pessimist, realist, or idealist? How to persuade those in power to
effect soical/political change? Such big questions in life... I have the
slightest idea of how to answer those questions...
but to clarify a bit... it's Confucius's contemporaries who thought
Confucius was trying to do something close to impossible, as a way of
laughing at him... what did Confucius think? Who is to say what is
possible and what is not? And what is the social responsibility of a
human being? I still believe in this somewhat naive saying: We become
what we believe we can be...
Yes, I'd like to go back to activity theory for some insights, too... can
someone pick up the discussions and pursue this thread or other threads?
Thanks, and cheers,
Angel
On Sun, 10 Dec 1995, Judy wrote:
> Angel, your messages about Confucious are much appreciated. The last
> message, which begins, "what keeps us going.... a sense of history, of one's
> cultural roots, or "meaning"; something that's often embodied in some
> mundane cultural rituals or practices...." reminds me of the anecdotes a
> former mentor used to tell about how to be a hypocrite. Let me give a couple
> examples.
>
> 1. An anthropologist visiting Japan, after spending some time with a
> Japanese family, interviews the daughter. He asks her, "Why, in Japan, do
> you respect the father?" The daughter answers, "But in Japan, we do not
> respect the father." The anthropologist says with surprise, "You don't
> respect the father? But, when the father comes home, you take his coat, he
> sits at the head of the table, you serve him first...." The daughter
> responds, "Oh! In Japan, we _practice_ respect."
>
> 2. The mentor I refer to was Gregory Bateson, the son of a long line of
> English aristocracy, and fifth generation atheist. When it was time for him
> to go to "public school" (equivalent to a private Christian academy here in
> the States, I was told), his two older brothers took him for a walk
> (collecting beatles - their father followed in the tradition of
> Darwin-plus-Lamarck) and said, "Now see here, Gregory. When it is time to go
> to bed, all of the boys at school will get down on their knees beside the
> bed and say their prayers. When it is time for you to go to bed, you, too,
> get down on your knees beside the bed, and say the alphabet about six times.
> That should be enough."
>
> These lessons about deferring to tradition without imagining oneself
> confined to it are important for children of the West who believe that what
> they think is what they are and to act otherwise is a lie, etc. But they
> also seem especially relevant to the work implicated in the epithet re:
> Confucious, "Someone who does what she/he knows cannot be done." It is
> impossible to do such work (the work of social change) by damming (damning?)
> the tide (which keeps on rolling right along). One has to embrace the
> opponent one wants to persuade. I realize that I am using stories from
> different contexts to make a point about yet another context. I hope I have
> not washed out the meanings of Confucious....
>
> Also, I worry about straying from the purposes of this conference and would
> certainly appreciate it if a thread from these associations found its way
> into activity theorizing.
>
> - Judy
>
>