The Nelson Touch

Nelson is reported to have put his telescope to his blind eye and say I can see no signal rather than obey the signal from his superiors not to engage the Armada at Trafalgar. This typifies the consternation we all meet when our proposed way of dealing with a problem goes against establishment recommended practice or even the Law. We are taught to obey the rule of law but our nature is to rely on our own observation and thinking. We are aware that the establishment represents corporate wisdom and has the power to punish lawbreakers if it can catch them, but the establishments wisdom is not universal. There are other cultures that think differently. ie. For Confucius the ideal government is one of “wu-wei” No action. - Thought to be possible through the cultivation of moral acceptance (“ren” alias love of humans). He wrote :- “ If you lead the people with political force and restrict them with law and punishment, They can just avoid law violation, but will have no sense of honour and shame. If you lead them with morality and guide them with li, they will develop a sense of honour and shame and will do good of their own accord” (II, 3) Analects {li = social norms, cultivated intuition, the way things are done} [ tradition? RM]. But although Confucius (551 BC) tried to get into politics he was not able to and had to be content with being a good teacher. Eventually in the second centaury AD He became honoured as the ultimate Sage-Teacher. This suggests that though people liked to believe that what he taught was to be desired they did not think it practical. Jesus, who could have been aware of Confucian teaching because there was a trade rout between the middle east and China (the silk route), does seem to take up the baton and develop it with his “ love your enemies also ” Jesus pushed hard against the establishment and was crucified for his enthusiasm. Once again the public verdict of the teaching was impractical. But the Christian Church have tried to follow (at one time to the depletion of the Roman Army until Rome adopted and corrupted the teaching with Augustine’s treaties on “The Just War”) and we still suffer from the consternation because the establishment teaching is not practical either. We still have war and not humanity in our relationships with one another. The solution that Confucius proposed was the rectification of names (or the enforcement of li) This is similar to Paul’s Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The Authorities that exist have been established by God. Rome 13 1 Confucius says “Let the lord be lord, the minister be minister the father be father and the son be son (XIII, 11)” when one is not holding a position in the government, one is not entitled to participate in governmental administration (VIII, 14) My question then is does this justify the Holocaust? Or even the current middle eastern war, in fact all wars are the result of established governments. The solution Jesus proposed was that in the scheme of things the good would be separated from the bad and only the good would be given “life eternal”. If that is so then that separation between good and bad can not be really just down to moral cultivation (or upbringing). it would not seem to me to be the ideal solution that I could expect from an ideal God. It does seem that Jesus had the most reasonable idea.