How About Let's You and Me Steal Their $h*t?

"The Chinese are coming! The Chinese are coming!"

-Paul Revere, circa 2012 A.D.-

I was checking out my weekly pseudo-intellectual guilty pleasure, The Economist, and noticed that recently something rather significant had taken place in the pages of that publication. The magazine, in it's January 28th/February 3rd 2012 edition, began featuring a section on China--instead of just including them in the Asia section. Big deal, right? No, really, it is. The last time they did something like this was in 1941, to begin a section for The United States of America.

But really, this is no revelation to most of us. We've been reading about how we're fat, dumb, and happy, and how China is going to clean our clock in the 21st century. In lots of the public discourse, it seems we're already waving the white flag and just trying to figure out a way to manage our imminent decline.

Well, waaah. Let me just lay down and hand all my crap over to them. Yeah, right.

That's bogus and that's "small ball." For one, there are many reasons to doubt that Chinese dominance of the near future is inevitable (and I'll reserve these for another column at a later date). In fact, in the crazy world we live in, you should be as a default stance dubious about any stated inevitability that you may hear from any source. But the most important thing to keep in mind is we have a moral imperative to perform, because our way of life and the values we hold dear are worth protecting and perpetuating.

This is truly a scenario where the best defense is a good offense. Instead of sitting around, crying in our beer and quaking in our boots, why don't we steal from them things much much more important than anything they could ever steal from us.

I'm talking about moving away from the mistaken notion that China has nothing to teach us. Theirs is a rich culture. Whereas the US has been together as a coherent political unit for over 200 years, China has existed as such for over two thousand. Compared to us, everything that could happen to them has happened, and in studying their history we can learn plenty about what to do, what not to do, what works, and what doesn't.

I've been in love with classical Chinese culture ever since my late teens, and I expect to be studying China's history and philosophies until the day I die and to never ever run out of new interesting facts and concepts to learn.

I can tell you that the things that make the Han Chinese a great people are customs, traditions, behaviors, and habits of mind that could take root on American soil and likely, with some work and special attention, be adapted to make wonderful things happen here. Along with fatherhood and culture in general, this is a topic that I'll be visiting time and time again in my weeklies. In particular, here are three crucial areas where the cultural artifacts and history of the Chinese people have much guidance to offer:

1) Confucianism--ask your average Joe about Confucius and he'll get cute and spout off about fortune cookies and "Kung Fu Theatre" commercial break segues ("Confucius say..."). And that is incredibly sad, because studying the philosophies of Confucius and his disciples, particularly Mengzi and Xunzi, but also the later Neo-Confucian syncretists, can add meaning to your life and teach you a great deal about how to be a fully realized human being.

I've got a few future columns on this coming, so I won't steal my own thunder, but to wit, the basics: Kongfuzi (i.e., Confucius) was a dedicated scholar who worked diligently to preserve and interpret his culture's key texts and traditions. (That many of the classical texts survive in some recognizable coherent form is due in a great part to him.) The central problem that consumed him, as it did all of the philosophers of The Warring States era (475-221 BCE), was how could one, or many, behave in such a way that would produce a stable social order. Do we not all wrestle with this question in some form or another? For the most part, the answers he came up with dealt with one's obligations to other men and existing social institutions, and also the never-ending task of self-cultivation, of making yourself better through seeking out knowledge and using introspection and will to reform your own character.

2) Taoism--Pronounced "Dow-ism." Over the centuries, any self-sustaining culture collects folk traditions. The folk traditions of the Chinese are collected in a philosophy called Daoism. Translated texts give us insight into a Western interpretation of it, Taoism. (I'll explain the rationale for this distinction in a later column, trust me; just roll with me for now. ) So you'd think that "the collected folk traditions" of Chinese culture wouldn't really come to much as a coherent philosophy, but you'd be wrong. Taoism comes down to us not just from authors who translated Chinese into English, but also from a whole line of Neo-Confucian scholars who read the original texts, interpreted them, excised the crap ideas from them, and whipped the remaining ideas into a beautiful system where man, nature, and the heavens all work in microcosm and macrocosm. This system encompasses health, exercise, and mediation. It is practical b/c it observes without judging and draws fact-based conclusions about cause and effect. It is profound and philosophical in that there are concepts that capture ideas about Ultimate Reality, immortality, and the cyclical development of things and circumstances from generation to dissolution. The student of this philosophy gains context for himself, and an undying curiosity to learn more and to see what in life will come next for him.

The flexible and universal nature of Confucianism and Taoist concepts means that they offer a great deal to a secular person (like myself), but they are not at all hostile to the practice of religious faith and, in fact, will likely augment and enhance your appreciation of whatever religion you practice.

3) Strategy and a Long-Range View-- Earlier in this very column, this writer mentioned American values. We are proud of them, and we talk about them all of the time. And hey, it's all well and good to have values and to appreciate them, but if you truly do, you have to take action to protect them. This is not Hollywood. "The good guy" doesn't win by default.

Just because we are successful, and have been for a while, doesn't mean we will always be so. Even though we all have the will to win, very few of us have taken any time to study the basics of strategy. Mostly we examine that we are at Point A and we want to be at Point B, and we vaguely resolve to work hard to get there.

Winning and sustainment takes a lot of blood, sweat, and toil. You are much more likely to win if you are working hard, but you are almost certain to win if you are working both hard and smart, if you make and take the time to set up the playing field as you want it to be, and if you know everything there is to know about the other guy.

In Chinese history and philosophy, there is a great emphasis on observing conditions and adapting to them to accomplish an objective. Sunzi and many other great strategists (many of them Daoists) saw the value in preventing the waste of human life and other very valuable resources. All tools in the arsenal were made available, to include concealment and deception. We, with our idealistic nature, frown upon this, but we must admit that if an objective is truly worth achieving, nothing can be off the table. If we still choose to impose moral limits on our behavior, we have at least gained much from considering all options, and how they may best be deployed. Records of conflicts, strategic texts, and even games should be studied, regardless of whether we are ourselves violent people, and especially if we don't want violence. Look at the mess China was in at the time of Mao's death (1976) and compare it to where it is now. You think that just happened? No, my friend, that was the result of a plan, of many plans, and of a sustained effort toward it. You may not agree with how they do things 100 percent down the line, but aren't you at least curious as to how they got here from there? I am. You should be.

Anyhow, I hope this has given you food for thought, as it always does for me. Over time, I'll be handling these topics. I'll write about what I've learned, what I think, what I don't know but would like to know. This is fun for me. I hope it's fun for you.

Aside from my own enjoyment, though, I'm writing about these things because, let's be honest, ideas don't really belong to anybody. A good idea in one place is likely a good idea in another, and these are all concepts that inspire me and that I think we can all gain from. We are in a unique position, in that we can take their great ideas and, in the relatively free, prosperous environment that is The United States, adapt them, experiment with them, and improve upon them. Studying these concepts will make you better at whatever you do--better at work, better with your family, more whole as a person. We have the added benefit of no reverence; these ideas, useful though they are, don't come from our traditions, so whatever we can't use can go in the trash can. We can make revisions. We can add to them and make them better.

The future is not inevitable. It's time to roll up our sleeves and create the 22nd century. So instead of sitting around crying about how things aren't what they used to be, and how history's going to pass us all by, let's you and me steal their shit.