Family as the Cornerstone of Society

Society is an organism with families as its cells. Let these building-blocks be healthy, and society will be healthy. On the other hand, when families break down, society cannot but be in turmoil. The prevalence of family breakdown in our time is a worrying trend, boding no good for a nation’s future.

Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to construe “family values” as family-centered. The attitude that “my home is my castle” would only be another form of selfishness. The lessons learned in the family “school of love” (See Chapter 19: The Basic Form of Life) are meant to be applied at every level of social organization. Thus, Confucian ethics regards the norm of filial piety as the basis for the ethic of public service: serving parents at home is training to serve the nation. Likewise, the ways of love for siblings, parents, and children are to be extended to caring for one’s neighbors who are our peers, our parents’ age, and our children’s age. In this way, loving relationships in the individual family extend to encompass the universal family of humankind.