4.16: The master said the gentleman understands rightness, whereas the petty person understands profit.
When I first heard this analect, I didn't think it through enough to agree with it. It took me a while, by rereading it to get the in-depth message. What Confucius said more than 2000 years ago applies to todays world more than you would imagine. People nowadays are separated into two categories, the ones that give and the ones that want more. In the analect, the ones that give are the gentleman and the petty people are the ones that want more. A person that wants to give, is going to be worried about others and what they need, doing whats right. The problem is that the other category of people don't need anything. They are usually the people that have the most but at the same moment, want the most.
The petty people are "addicted" to receiving and want more every day. When they have everything they need, they have no purpose but to want everything they cant or shouldn't want/need. I connected this analect to the movie "Ocean´s Eleven", where the thieves already have tons of money, but want to keep stealing. It is like a need to keep on getting money. If an opportunity like this presented itself to a gentleman, he would probably turn it down or use it for the greater good, like stealing to give to the poor, a kind of Robin Hood. But if the occasion presented itself to a petty person, he would simply see and opportunity to get more money than he needs.
Our world now a days is filled with these types of people. Sadly, there are more petty people than gentleman. If there was a balance, the world would be somewhat stable. The problem is that everyday a few people are getting richer while a lot of people are getting poorer. The world is unbalanced and we see more petty people everyday. There are still some gentleman out there, but the truth and justice is that it should be the other way around with more gentleman. To make the world a better place.
