Confucius

[Ron C. de Weijze]

--post deleted--

[Arjen]

Originally Posted by Aedes

My grandparents were liberated from Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, and Salzwedel in April and May of 1945 after stints in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and after a death march in one case. The only party my family joined after that date is generally remembered (in politically correct terms) as displaced persons camps.

I would like to express my sympathies. My own family history is filled with some of the same misery. My grandmother on my mothers side comes from a family of gypsies. My grandfather on my fathers side fought in the kriegsmarine during WWII. I suppose you can imagine that not everything was easy to be spoken of. In my opinion the only thing that has a positive effect on the situation (in my family, in reflecting and in judging) is acceptating and forgiving.

So perhaps you'll understand if I'm a bit bitter about conservative views from "old Europe" that celebrate a time of cultural exclusion and condescension to minorities. My family has borne the brunt of a lot more than forum rhetoric.

It does not happen often, but I would like to second this remark and I would like to express my hopes that if indeed such sentiments are held one might keep them to themselves for they are only important in applied ethical discussions and if indeed such a discussion would arise, we could argue any point of seperation in the sense that it draws a ficticious line in a limitless reality and thereby condemn it to the realm of fantasy.

And it should be no shock that the political correctness you so malign was Europe's reaction to its own profound shame about what it had done to itself.

Ron C. de Niet-zo-Wijze, would you be so kind as to get back on topic and leave any ethical (in the wide sense) considerations to yourself?

[Ron C. de Weijze]

Aedes, I can understand your deep concern. Believe me I want to fight the same demon. I was a Leftist myself but became troubled over time, seeing what these people were capable of, especially while studying social psychology. There is no benefit left for them, not even of the doubt. Of course I am biased myself, however that was a conscious choice when I was faced with no alternative. Let's just keep searching for root causes before we turn our ideas into dogmatic ideologies.

[Ron C. de Weijze]

Arjen, apparently you know better, so I will unsubscribe from this thread.

[Justin]

Originally Posted by Ron C. de Weijze

Getting caught up and blinders are not the same as being inspired by and enlightenment. If you want to become Chinese, then by all means study Confucius. Division is different from differentiation and analysis after integration and synthesis where one must be so humble as to know one's own place in the scheme of things (cultural history).

Confucious was the topic and we've sort of strayed off a bit. There are good things to learn about all areas of philosophy and one doesn't have to be of Eastern decent to look at Eastern philosophy.

There's both good and bad, both negative and positive in all things. Take the meat off the bone and leave the bone. There's truly is something to be learned from all mankind. The only division is the division we've placed upon ourselves and our fellow man. There's one source.

Let's keep this on topic and set cultural differences aside.

[Didymos Thomas]

There are good things to learn about all areas of philosophy and one doesn't have to be of Eastern decent to look at Eastern philosophy.

That's the thing, isn't it? We revere great thinkers, not necessarily because we agree with a given thinker, but because we see the contribution of the thinker to the whole world's ongoing dialog about human life.

How else does an ardent theist appreciate the work of Nietzsche who claimed that god was dead? Obviously, the theist disagrees with Nietzsche, but even in the disagreement, the fact that Nietzsche eloquently, and with his own unique genius, expresses something relevant to the human condition, to his personal condition and to the condition of his time cannot be ignored - not as some screaming lunatic who's cries cannot be ignored for being so loud and absurd, but as an expression of human life that even the theist can relate to. How many of the great theistic thinkers felt the despair of uncontrollable doubt about God?

There's both good and bad, both negative and positive in all things. Take the meat off the bone and leave the bone. There's truly is something to be learned from all mankind. The only division is the division we've placed upon ourselves and our fellow man. There's one source.

And when you've stripped all the bones clean, then you break in for the marrow. Read until your eyes bleed, grab a towel, and read some more. Study. If you boil the bone long enough, it crumbles and the marrow is easy to extract - and that's the most nutritious part, the marrow.