Modern American Confucian

Kǒngzǐ had a lot to say about civilization in the 5th Century BCE / 96th Century HE. What if he’d lived in the United States today?

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

“Was Confucius political?” 1/2

No. But teaching ethics was, as Socrates also learned at the time.

Confucius found ethics more transformative than ideology. Political movements are easier, but end in rigidity, hypocrisy & conflict; institutions fall apart without norms to match.

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “Get your point across. That would be enough.”

— Analects 15.41

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Society 🤟🏽 Family 🤟🏽 Neighbors

“So will you please say hello
To the folks that I know?
Tell them I won’t be long.
They’ll be happy to know
That as you saw me go
I was singing this song…”

https://t.co/N7DYtx2ekR

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Standing by the river, Confucius declared, “How it flows on like this, never ceasing day and night!”

— Analects 9.17

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “The Good Person reaches higher values. The #Xiǎorén masters the lower things.”

— Analects 14.23

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

The Right has abandoned ethical #CivicDuty. The Left and Center are all that remain.

Fortunately, a #CultureOfEthics doesn’t require unanimity or conformity — just common core values.

#Empathy #Decency #Integrity #Fairness #Honesty

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “Being extravagant often means that you lack humility. Being frugal often means that you appear shabby. I would rather be shabby than lacking in humility.”

— Analects 7.36

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

“Truly humble people see and accept their own strengths and limitations without defensiveness or judgment — a core dimension, according to researchers, that cultivates a powerful compassion for humanity.”

#Empathy #Decency #Integrity #Fairness #Honesty

https://t.co/rnKSX8gXgP

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “No one understands me.”

Zigong said, “Why is that?”

Confucius said, “I blame no one. I learn from the ground up. Only heaven, I think, understands me.”

— Analects 14.35

📖 One cannot build an ethical foundation for recognition. Those who notice, matter.

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

@BillNye breaks down the science of human skin pigmentation and shows why #race is an illusion and #racism is #inhumane.

https://t.co/gVvInmBabz

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

“We need to be talking about #racism, #racialisation, and #racialised groups, not ‘race’. Given that ‘race’ fails as both a biological and a social category, let’s consign it to the dustbin of history’s bad ideas.”

https://t.co/8VloUtt048

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “The Good Person harmonizes without echoing. The #Xiǎorén echoes without harmony.”

— Analects 13.23

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “Consider building a mountain. If with one basketful of dirt to go I stop, I left it incomplete. Yet in leveling ground, even if I heap only one basketful of dirt, I move work forward.”

— Analects 9.19

📖 Education: see it through. Character: every step counts.

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

2/2

📖 “Moral persuasion in the political world” often seems futile. But the despots of Confucius’ time are long forgotten, while the moral persuasion of humanity’s greatest thinkers persists.

Gatekeepers are ephemeral. We are the Stone Gate.

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Zilu spent the night at the Stone Gate. The gatekeeper asked him, “Where did you come from?”

Zilu answered, “From Confucius’ family.”

“That man?” He retorted, “Does he know that what he is working toward simply cannot be realized?”

— Analects 14.38

1/2

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Five virtues: Empathy, Decency, Integrity, Fairness, Honesty
+
Three relationships: Society, Family, Neighbors

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

This grateful visit is regrettably closer to its end than its beginning. Our best efforts are, if nothing else, worth what time we get.

https://t.co/y0QQgb4QnT

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius complained, “Why do I hear Zilu playing the zither inside my door?”

The students began to disparage Zilu.

Confucius responded, “Zilu may not have entered the inner room, but he has ascended the hall.”

— Analects 11.15

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “In the guanju poem, there is joy but no immodest thoughts; sorrow but no self-injury.”

— Analects 3.20

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Our ancestors know what’s to come, and they grieve for us.

If they could stand in our place, they would hold our loved ones close.

So, hold them close.

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “A person of wisdom does not let humans or words go to waste.”

— Analects 15.8

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius said, “To fail to cultivate virtue, to fail to practice what I have learned, not to direct my steps toward what is right when I know what that is, and to make mistakes but be unable to correct them: these are the things that worry me.”

— Analects 7.3

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

#RememberEveryRedHat

https://t.co/ClxNtZqcOb

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Confucius was gravely ill. Zilu instructed the students to prepare a master’s funeral.

When Confucius recovered, he chided Zilu. “I have no servants. Who were you trying to fool? Besides, would I not rather die in the arms of a few good friends?”

— Analects 9.12

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

#WeRemember refugees from fascism, turned away to inhumane fates, in 1939. Please visit / follow the St. Louis Manifest @Stl_Manifest

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

This is not who we are.

#Empathy, manners and #decency ensure the quality of #FreeSpeech. They do not threaten it.

A healthy #CultureOfEthics will enforce them — formally or informally.

@ADL @SPLCenter

https://t.co/1qRSG0fgno

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 address to the Anti-Defamation League, “We are a nation of immigrants.”

https://t.co/LYD44nZ52l

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”

— Bertrand Russell

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”

— Susan B. Anthony

[Modern American Confucian @ConfuciusModern]

Jilu asked about how to serve the spirits of the dead and the gods.

Confucius said, “You can’t even serve others properly, how can you serve spirits?”

“May I then ask about death?”

“You can’t even understand life, how can you understand death?”

— Analects 11.12