It would likely be very helpful for westerners to study Confucianism, but many western thinkers decry the eastern fusion of intuition and logic. To the western mind, logic is good, but intuition is bad. To my observation, logic being given primacy has created some down right deranged policies and beliefs.

It’s too bad the Greeks made this separation between east and west that still exists today. It does originate in the Greek philosophical schools and was perpetuated. Descartes was and is a very popular binary thinker, and Nietzche didn’t help the matter. Materialistic thinking has done us serious harm. It seems the obvious cause of much of our woes today. Can anyone recall Chernobyl? He tried to give moral weight to logical thought and didn’t really succeed. At least Nietzsche didn’t bother with that.

Descartes hurt us with his theory on the existence of soul and body being separate, and most of the older schools of thought don’t support that. Even modern scientific research doesn’t support that. It seems to have had its origin in the Manichean heresy and to a degree also in Gnostic thought. Their whole “flesh is bad” thinking that is still very popular today, thus we still make things like sexual desire profane. Of self interest no matter how enlightened, if we aren’t subscribing to popular thought not only are we out of touch, but we are actually seen as immoral. You’re even evil if you trust your own instincts and experience.

The crisis of psychological critical mass… I like crisis. The Chinese word for crisis is the same word for opportunity. Like the phoenix it allows rebirth. Is it not time we had another renaissance? Though please, let’s not have another “age of reason”.

In most cases, war is just idiocy. Even Sun-Tzu said that, but those who fight are compelled to obey their local idiots. Feudalism had an advantage and America was almost a feudal government. The head of state wasn’t allowed to stay back and take no risks. They had no room to exploit anything. Any agenda he had, had a risk for him and in some cases she (Queen Elizabeth). If they wanted to cry war, the head of state had to risk death. I don’t think modern leaders would be so eager if they had to face the consequences themselves.

Another truism about war. There is no winner. It is just the side who lost the least. This is why Sun-Tzu, though he said war was foolish, said it needed to be studied anyway. Because there was always the risk that someone with blind ambition would take it up lightly. As the American leader in this day and age did.

I find a simple definition of evil fascinating. All evil stems from treating people like objects. Even modern philosophers like Covey still say that.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~