postal scrotum: Gord on Rodney King and Confucianism

Gord writes re: my previous post:

Yeah, I hear you.

I think you're right about the crowds situation thing, and yeah, that they're kids doing military duty.

Agree about Rodney King and about the stupidity and counterproductivity of the aftermath. Also agree on not being sure about whether Cardenas didn't deserve a little smacking around, since I didn't see the context and so on. Though it does look like the partner was trying to restrain the cop who was beating on him, which suggests the behaviour was maybe out of line.

Am actually occasionally thinking, these days, about what a Confucian-based version of rule of law would be, but I can't see it really working, since it seems to me no matter what Confucian hierarchy gets in the way of critical response to the system, which seems to me to be what makes rule of law even potentially workable -- that while authority exists to carry out the law, that does not (theoretically, anyway) place anyone above rule of law. (Except crooked white cops in LA, I guess.)

Can Confucian society exist in a way when hierarchical strata are somehow, at least theoretically, open to criticism and repudiation from below? Some Koreans tell me it was like that, further back, before the Joseon Dynasty mucked up everything. Sometimes it smacks of Golden Age talk, and sometimes it sounds like maybe there was more freedom before the Yis took over.

Tangent: Am wearing your Dalma Daesa shirt, which I ordered from Cafepress, and enjoying it immensely these days. :)

Best,

Gord

I'm honored! Thanks for purchasing the shirt. Now if only I could get five million other people to do the same...

Other readers! After you're done buying my twisted Christmas cards, go visit Gord's site and read his shit post over at Marginal Eclexys. (That's what I'm calling Gord's funky sidebar blog, anyway.)

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