a touching story about a son's filial piety to his mother, in spite of her repeated and unreasonable demands; a perfect illustration of the brand of unquestioning submission to one's parents that is emphasised so heavily in Confucianism as well as general chinese tradition. however, this sort of blindly giving in to them is being criticised in newspaper forums and, ironically, by my own mother as well (she was the one who first brought my attention to this issue). they argue that although filial piety is important, it should not entail giving in to our parents' every whim and fancy, especially the unreasonable and outlandish ones. according to them, parents should not be able to wield total power and command over their children as that is too much control to have over anyone, not even your own flesh and blood. once a golden rule of the chinese, the Confucian take on filial piety (that is, absolute and unquestioning) is now being attacked, and without (too many) gasps of shock from others over questioning a supposedly absolute mandate.
well, my mom's comment got me thinking. is this a sign of our eroding and crumbling moral values, just like how the hecklers of the previous generation have been criticising modern youths since it was established, or is it simply a case of "new game, new rules"? is it society that is gradually slipping into amorality, or is it the moral code itself that needs to be updated in a modern world that is eons ahead of the world in which they were written? and if the world has changed such that rules like this need to be diluted, then is it a change for better or worse? suddenly i think of parallels in the increasing tolerance of sex and violence. of course, it would seem ludicrous to a modern person not to be able to wear swimming trunks or a swimsuit at the beach, but some of the scrap cloths that pass as clothes today are honestly quite disturbing to say the least. so many questions, so little answers; sometimes i wish would just stop thinking about these dead-end questions.
so anyway, i have just discovered an awesome musical group called E.S. Posthumus. i'm not really sure what this genre of music is called; i think it's supposed to be orchestral music, but i prefer to call it epic music. and believe me, it really is epic. it's something you really need to hear to understand, so here's a song called Ebla:
Dawn has slowly burned away, and Dusk emerges from day
It's shadow grows still bigger, it's breath caresses my back
Be it fear or resignation, I close my eyes and pray
That the killing strike of the midnight beast will be a painless attack
