Society

There are no perfect societies, all cultures have their bad and good parts. Part of learning about history, traditions and past actions means learning what does and does not work. History has shown that discrimination never works for the best, yet people continue to discriminate daily. Beliefs like Confucianism and the Bushido Code may not be perfect but they focus on the community rather than personal goals and greed. The history of the Bedouins and what the government has done to them, is a perfect example of how to make bad choices and be immoral. Throughout history we are reminded of what not to do and what to do, we just have to listen to it.

Discrimination

In any culture it is hard to change tradition. The caste system in India has been around for thousands of years and so has the discrimination that comes with it. Since birth children were taught where they belonged in the system and how to treat those of certain castes. Upper castes were taught to look down on the lower castes and to not interact with them more than necessary. These lessons could even be considered indoctrination. This indoctrination doesn’t just disappear because the discrimination was outlawed, instead people learn to do it in more subtle ways. The people who ‘like’ the discrimination will also continue to teach their children, with not just words but also their own actions.

All cultures have some sort of caste system. Europe has kings, queens, lords, barons, commoners, and peasants. Even the United States has upper, middle and lower classes. Originally, India’s caste system was based more on their titles and jobs but in more modern times caste and class systems are more about money. This is something common in both India’s caste system and Western/American societies. These systems are similar to a pyramid, a limited number are in a higher caste/class and there a lot of lower caste/class members. In these systems, the lower caste/class is constantly trying to move up to a higher caste/class while the upper caste/class attempts to hold onto their position of power. This can lead to the higher caste/class purposefully making it difficult for the lower caste/class to move up.

Bedouins

The Bedouins are known for their nomadic lifestyle, dating back hundreds of years. In more modern times, they are less nomadic but forced into reservations. Similar to the lives of Native Americans in the United States. This change occurred in the late 1940s when Israel was founded. Before this there were around 92 thousand members of the Bedouins. Afterwards their numbers were cut by more than half with only about 11 thousand remaining after the founding of Israel. Their numbers have grown a lot since then but they still are restricted in where they can live and are always under the threat of eviction by the government.

Eviction and displacement are one of their biggest problems in modern times. The government has been constantly implementing various policies designed to remove Bedouins from their land. By the late 1960s the government had passed laws that took land from the Bedouins for the purpose of agricultural use, nature reservations and military zones. This displaced many people, even more people were displaced in 1965 when the government flat out declared much of the Bedouins land as state owned property. Another problem they face is simply survival. Today most of the Bedouins in Israel live in the Negev desert, this means they struggle for the simplest of needs like water and shelter. The government itself refuses to acknowledge the Bedouins' land and deprives them of water, electricity and transportation. The easiest, yet hardest, way to solve most of the Bedouin’s issues is to simply acknowledge their existence and their rights. By acknowledging their rights, they would be able to own land in the eyes of the government which would lead to being able to have water, electricity and shelter.

The biggest Western/American comparison to the Bedouins are the Native American tribes. When Europeans took over North America and claimed it as their own, they started by either using the Native Americans or just killing them off. Shortly thereafter they started to claim Native American lands as their own. Taking any land they deemed necessary for them, regardless of if Native Americans were already living there. It didn’t take too long before Native Americans were displaced completely from their home lands and forced to move hundreds of miles away. Reservations were formed for them and even to this day they struggle to hold onto those lands and the minerals that are on it. The government struggles to acknowledge Native Americans religious practices and sacred land, even though one of the founding notions of the United States is religious freedom.

Confucianism

Confucianism focuses on five main virtues: humanness, righteousness, proper rite, knowledge, and integrity. Integrity means being honest and having strong moral principles. Crime and corruption are the opposite of integrity. Both things have lies, cheating, and barely any moral principles running through them. Righteousness also focuses on strong moral principles, meaning crime and corruption do not follow this virtue either. An increasing wealth gap and unemployment also may not follow moral principles. None of the above mentioned social ills follow the virtue of humanness. Humanness is exactly what it says, the act of being human. Being human means being moral, kind, and having integrity.

The revival of Confucianism and its virtues would mean the revival of a focus on strong moral principles, integrity and humanness. This means a better chance at making a better country. If people focus on having integrity and moral principles then corruption and crime rates will go down. Humanness and integrity lead to unemployment rates going down as well as the wealth gap becoming smaller. The principles of Confucianism can make a society change for the better. Both Chinese societies and Western societies could benefit from Confucian principles. Western societies like to say they follow these virtues but in reality they just do a better job at hiding them. For example both Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom have crime rates that are above the world average but people don’t think of these countries as having a high crime rate.

Bushido Code

Even though Samurai are no longer wandering around, their virtues and code are still embedded in Japanese society. Their virtues of loyalty, honor, humility, character, and self-control are staples in the way people think and their traditions. One of the main values in Japanese culture is respect for your elders. This means a sense of loyalty to elder family members as well as humility to remember there are people with more wisdom. Although respecting your elders is something most older generations have earned there are still cases where this respect could hinder society. A good amount of older people tend to be set in their ways, even if they don’t outwardly show it. This means that progressions in culture and society could be held back due to their mindset. A good example of this would be feuds between families or countries. Even if the feud began fifty years ago, the newer generations are expected to be loyal to their family and be a part of the feud. This version of respect for your elders leads to unnecessary and possibly uncalled for hate.

Loyalty is huge in the Bushido code, even to this day. There are benefits to having loyalty to one's family, friends, or employment. Loyalty can create a bubble of trust between people. When you know they will have your back, it creates a more relaxed and trusting atmosphere because you don’t have to worry about being betrayed over trivial things. On the other hand, misplaced loyalty can be a hindrance. If a person in a higher position in the business or even in the family is abusing their power or doing bad things than loyalty towards that person can be bad. That loyalty can lead to people turning a blind eye and letting the abuse of power or bad decisions continue because they don’t want to speak out of turn or don’t want the person to get in trouble due to loyalty.

Modern Western/American codes of honor do exist, but not in the same way as honor is represented in Japanese society. Codes of honor are in school policies, workplaces, the military and other public servant jobs. Schools and workplaces have similar codes of honor that revolve around being polite, not bullying, and being good representation for the company or school. The oaths for public servant jobs are a little different, they include loyalty, honor, and allegiance to the job and the country. These oaths are held to a different standard than the codes of honor in schools or workplaces. Should someone break this oath they could be put in jail or completely kicked out of the field, such as doctors being unable to practice medicine anymore or military members being given a dishonorable discharge. Even so, Western/American codes of honor do not hold as much power as they do in Japanese culture. Having a healthy sense of loyalty, honor, and humility would do any culture good. At the same time people still need to know when that loyalty or honor is becoming a hindrance. Bushido focuses on the people and the community rather than money and personal gain. This fact makes the principles of Bushido a benefit to any society as a lot of modern hindrances come from personal gain or money.

At the end of the day, good morals, integrity, honesty, loyalty and honor are all a part of creating a better world. Discrimination will always be the pitfall of society and the destruction of empires. Noone likes to be treated as second class citizens or as less than a human being. Good morals and integrity lead to better decision making for the community. Honesty, loyalty and honor mean better interactions between people and an understanding of others that makes the world a happier place. The biggest thing to remember is that making choices for the community as a whole rather than for personal gain is how the world becomes an utopia.

Citations

Bedouin. Minority Rights Group. (2021, February 6). https://minorityrights.org/minorities/bedouin /.

Crime rate by Country 2021. Crime rate by country 2021. (n.d.). https://worldpopulationreview.c om/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country.