Confucius and the 21st Century

Angelika Thorn

Zimmerman

LIT2110

11 November 2017

Confucius and the 21st Century

Confucius was a little-known philosopher to begin with as well as during his life time. However, once he died, his work became more popular and he ended up being a very well- known and popular philosopher. All of his main ideas are still relevant even to this day. Two of the many main ideas that are still relevant today are ritual and social roles.

One of the main ideas of Confucius that is still relevant today is his idea of ritual. His idea of ritual as stated in the book can be summed up into a few sentences. Confucius basically said that everything and anything that we do is a ritual whether it be how we greet each other or how we observe certain life events ( Puchner 2013). He also said that one who masters their rituals has become a junzi. Confucius' idea of ritual is relevant in today's world in a few ways. One way that his idea of ritual is relevant today is that whether we know it or not, everything we do is a ritual. The everyday schedule that we have with waking up at a certain time, going to school on certain days and times, as well as going to work and doing the same thing over and over especially if you're in the position where you open or close at the place you work at.  Confucius also stated that even though he did not reach the stage of junzi himself, that anyone can do it and should strive for it. This idea is relevant today because people saw the meaning of ritual the same way we do and everything was a ritual back then like how they greeted each other and how they celebrated major life events like birth, death, and special observances ( Puchner 2013).

 The second main idea of Confucius that is still relevant to this day is his idea of social roles. His idea of social roles as stated in the book basically talks about how everyone deserves and is to be treated equally with a mutual respect for one another. His idea of social roles also stated how there should be a level of respect between a child and his or her parent or parents (Puchner 2013). This idea is probably the most relevant in today's world. For example, people seem to be lacking the whole concept of respecting one another and we are having major conflicts especially with people of different races. Not many people understand nor see that we are all humans and that all humans deserved to be treated equally. In today's world especially recently there have been many reported problems with police brutality and the fact that since people think they are the police that they can just treat anyone and everyone how they think and that is obviously not the best idea sometimes. Now clearly this is relevant to Confucius' idea but not in a way that is portrayed as good, however there are a majority of people out there who already treat one another with mutual respect because they understand that we are all the same and deserve to be treated equally. Another part of Confucius' main idea of social roles is that there should be a mutual respect between a child and his or her parent.  This has kind of the same concept as what I previously stated. A lot of the respect issue has to do with the time of day we are in now. Back when technology wasn't as hugely widespread as it is now, families were communicating and there was hardly any lack of respect between a child and their parent. Today, on the other hand, there are kids who are ten years old with iPhones thinking the world owes them something and there is a huge lack of respect between the child and their parent. This is all because the parents are too busy with work to sit down and build a solid relationship with their kid where there are boundaries so there is no lack of respect. Now not all kids are like this because their parents are involved in their kids' lives and know who they are hanging out with and how they are doing in school. Confucius' idea of social roles is still highly relevant in the 21st century even though some people may not follow it, there are people who follow the idea that everyone is human and should therefore be treated as one.