Power

(Source)

I'm entering this weird "I must know everything about the Supreme Court" phase.  I know, we've all been through that.

When the Constitution first established it's three branches of government, the legislative branch was a given.  All the states wanted some control of their respective jurisdictions.  And the executive was easy because who wouldn't want the awesome quarter-back sized George Washington to lead?

The judicial branch was a shambles.  At the very beginning, the appropriations to power were still being debated.  It's no wonder the first supreme court had a convicts, drunks, and senile men.  But as time progressed, the judicial branch uses the premise that all men are created equal to rationalize how power is distributed.

Fast forward in history and I'm listening to the supreme court hearing on same sex marriage.  It's the first time I've listened to to supreme court hearing, and it struck me we how oddly casual it felt.  Granted their choice of wording and arguments are carefully crafted, but the justices and lawyers are laughing at certain point of their argument.

When I think about the premise of power in China, the concept of "天命", or Heaven's Mandate, vested power onto the Emperor.  Here's how a discussion of administering power might look like.

During 3:00- 5:00 of the clip gives you a few reconstructed views of the palace.  In 664 AD on the first day of the lunar calendar, a huge celebration was thrown for the first day the Tang Royalty would move into the palace.  This monstrosity makes the Forbidden City look like an outhouse.

At 14:00 to 16:00, the clip talks about the formal etiquette of court official to the emperor.  The long sticks they're holding are requests from the emperor.  Ivory for the highest officials, and bamboo for the lower.   Speaking out of turn, standing on the wrong position, or even holding the requests crookedly would penalize one month's salary!

But if we strip the pomp and circumstance, this dialogue on the Analects greatly expresses China's view on where power originates.

1. The Duke of Sheh informed Confucius, saying, "Among us here there are those who may be styled upright in their conduct. If their father have stolen a sheep, they will bear witness to the fact."

2. Confucius said, "Among us, in our part of the country, those who are upright are different from this. The father conceals the misconduct of the son, and the son conceals the misconduct of the father. Uprightness is to be found in this."

Legge XIII.18.

Confucius claims that one is upright when one protects the social order and recognizes the inherit power of the superior, regardless of the superior's conduct.   Social order comes at the cost of an unequal society.

It's a somewhat comforting to know that when we in America debate about the most pressing social issues of our time, we can allow our humanity to show. A reminder that power derives from our ability to rationalize the human condition at the present moment, not from some authoritarian narrative.

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