Question

[caine667]

To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right

Comments

[lostcitadel]

Hmmm......humans brought disorder, or chaos to the earth by way of their thinking minds. We do things that are "out of step" with the rest of nature. This isn't to say what we do isn't entirely natural, as we are natural beings as well, just different versions.

So I'd say, if putting the world in order is our job, as many believe, its because we've created a world with which we aren't happy. But we each have different ideas of an ideal earth, so can it ever really truly be in order?

[caine667]

The counter-argument is that world was ENTIRELY in order before and during our existence. Our "thinking minds" arose from the natural order, and are therefore just as confined by its laws. The human thinking mind was in existence long before the development of any concept of our duty of "putting the world in order."
Mounting evidence indicates that the things we are doing are specifically destroying the systems of order which "nature" (a culturally loaded term if ever there was one) initially set in place. We are, in practice, putting the world OUT of order, despite the cultural dialect of working against disorder we've adopted.
Also, I don't see what our being "happy" has to do with it, specifically.

[lostcitadel]

Wow....blast from the past.

"Happy" has everything to do with the quote by Confucius, and any other statement saying that the world/people/environment/etc needs fixing.

The whole reason for someone to talk about putting the world in order is because it is out of order with what their ideal image of the world is....aka happy place.

Ok to put it this way: you are right, the world was in order before our existence, and it is still in order. But the human desire to change their surroundings to fit what makes them most happy is the cause for the need to "put the world in order". I'm sure animals, if they could communicate with humans, would say similar things. A snow leapord would love to put the world in order by covering the earth in snow and have lots of fat animals to eat and sexy snow leapoardesses to mate with.

[caine667]

Happy and in order aren't necessarily related. I snow leapord dying of starvation in an area that cannot support it is entirely within the "order" of "nature," but necessarily makes the snow leapord "unhappy."

The point is that what makes us happy as a species is not inherently in keeping with the order of the universe.
Granted, any being would prefer that the order of the universe contribute to its happiness. However, ours is the only species containing groups which are willing or able to consciously flout the order of the universe in order to increase said group's specific "happiness."