International Difficulties  forget civil society, we’ll take civility

This is the ninth post on civil society in China now

One view is that without civil society fundamentals like generalized trust and freedom to express one’s opinion, China is doomed to … well, I don’t know what.  Decline? Fail? Disappear? Go into economic decline?

Moral Freedom and Nihilism    What, me worry?

 This is the seventh post on civil society in China now

 When you make the rules and then act as judge and jury, its hard to do the wrong thing. So, for CCP - If CCP does it, it must be the right thing to do. A couple of my government students, and another good friend, were judges. I was impressed, but I found out later that until recently being a judge did not necessarily have much to do with attending law school, and still less with balancing of rights. Justice is not blind, and sometimes it doesn’t even squint very much. Judges only nominally work for the government. They work for CCP.

The Civilization State and Freedom   What do you mean, Chinese lack freedom?

Try reciting the Emma Lazarus poem when you are thousands of miles from home, in a group of friends who, in their deepest wish, would return to the US with you. Tomorrow you can get on the plane. For them it is forbidden.  “… Yearning to breathe free …”  Can you do it without a shudder and a tear? I couldn’t.

This section gets a little deep in political and moral psychology – not really my area. I’ve done quite a bit of reading, and I hope what follows will be sufficiently clear. The ideas are important. The usual warning - this is a bit long.

The work of Joseph Chan on moral autonomy and Ci Jiwei on moral freedom are necessary reading for anyone wishing to understand the why behind what they see in China. In particular, Chan’s book Confucian Perfectionism and article Moral Autonomy, Civil Liberties and Confucianism and Ci’s book Moral China in the Age of Reform are my sources here.

Between Family and State – The Center Cannot Hold

This is the sixth post in the series on civil society in China now.

Nothing can stand between family and state. True in dynastic times, true now. Outside of government, disagreement can easily become disloyalty. Western NGO are characteristic of civil society. Now, they must go.

 Some Notes on Ancient Trust   -  More on particular and generalized trust

This is the third post in the series on civil society in China.

 A few notes on how trust and its lack influenced development in China.

 Trust within the government was, and is, tougher than trust within the family. Respect for Confucian values was important, but not every official had exalted Confucian status and Confucian values were often recognized only in the breach.

Faith and Trust   In whom can you trust? Epistemological optimism and pessimism

This is the fourth post in the series on civil society in China

An ancient proverb – “The Center is our benefactor, the province is our relative, the county is a good person, the township is an evil person and the village is our enemy” 

This Chinese proverb suggests optimism about the relationship of the peasant to higher levels of government. Nothing at all like the American conception of pushing government decision-making to as low a level as possible, and certainly nothing like Republican avowals to “drown the federal government in a bathtub.” And most assuredly nothing like “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”