in our first discussions over it.
[7:21] The master never discussed strange phenomena, physical exploits, disorder or ghost stories. I can’t think of any better applications better suited for this than the current executive office, who has spread a great deal of misinformation and helped create more disorder. We have often seen conspiracy theories pushed out to push a political agenda that also try to change the public’s opinion on the state of affairs nationally. Doing so has already led to huge repercussions not only in society, but (in my opinion) more so for our economy. I could write an entire post on this opinion, but it wouldn’t change the borderline recession we’re in.
This also falls in line with the following: [8:9] The Master said: “You might force people act according a certain principle, but you won’t be able to force them to understand it.” The current administration also seems dead set on returning to our recently abandoned way of life just because the economy attention. This idea of forcing us back into our old way of life so suddenly is incredibly dangerous and shows a clear lack of awareness for the current state of things in regards to the pandemic we face.
For better or for worse, COVID19 has inspired me to revisit things we’ve covered in the past, and in doing so has helped me find clarity in some of the topics we’ve talked about. Hopefully sooner rather than later however, i hope this pandemic becomes an afterthought, but I imagine that it would take years (unfortunately) to reach that point…