Harmonize, but Do Not Merely Conform

answered by Analects of Confucius, Zi Lu

기원전 5세기(공자 언행록)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Our Twisted Hero (1992)

dir. Park Jong-won · South Korea

One person's unjust power is completed by the silence and compliance of the many who fear him. Where resisting is exhausting and going along is easy, if each small compliance feeds a tyrant, where must we stop and say, 'This is not right'?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Because it is easy, do I call being 'swept along' with injustice 'getting along,' and comply?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

和而不同

君子和而不同小人同而不和

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

The noble harmonize without merely conforming; the petty conform without truly harmonizing.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius divided harmony from mere conformity.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius divided harmony from mere conformity. True harmony keeps right and wrong while living together; conformity erases right and wrong to follow the tide. Unjust power is completed by a many who confuse the two. Each small compliance feeds a tyrant. Before the comfortable tide, I choose to discern whether what I do is harmony or being swept along, and not to lose the place where I stop and say, 'This is not right.'

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you followed the tide in a choice today, discern whether you followed because it was right or because it was easy.

📖 Classic Source: Analects of Confucius, Zi Lu. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.