The Cultural Fault and Moral Indifference in China

JIAO+Song-Yang

【Abstract】With the rapid development of society， the problem of moral indifference is becoming more and more serious， the fault of culture is an important factor that leads to this phenomenon.

【Key words】Cultural fault；Moral Indifference

The history of culture is generally divided into four periods including generation，growth，stability，and decline. And there exist various collisions between different cultures，the gentle ones are beneficial to both cultures. But the fierce ones have a great harm on both sides， especially the intense collisions will lead to a cultural fault.

The original meaning of culture is “to inculcate people by culture”， indicating the cultivation of human temperament and that of moral character. Culture， as a result of the need for long-term formation， is a certain kind of national， social and historical accumulation. When the culture of the people has met with dislocations， people will lose the standard of distinguishing the right from wrong. Especially when it comes to the field of morality that lacks clear rules and legal sanction， the increasing moral indifference phenomenon is becoming more and more obvious than ever before.

The cultural fault in this paper refers to the discontinuous development of ideology and culture caused by the fact that China is currently in the period of social transformation， indicating that the whole country is faced with the influences of the socialist market economy， the coexistence of multiculturalism， the collision of ancient and modern Chinese culture， the collision of Chinese and Western culture and so on. During this period， the traditional moral system was almost disintegrated， and the new moral system was immature. At the same time， the remnants of traditional culture still had a negative impact on our daily lives. That is， the essence of traditional culture is lost， but the dross rises. People are eager to throw away the traditional culture and want to copy the foreign advanced culture system. Nevertheless， the pure Western culture cannot fully fit the status quo of our society. Under this circumstance， our society has lost its inheritance and adherence to traditional values， therefore fallen into a chaotic and disorderly state. In the conflict of Chinese and Western cultures， the mainstream values have been seriously affected， resulting in moral indifference， distortion， and decay， a serious lack of awareness of the moral bottom line. It was the dominance of self-interest-oriented values that progressively led to various social problems.

The main cause of the cultural fault is the unscientific inheritance of traditional culture， which lacks reasonable criticism and selective inheritance. Above all， the root of culture itself is not broken， but the inheritance of traditional culture of our people is not in place. In other words， the problem lies in "human" fault rather than our culture.endprint