Chapter 20
Society 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.
1. Healthy Families Make for a Strong Nation The Way lies at hand yet it is sought afar off; the thing lies in the easy yet it is sought in the difficult. If only everyone loved his parents and treated his elders with deference, the Empire would be at peace. Mencius IV.A.11 (Confucianism)
sense of unity. Where there is no sense of unity, the women of the family become corrupt; and with the corruption of its women, society is plunged into chaos. Social chaos is hell for the family and for those who have destroyed the family as well. Bhagavad-Gita 1.40-42 (Hinduism)
The natural family, stable and monogamous—as fashioned by God and sanctified by Christianity—in which different generations live together, helping each other to acquire greater wisdom and to harmonize personal rights with other social needs, is the basis of society. Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio (Christianity)
When a family declines, ancient traditions are destroyed. With them are lost the spiritual foundations for life, and the family loses its
As history testifies, the prosperity of the State and the temporal happiness of its citizens cannot remain safe and sound where the foundation on which they are established, which is the moral order, is weakened and where the very fountainhead from which the State draws its life, namely, wedlock and family, is obstructed by the vices of its citizens. Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubi (Christianity)
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