From the Readers

Where has self-reflection gone?

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-01 07:52

Comment on "We are on the wrong path of money worship" (China Daily website, June 24)

It's all top-down. Where macro-policy is all about GDP and economic growth, and about officials becoming filthy rich because of the system (for doing little more than being mediators in deals), and where receiving "gifts" is just how things are done, then there is inevitably a trickle-down effect on the public.

Macro-policy is the policy of "scientific development", which implies that material assets, infrastructure and technology are what "development" is all about.

The education system plays a big part too: face and prestige, fighting for "position", cramming for tests define the system.

Where is the emphasis on - indeed the valuing of - self-reflection and inner peace? The answer is that it is nowhere - it has gone away.

Marcus, on China Daily website

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(China Daily 07/01/2010 page9)