The Moral Education: How to Face Strangers

Chinese society is currently in the midst of transitioning from an acquaintance-based society to a society of strangers, with market economy, urbanization, globalization, and the widespread use of the Internet driving the arrival of a society of strangers. During the transition period, a mixture of old and new moral systems coexist, leading to a double moral dilemma in modern society, characterized by the privatization of public life, moral indifference, trust crisis, and the loss of publicness. Modern society is a society composed of strangers, where we must learn to live with them, eliminate the moral crisis, establish new moral relationships among strangers, and build a civilized society with a human touch. Moral education should guide people to treat strangers with moral attitudes, change the ignorance and rejection of strangers, respect strangers as others, establish contractual trust relationships with strangers, enhance trust-based interactions with strangers with an open self, realize symbiosis and co-benefits with strangers, and thus live together in solidarity and cooperation with strangers. To this end, education on the legal system, integrity, and symbiosis must be strengthened, and a new kind of egoism and altruism needs to be established.