The "idea of privilege" is the social foundation on which the rule of law must be strictly enforced

Another term for privileged thinking is called exceptions, that is, you have the right to do whatever you want and no one else can. The CCP's fight against corruption is, in the final analysis, anti-privilege. The root cause of corruption is the idea of privilege. But is it not only officials who have privileged thoughts? No. All kinds of indications show that the idea of privilege exists in everyone's brain and is deeply rooted, and correcting the idea of privilege and curbing privileged behavior is the main task that all social governance must face, and it is also the main task of the rule of law country and the rule of law society.

Why did Confucius say that "self-denial and retribution are benevolent"? For he knows that there is a restless devil in everyone's heart, and this is the idea of "privilege," that is, the right to transcend all rules. People who drive "four-wheeled wreckage" think that they can not be bound by traffic rules, so they not only dare to occupy the bicycle lane and boldly retrograde; people who drive cars think that they have the privilege of passing, so they dare to ignore the zebra crossing and grab the road with pedestrians; people who are tall and tall think that they have privileges, so they dare to dominate the subway and high-speed rail; individual people who have brains in the water think that they have privileges, so they dare to ignore epidemic prevention requirements, refuse to show "health codes" and beat epidemic prevention workers. And all these privileges are at the expense of harming public safety and public interests, harming others and selfishness, and harming public wealth and private interests. What would have been the result if the idea of privilege were to run rampant? The result must be chaos and disaster.

Therefore, Confucius believed that self-denial and retribution are benevolent. What does that mean? That is, to control one's own privileged thoughts and abide by the moral order of society is benevolence! He further said: "One day of self-denial, the whole world will be benevolent." For the sake of benevolence, but by others? In other words, as long as everyone can do self-denial and retribution one day, the whole world will be the world of benevolent rule." To practice benevolence, we must start from ourselves, starting from everyone. How to self-denial? "Don't look at what you are incivility, don't listen to what you're not polite, don't talk about it, don't do it." That is to say, those who do not conform to the moral order should not look; those who do not conform to the moral order should not listen, those who do not conform to the moral order should not speak, and those who do not conform to the moral order should not do it. Isn't this "four non-four noes" a concrete embodiment of restraining one's own privileged thinking and abiding by the moral order of society?

Confucius was an educator who devoted his life to indoctrination and to purifying people's hearts, so that everyone became a firm believer and conscious practitioner of "benevolence", so it was called "benevolent rule". However, successive generations of political practice have proved that benevolent rule based on "medical heart" cannot effectively correct the idea of privilege. Whoever hears Confucius's "self-denial and retribution for benevolence" thinks it is wrong. However, everyone does not want to start from themselves, on the contrary, they hope that everyone will "self-denial", but they can be "exceptions". Therefore, the so-called "benevolent government" has all ended in failure. Confucius traveled around the world, not only did not get appointed, but on the contrary, he was often besieged and humiliated, as evidenced by this.

In the final analysis, the solution to this problem depends on the rule of law. Therefore, since the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, the idea of the rule of law has begun to penetrate the hearts of the people and has become the main strategy of national governance. The core of the rule of law is to curb privileges and bring the "four non-four noes" into the track of the rule of law. The law shall protect and respect those who have achieved the "four non-four noes" and refrained from self-denial; those who violate the "four non-four noes" and indulge in self-denial and transgression of courtesy shall be punished and corrected by law.

From this we can conclude that the idea of privilege is the social basis for the strict implementation of the rule of law. As long as the idea of privilege exists for one day, the rule of law needs to be enforced for one day. Without the guarantee of the rule of law, Confucius's "self-denial and retribution" is empty talk.

However, in today's rule of law society, why do phenomena such as hegemony, hegemony, crossing the line, and transgression still abound? This shows that relying solely on the rule of law cannot completely eliminate the phenomenon of "privilege". Due to the existence of law enforcement costs, the contradiction between the limited ability of law enforcement and the infinity of illegal acts is difficult to eradicate, and there are always people who will take chances and take advantage of loopholes in the legal system.

Therefore, we must persist in grasping the rule of law with both hands, the rule of law with one hand, and the benevolent rule with the other, and we must have both the regulation of the law and the root cause of indoctrination. In this sense, Confucius's idea of "healing the heart and saving the world" still needs it.