Confucian Cultures of Authority

Introduction:Confucian Cultures of Authority

Introduction: Confucian Cultures of Authority Peter D. Hershock and Roger T. Ames It has often been said that change is the only constant. So often, in fact, has the claim been made recently that it has taken on the softly tarnished patina of a cliché. Yet, there is perhaps nothing so strikingly characteristic of the present postmodern, postindustrial, and (according to some) even posthistorical era than its refusal to assume any fixed form or identity. The pace and scale of change taking place in virtually all sectors of all societies is arguably, if not obviously, without precedent. Equally unprecedented is the unpredictability of the directions in which change is taking place. For good reason, the language of paradigm shifts—once reserved for rare, epochal events—has also become a commonplace. Under such circumstances of ironically sustained inconstancy, the foundational values and strategies by means of which any given society negotiates the complementary needs for both continuity and change are inevitably brought under critical scrutiny. When, as is presently the case, the conditions giving rise to deep, rapid, and multidimensional change are overwhelmingly global in nature, it is likewise inevitable not only that a society’s foundational values and strategies are called into question , but its critical tool chest as well. The nature of authority itself—the capacity and right to author and to authorize—is opened to sweeping, categorical contest. This has become a staple of commentators on the political, economic , social, and cultural effects of a globalizing process that is evidently far from smooth and trouble-free. Contemporary patterns of globalization place considerable stress on already existing local, national, and regional communities even as it has challenged them to enter into new kinds of relationship. To take but a single example, the disparate benefits reaped by nations of the “North” and those of the “South” have made it clear that in spite of the rhetoric of “free” trade, globalization has vii viii Peter D. Hershock and Roger T. Ames not been egalitarian in effect. The result has been a complex pattern of cultural and national polarizations that have led some to speak—with varying degrees of perspicuity—of an oncoming “clash of civilizations” (Huntington: 1998), of tensions between globalism and tribalism (Barber: 1996), and of epochal shifts in authoritative capital (Friedman: 1999). What is clear is that by placing conflicting systems of values into increasingly dense proximity, the process of globalization has precipitated widespread crises of identity, the intense foregrounding of ethnic and religious differences, and has significantly raised the volume of communal dissonance. With the rapid spread of telecommunications technologies, this transition has become increasingly self-reflective. To a perhaps unique degree, authority can no longer be taken for granted, and along with this “fact” of the present era have come powerful incentives for assessing prevalent cultural axioms and for improvising or evolving new forms of community. This has, in turn, placed new and very considerable demands on educators —particularly those responsible for crafting and delivering the undergraduate core curriculum that establishes a shared generational ground for responsibly taking up active and critically aware roles in working through the local and global challenges of deep and unpredictable social, economic, political, and cultural change. The present volume emerged out of an effort to address the needs of educators faced with these demands and with the corollary challenge of furthering commitments to global literacy through infusing Asian content into the undergraduate curriculum. With funding from the NationalEndowmentfortheHumanities,theAsianStudiesDevelopment Program—a joint project of the East-West Center and the University of Hawai`i—held a two-year series of workshops and a culminating on-line conference on Cultures of Authority in Asian Practice: A Seminar Series for Undergraduate Educators. The aim of this project was: to examine critically the values that have historically guided the negotiation of identity , both practical and ideal, in different Asian contexts; to consider how these values play into the conception and exercise of authority; to assess their contemporary relevance in a rapidly globalizing world; and to develop resources for using the theme of cultures of authority in infusing Asian content throughout the undergraduate humanities curriculum. Beginning with the premise that cultures are continuously improvised patterns of value and conduct, this two-year project explored, in pedagogically relevant detail, the ways in which Asian cultures of authority establish the conditions of communal continuity. In particular, the four workshops engaged in comparative examination of how different cultures of authority in East Asia, South...