Governance - Sage Advice

We discussed some of the basics of morality in the west in a discussion groujp yesterday. From our European perspective the scriptural documents appeared to be the guidelines for morality even when they were made more general with terms like care and compassion. But it reminded me of something that I read in Brain Pickings, where the writer sends us back to Confucius, living in the east between 551-479 BCE.

“The ancient Chinese philosopher and statesman Confucius recognized the indelible link between personal and political morality, recognized that interpersonal kindness is the foundation of social justice, recognized that democracy — a form of government only just invented on the other side of the globe in ancient Greece, not to take root in his own culture for epochs — begins in the heart.”, she says.

Confucius made a connection “between personal good and public good rooted in purity of heart and discipline of mind” – a relevant directive for current politicians.

How does one get there? It means an orderly and disciplined home environment, which means moving back to individual responsibility, developing priorities around what is important – and seeing these as organic categories, looking at these with the mind and moving back for final evaluation by the heart. With these in place, one can work back to through the steps in ascending order leading to good governance at local and regional levels - and ultimately to national and international ones that have developed long after Confucius.

What if these were the steps politicians took – as opposed to trying to stay in office as their only imperative?