There are two ways to approach Confucianism. One is religious the other philosophical. For our purposes we will take the later approach. Many people are dismayed with the way American government is now working at the national, state and local level. Our system of government is marked by greed, a thirst for power, inaction and corruption.
Confucianism may lead our government out of this state of malaise. Confucianism was used by China as a guide to good government by the Chou, Han, Tang, Sung, Ming and Ch’ing dynasties. It was also adopted by other Asian governments including those found in Japan, Korea and Vietnam with great success making for a tradition that spanned thousands of years.
What America can learn from Confucianism is that humanity comes before profit. In other words government is not run as a for profit organization. We don’t put money before humanity. We don’t cut taxes for the rich at the expense of social security and Medicare. We also don’t use our military in a way that hurts our people, we do not use police against our own people and we conduct ourselves as civil servants under the virtues of good government. Government leaders also don’t put themselves before the people and enrich themselves at the expense of the people.
In China civil servants had to train at Confucian schools before they could work in government. We can do the same here making sure our future government workers train at Confucian ideals before taking jobs in government. In this way they can conduct themselves properly and advise our leaders in a good way in the service of the people so that morals take precedent over selfishness.
Government will run better, our leaders will be more humane and thoughtful and our society will go on for thousands of years if we take these simple measures. A moral vision will lead to a harmonious government and a happy people.