Posts Tagged ‘confucius’

Confucius On Government Corruption

Monday, September 6th, 2010

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, how can the government hold me to my word when they publicly don’t hold our highest office holders to theirs?

Everyone knows the example of Clinton and Lewinski. Regardless of what was lied about the fact is there was a lie said under oath and it was publicly known. More importantly the negative consequences amounted to a slap on the wrist. So if the President of the United States can lie under oath and have no real consequences then why should other far less important people bend the truth to serve their self interest?

In Vermont a Judge was caught with 35 marijuana plants and 2LBS of processed marijuana. The judge served no jail time, paid no fine, instead got diversion. Less then a year later 2 college students were caught with 2LBS of processed marijuana and the book was thrown at them. The Prosecutor made the statement that an example would be made of them.

Tim Giethner who is in charge of US Treasury was caught not paying income taxes. To the tune of not reporting over 100K dollars. No negative consequences were deemed appropriate. He simply paid the back taxes. No other years were looked into. Charlie Rangel is accused of not reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars over decades. Lets sit back and see what negative consequences are levied against one of the most powerful men in the Congress.

Today the government is hiring thousands of IRS agents to look into your income tax records. They want to make sure you are not chiseling a few dollars here or there. If a discrepancy is found you will be punished, fined and punitive interest levied.

We can clearly see from these very few examples the tip of a much larger iceberg in society. That is the Elite need a peaceful society to enjoy their power in. But they themselves want to live as Thrasymachus claimed. They don’t want to live to the laws they seek to force the rest of society to live up to. So with this fundamental tension going on they must resort to ever more punitive measures to keep the populace in line.

Right out of Confucius. He pointed out this very problem 2500 years ago. But being Confucius he also pointed out the cause and the solution. Ancient Chinese Philosophers were all about causality and the chain of causality.

Confucius pointed out that Dukes and Barons in his day lived by rapine and averous. They lusted and fulfilled those lusts. Yet detested their very own actions when they saw them in others. As did Tonnies. They were and are hypocrites. But that hypocrisy is not lost on the population.

When the people see their leaders lusting after money, luxury and sex they naturally lust after these things themselves. But when all people behave as Dukes and Barons who have no respect for the persons, property or family of others societal advantages break down and society collapses. There is no longer a stable society for the Elite to enjoy their power and wealth.

So the Elite must resort to some means to keep the population virtuous. The answer is always in increasing punitive measures. In fact I believe there is a correlation to the level of punishment meted out in society for infractions to the level of corruption in the upper ranks of that society.

Confucius answer too this intractable problem was as elegant as it was simple. Eliminate the fundamental tension. That is to force the Dukes and Barons to be as virtuous as they need the population to be.

Simple, elegant and next to impossible to do…

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Posted in Law, Mercy, philosophy, polictics of class envy | No Comments »

Human Heartedness and Government

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that to hold another person to a higher standard of personal conduct than one holds himself is not human hearted. To be “not human hearted” in this way, historically, qualifies a person to hold public office.

For all of human history people in power have never been held to a standard of personal conduct that is close to the demands placed on the people. The ancient Greeks with the temporary ostracism, and Romans with the Censors made gestures in the direction of holding powerful people to standards. But those two systems were flawed in that they still hadn’t solved the problem of power of personality or cults of personality.

The ancient Greeks ostracism was a direct attack at charismatic power. If an aristocrat would get too powerful the people would call a vote. They would write yea or nay on a piece of pottery or ostrakon
and count the vote. If the ayes had it the person was sent away for a few years to let his partisans cool and his charismatic power to wane. His possessions were kept safe as were his family and slaves. When he returned he could participate in public life again. This practice visited any number of catastrophes on Athens. From Pericles (with the misshaped head) to Alcibiades the ostracism was a wash.

The Romans had the Censors. Powerful aristocrats that had draconian powers to look into the personal dealings of other aristocrats. Unfortunately with no effective public oversight the Censors used their offices to garner bribes and indulgences from the powerful people they were supposed to regulate. An early form of regulatory capture. Both pernicious and both inevitable if the conditions are right. Human nature being what it is.

Human nature is unchangeable. When faced with the choice of; Let someone burn you with a cigarette and they will give a million dollars, to charity the charity of your choice, for each hour of torture. No one would submit to it. Unless they were sadomasochistic. Despite the obvious societal good from the windfall to charity…. But give another that choice over someone else and the perspective is widened considerably. They would have no problem with this Faustian bargain. The fact that they feel no pain when the cigarette is applied is irrelevant. Or so they will say. It is universal and it is human nature.

To decry human nature is foolish as it is to decry gravity. Without it we could not exist as we are. The wise lawgiver looks human nature in the eye and works with it. Doesn’t try to change it in others while waxing his own.

That has been the problem with governments through the ages. The Elite try to force others to live as the Elite wish and the Elite live as they wish too. This sets up a fundamental tension in human governments. That tension is the underlying energy source for class struggle.

The ancient Chinese had it close. Despite their arguments and the internecine squabbles of the States the Chinese philosophers in classic times had it by the tail. That their governments ignored the good teachings and embraced the bad is just a function of human nature….

Perhaps, if some nation at some time held their leaders to the same standards they hold the people to, this fundamental tension would be relived. So maybe, to be not human hearted should disqualify a person from public office.

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Posted in Group Politics, Law, Mercy, Societal Myth, philosophy, polictics of class envy | No Comments »

Pragmatism

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that most people are pragmatists. We have to be. To lack pragmatism is to ensure future insanity. Because when you live in an insane world you must either be pragmatic about it or go crazy.

Since most people are pragmatic we seek to get along in the world with as little interference as possible. As Thrasymachus said. Most people do not want to impose on others. But they are afraid of being imposed upon. That is why most people like the idea of justice… So by his measure most people are good. There are others who are bad. (I.e. They want to impose their will on others).

We are pragmatic in many ways. We add up the costs and benefits to most things we engage in. This is a form of pragmatism. We sometimes don’t fight the good fight because we have determined that it would result in diminishing returns.

To be the avatar of pragmatism one would have to be immune to all the pitfalls that await all of us. Like the sunk cost effect, group think, etc… We all vary in our pragmatism. (Or maybe we vary in our assessment of the cost benefit to a certain action).

Pragmatism breeds happiness. People who are pragmatic give up their anger quickly. They are less prone to hopelessness. These are the antithesis to pragmatism. Because to be angry has a very high cost both in health and relationships. The payoff is not as distinct. So pragmatism says, stop that which give us diminishing returns. To be angry for too long has such diminishing returns that the pragmatist eschews it. Hopelessness is the same. To be hopeless has great cost with no benefit. So why do it?

But pragmatism has costs as well. For example, take a good person living among those who are bad. Machiavelli says that a good man must necessarily come to ruin among so many that are bad. To be pragmatic in such a situation is to become bad enough to fit in. Mencius talked about this very thing.

Mencius said that the “Jen” man (gentleman, lord, Brahman, enlightened man, etc…) strikes the golden mean. When the jen man lives among many that are bad he doesn’t go to the extreme of bad. He seeks the middle ground in that bad land. When the jen man finds himself living among saints, again he looks to the mean of the society that he lives in. Mencius said that Mo Ti would run himself into the ground to help anyone. While Sang Yang wouldn’t pull a loose thread from his cloak although it save humanity. They went too far, claimed Mencius. Aristotle was curiously similar in his philosophy of the mean.

Pragmatic people do the same. Seek the mean in the society they live in. Pragmatic people look at their leaders today (and historically), and see people who make law to benefit their friends, making tax law and don’t pay taxes, regulating banks to make bad loans to people they know cannot pay back the loans then blaming the banks for the failures, have illegal aliens for maids, nannies, gardeners to save money but claim to be hard on illegal immigration, To name a very few examples. A pragmatists may not like what he or she sees. We may not want to emulate the behavior. But pragmatism, Machiavelli, Mencius, and Aristotle all say in unison, “follow the mean.” when the rulers are this corrupt society must be corrupt. Like virtue, corruption flows down from the leaders to the led.

Unfortunately the culture that we find ourselves in is a wretched as it can be. Corruption is endemic in the Elite in government, industry, entertainment and in society. They have been so corrupt for so long it has moved deeply into our society. Political corruption oozes out of government and onto everything government touches. Like a child, the grubbier the hands, the more they want to touch. They even have the gall to call evil good and good evil. Simply by changing the language, abortion becomes choice, freedom of religion becomes separation of church and state, freedom of speech is now too much information, the list goes on and on. I am sure you can think of quite a few I have left out… if you try.

This all adds up to an insane society.

How does this apply to the International Capitalist Party? Pragmatism is the cornerstone of our philosophy. Pragmatic in our view of humanity, pragmatic in our opinions about how to best effect positive change in the human condition, but, not pragmatic in our goal. To be pragmatic about a political goal is, not to fall into the status quo, it is to set a new status quo. Progressives, communists and socialists are pragmatic in their goal, total government, but not in their assessments of people… Unless most people do want to live under a tyranny, in poverty, with no voice or ability to change the situation…

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Japan’s Economy

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that Japan has real economic problems. They rely far too much on large business. The model served them well in the age of behemoths but today Japan would be better served to open up the internal markets and help develop small entrepreneurial business.

The manufacturing model can be phased out with the lowering of the working population. The younger people, who are excellently educated, can move to management of the large industries their parents and grandparents built. Other more outside the box thinkers should be encouraged through harnessing a market for start up ventures. Deregulate startups and lower tax rates for startups. This would open the throttle to the Japanese economy.

Today Japan is mired in the policies that the US administration wants to take. Japan is ten years down the road. It doesn’t look good to me… Japan carries a debt load that sops up funds from the capital markets. Fortunately for Japan the Japanese people have always had an excellent savings rate. That has been a godsend to them today. It allows the Japanese government to borrow and borrow to try to prop up demand ala John Maynard Keynes.

Government demand always favors large well connected (politically) companies. As demand moves from private sector demand to “temporary” government demand, that never stops, industry moves to the paradigm that fits it’s customers needs. And that is large politically connected companies. Only these companies can fill out the necessary paperwork and spend the rescores to meet government criteria.

Japan is reaping the rewards of government keeping up demand. Supply has shaped demand. Large corporations dominate the Japanese economy. I would bet the ratio of the economy that makes up small business share to large business, is skewed to large business in Japan, against a world mean.

That coupled with government sopping up all available local capital. Diminishing capital markets of startup money is never a good means to an increasingly productive, vibrant economy. Helps keep Japan in the economic doldrums. Sleepy GDP growth year over year corrodes the Japanese standard of living.

I hope they will move into a better fitting paradigm. Like the one I have suggested. To do this however the government must put down the toys. Some Japanese government must have the guts to stop spending. Pay down it’s debt and reload the capital markets with money.

One of Confucius’s disciples asked him what must a kingdom have to be in order. Confucius replied, Adequate supplies of food, adequate supplies of munitions and the confidence of the people. Confucius was then asked, what if he had to go without one? Munitions was his answer. What about if he had to go without another? Food; For all through history death has come to all men (yet society survives). But people who have no confidence (in their rulers) are undone, was Confucius reply.

Government must have the confidence of the people. Ten years of stagnation is too much. Japan has shown Keynesian economics to have major flaws. Every time there is a recession people turn to government to “do something.” That always involves spending money. But as Japan shows, no matter how government spends money, it is not as effective as money spent by individuals.

Individuals buy from small business. That drives up demand for small business. That is exactly where Japan should go. To encouraging small business, moving from manufacturing to management, and funding entrepreneurs. The next Google or Microsoft could be from Japan… Or Moldova. It is only a matter of government policies not getting in the way. No matter how well intentioned.

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Posted in International Power, economy, philosophy | 1 Comment »

With Age, Wisdom… and bad skin.

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that when we are young we lack wisdom. We may have great intelligence but we lack wisdom. Later, when we have gained life experience, we gain wisdom. Keeping this thought in mind, remember the old saw, “Those who are not liberals at seventeen have no heart. Those who are not conservative at fifty have no brains.”

Some people have a natural affinity for philosophical introspection. But no matter how well suited a person is to gain wisdom they must hone it with life experiences. It is the very things in life that vex and bore us that we extract wisdom from.

Children are a great source of wisdom for parents. Children demand a great deal of time and energy. Giving this much time and energy to rear a child gives us insight into many things that we may have never thought of before. When we lose a parent we have access to a font of wisdom. Great loss, and the grief that goes with it, give us insight into life and death. Something a child has no real notion of.

Books are another place to find wisdom. Socrates and Confucius were teachers of profound wisdom. They had such power in personality their philosophy was recorded for them. They have left us no records by their hands. Yet the wisdom they taught was so revered that others thought to record them for posterity. We have access to their great wisdom through these books.

Socrates and Confucius were also men of great age. Socrates was over seventy when he was ordered executed by the democratic process. Confucius was over eighty when he died. They didn’t really get underway philosophically until they were over fifty. Socrates said in the Phaedo that he as a youth liked the sciences. But as he grew older he grew to understand that the sciences could not be reasoned out in the year 500 BC. But if he followed a philosophy that asked, and tried to answer, the great questions of mankind, he had a better chance. They both had the benefit of many years of contemplation to hone their philosophies. A child, no matter the prodigy, doesn’t have that advantage.

The Nazi’s knew this. It was the youth they went after. College students were given propaganda films to watch. Films that would show people with profound mental and physical deformities. They would be shown as caricatures and with the correct music to set the mood.

Then the students would be asked, “would you want to be forced to live this way?” Upper middle class youth, who have never actually had a real hard time and enamored with appearances, all agreed, “Yes, I would rather die.” The result was the extermination of everyone in the asylums. Some people (children) were dragged out kicking and screaming then shot in the head. It is history. Read it.

Young people can be convinced of almost anything. Their gullibility is our undoing. When the youth of any nation or country mass and get behind a political movement it always ends badly for them and society. History gives us many examples of this. But none that confound. The Communists came to power or were largely backed in every case by the youth. The National Socialist movement was ushered in by angry youths that had been hopped up on patriotism. Mao, Che and Castro all praised the willingness of youth to do violence. The drug the would be dictator uses is not of consequence. The end is. Tyranny.

That is why when I see a political movement largely backed by upper middle class youth… I shudder. Today the PBS news cast of the McNeil Lehrer Hour had an item about the latest American generation. Gen Next was the appellation used. They are largely liberal according to a new poll. They were also credited with voting the present administration into office. The unbiased newscasters were positively giddy with the news.

What the unbiased newscasters failed to realize is that people, especially upper middle class youths, are intelligent, free willed, self maximizes. We all learn quickly. Gen nexters are no different. They will quickly become more conservative/ libertarian as they gain life experience. This is as inevitable as that young people always poll more liberal than older people. The question is only, when will a given person mature enough, to realize the truth…

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Happiness

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that to find the means to true happiness we have to rectify the term happiness. What is it to actually be happy? Some say happiness consists of material wealth but many who have great material wealth are on Prozac. Some argue those that have great power are happy. But we know this not to be true. No matter the power someone has it is never enough. Especially the more power over others an individual has the more unhappy they are. Others claim great physical ability is the path to happiness. But many if not most top athletes are on steroids to enhance their physical prowess and are simply running a treadmill.

It may simply be that some of us are programmed, by our epigenetic/genetics, to be happy or to be unhappy. Or it may be that our childhood is paramount. But surely there are some means to happiness even with the misfortune of being preprogrammed or raised to be unhappy.

Happiness is not a thing. It cannot be held or touched. But it can be felt. A better approximation is that it is more of an intrinsic state of being rather than a feeling. A way of reacting.

Happiness must be something intrinsic. To be otherwise (extrinsic) lets open the door to the problem of poor old Job. (Who, even in his great misfortune, thanked god for a spec of moldy bread). So if happiness is intrinsic it should run across (extrinsic) groups. We see that it does. There are wealthy people who can be classified as happy and some that are not happy. Some athletes are happy and some are not. An unknown number of powerful people are happy and some are unhappy. But most importantly we see that some very poor people are happy while some are not. So some people in all these groups are happy and some are unhappy.

Being an intrinsic attribute we can say that happiness must involve some level of contentment with our lot in life. This was a tenet of Confucius. That people be content in their position. But many people are happy who have a great deal of drive. They are content now but seek glory later. So contentment cannot be the only sub definition of happiness. There must be more. Contentment in one’s lot being one of several.

What are the other attributes of those that are happy? Happy people react to outside stimulus much differently than unhappy people. If a generally happy person meets another’s eye and the other frowns the generally happy person, won’t take the frown personally, and won’t think about it again. But an unhappy person will most assuredly take the frown as a personal insult. Regardless if the frown was an insult or not, clearly the better reaction (for the benefit of the reactor), is to forget the incident. But to hold on to the insult, perceived or not does the holder a disservice, it makes them unhappy. So another attribute of happiness is the ability to forget a minor insult. Happy people don’t hold on to things that disserve them. When a generally happy person meets with misfortune he or she doesn’t hold onto the misfortune long. They release it and move on. They know to hold onto that which does us a disservice leads to unhappiness… Inevitably.

Another attribute of happy people is that they are kind to others. They know that to be kind to others does us a service in that, our self esteem is raised, our karma is elevated, our ability to help others is also enhanced. Every time we chose to help another it is more likely that we will do so again. As we sow the seeds of kindness we must not seek to reap. Else the kindness we bestow comes with strings and becomes a mere capitalistic exercise. Kindness must be done for no reason but for itself. It is an intrinsic good. A duty that builds us far more than it helps someone else.

So happiness is an intrinsic way of feeling about the world, requires foundational contentment, contains within it a way of reacting to outside stimulus, (that doesn’t hurt us more than the actual misfortune), and has a basic kindness to it. I am sure that there are other more deep and profound attributes of happiness that I have left out in my muddled thinking, but, I believe that these are the fundamental attributes of happiness. Ones that we can all achieve if we want, endeavor, and persevere to.

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