Conservative Rightness

Something I hadn’t picked on in my blogs was the conservativeness and the societal structure Confucius proposes. We can clearly see that Confucius includes old concepts in his teachings to preserve the old as a way to create boundaries making our lives balanced and secure. “If you are respectful but lack ritual you will become exasperating; if you are careful but lack ritual you will become timid; if you are courageous but lack ritual you will become unruly; and if you are upright but lack ritual you will become inflexible.” (Pg. 23 8.2) In a way Confucius is able to include customs as critical variables to the development of our lives. We can see how he works with limits and fears to convince the reader into preserving ancient rituals to maintain order and harmony in society, instead of innovating in what has to do with how we manage, maintain and support certain eternal values such as respect, honesty, honoring our elders, carefulness, courage and honesty.

Rituals are used as empowering cultural teaching devices so that values are instilled in all members of society and that all actions have certain form and flow and history, understood and acknowledged and shared by all. Rituals are the threads that tie our relationships together as a school, a university, a social club, a family, a nation, a religious organization, a sport, a political party, a fraternity. Rituals have to have a certain history and mystique to empower the ties that bind us all in one form or another.

We can also see how Confucius thinks we should act based on age, relationship and with a sense of leaving a good legacy for future generations. “To bring comfort to the aged, to inspire trust in my friends, and be cherished by the youth.” (Pg. 15 5.26) We should always consider that every action is creating not only our personal history but also society’s. We are thus held responsible in a way to ourselves and to others
to maintain the roots of our connections healthy and fertilized through balanced, healthy actions based on the ancestral rituals of our societies and groups.