Chinese Philosophy and today's society

First welcome KTG.

You have raised a good question.
But........seems i am unable to get over it

re
Hi, thanks for the welcome

Welcome! We're not generally in the habit of doing homework for people, but I'll post a link for you to read, and you can draw your own conclusions :
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHPHIL/LEGALISM.HTM

Thanks for the welcome and all, but don't be so quick as to assume that I am some slacker who wants everyone else to do my homework. I am perfectly capable of doing it myself. This is just a question that my history teacher gave me quite a few weeks ago. I just wanted to see what other people think of it. As proof here's my response to this question:

The mindset of Taoism is one that has slowly pervaded America's culture since about the early ?'70s. The hippies and teenagers of the ?'70s believed that whatever made you happy was what you should do. Government and social structure were an unnecessary evil and the oppressors of the people; peace and love were all the government that one needed, "…all you need is love, love, love is all you need." This of course was an unstable belief system and eventually led to chaos, but even when people started to acknowledge the need for government, the popular belief was, "If it feels good, do it!"

Today, this belief is a little more guarded by morals that have been renewed from many years ago, but the same mindset is still there. We just don't talk about it as openly. When young teenagers are taught about sex, they aren't taught that they should wait, instead they are only told to make sure that they're adequately protected. This leads 13 year olds to believe that it's perfectly fine for them to have sex if it's what they want to do. "It's your thing…do what you wanna do!"

Hey! I was just checking it out. With 25 000 members, we do get a lot of people asking to help with homework.

I'm not sure your understanding of Taoism is entirely correct. It's not so much a philosophy of "do what you want" as it is a philosophy of "accept what exists on it's own merits."

I will paraphrase a parable from Chuang Tzu, second only to Lao Tzu as a philosopher of Taoist thought. The story involves a Confucist and a Taoist both looking at a a gnarled tree. The Confucist comments that because the tree is so knotty, it has no practical purpose, as there is no way to chop it into lumber. He dismisses the tree as useless, as he believes that it's lack of practicality means it has no use to society.

The Taoist lies down underneath the tree and says "It's a hot day, and this tree provides good shade from the sun."

So, in essence, Taoism isn't really an immoral 'hippie' philosophy of 'do what makes you feel good.' It is simply a different perspective. I'm pretty sure that modern Taoists would not encourage their children to have sex at 13.

Given your response, I still maintain that you are essentially a legalist, and that is the philosophy that truly represents American culture today. Your own thesis actually proves this. In other words, you answered your own question. Nice work.

Anyway, I do hope this discussion continues.

in need of a reference
hello all I'm a new member and a college student doing a paper on if taoism would be practical or impractical in today's society and I was wondering if anyone knew of a website where i would be able to find some stats or quotes or historical events that i could use to help my thesis if so please reply, it would be much appreciated. thank you