The Importance of Moral Principle

All the major newspapers have reported how the Dallas law firm of Jenkens and Gilchrist has closed because it sold improper tax shelters. Confucianism holds that moral principle is the root of education. The failure of this major law firm shows that Confucianism is pertinent to American business.

Here are links to the article in the Dallas Morning News and the New York Times.

Here is a link to another article on this topic.

Robert

Another Example of Failed Leadership

We see too many examples of failed leadership. The scandal at Walter Reed Hopital is an obvious example. Less obvious is the example of college professors who promote worthless solutions. A good example is in a New York Times article, "Knowledge is power only if you know how to use it." In this article, researchers promise to deliver "solutions to problems as predictably as technological know-how does today."

America needs better leadership, honest leadership, and competent leadership. The American version of Confucianism, the Timeless Way, can develop better leadership.

Fatherhood is Leadership

You've heard me say again and again that we have a leadership crisis in America.

Confucianism not only has lessons for government and business leadership, but by promoting the importance of the family, it also helps men improve their leadership in the home: fathers are leaders within their families.

This last Sunday, January 21, 2007, the Dallas Morning News (Steve Blow) and on Wednesday the New York Times ran pieces decrying the large number of unwed mothers.

Confucianism will be a great help in improving the quality of life in America.

Robert

The Crisis in American Leadership

Everywhere you look, in business or in government, you see our leaders failing. Jeff Skilling has a Harvard M.B.A., yet he brought down Enron. George W. Bush has a Harvard M.B.A. and he picked Michael Brown to head FEMA during the Katrina hurricane. Do you remember President Bush's famous quote, "Way to go, Brownie. You're doing a heck of a job."

Confucianism can help American learn again what leadership is all about. The Analects of Confucius talk about leadership. There is even more material about leadership in a book called "The Mencius" by a Confucian scholar named Mencius (or Mengzi)

Education is the key to good leadership, but Confucianism or a similar system of ethics is necessary to truly unleash the power of education.

Robert

Confucius and the Widening Gap Between Rich and Poor

Confucius said, "If you want to advance, help others to advance." Kongzi (the more accurate form of his name) had nothing against people becoming wealthy. He was for the prosperity of the community, but not against individual wealth.

Check out this installment of The Naked Economist. It indicates the state of the US economy, by some measures, is closer to the economy of Brazil than the economy of Japan.

The people at the top are ignoring the prosperity of the people at the bottom. This is contrary to Kongzi's teaching.

Confucianism is very pertinent to contemporary American society.

Robert

The War on the Middle Class

I have just finished reading "The War on the Middle Class" by Lou Dobbs. He is correct. There are powerful forces squeezing the middle class out of existence.

Only morality can turn the tide against the forces of rampant greed. The Timeless Way is Confucianism for the 21st century. It is universal ethics that can be embraced by people of all religious persuasions.

The Timeless Way is not the study of an ancient philosophy, it is the practical application of timeless wisdom to the problems of our contemporary 21st century.

Robert

We Must Be Commited to Ethical Behavior

The Dallas Morning News, on Saturday Dec. 16, 2006, ran an article from the AP entitled, "Industrial spying convictions called crucial." It said a U.S. citizen from China and a permanent U.S. resident from China pleaded guilty to economic espionage. They were smuggling intellectual property from four U.S. companies to a Chinese microprocessor company backed by Chinese government entities.

Besides being criminal, this behavior was stupid. China is awash in American money. The Chinese government can buy technology. It does not have to steal it. The theft shows low moral character. Because there was no need to steal, the alure was simply an inclination to cheat.

U.S. power brokers are just as petty. The Wednesday Dec. 20, 2006 issue of the Wall Street Journal has an article by Alan Murray, "Will Backdating Scandal Thwart Effort to Roll Back Reforms?" Here he says (speaking about this year's stock option backdating scandal):

"More that 120 companies have been implicated in what all but a few hardy holdouts now acknowledge is simple theft."

These American executives were obscenely rich, yet they still became thieves, not out of necessity, but out of a compulsion to be dishonest. They are men of low moral character.

The world needs better leaders!

This is one reason I am promoting Confucianism. It can serve as universal ethics for the whole world.

Introduction

This blog discusses an American version of Confucianism.

Robert