Daoism in San Diego

Here is an article from SignOn San Diego about a Dragon pacifying ritual and academic conference at the University of San Diego.

When the dragon was complete, the priests began an elaborate ceremony replete with drama, dancing, music and even some martial arts. As about 200 people watched the colorful scene unfold in a courtyard at San Diego State University, the dragon was consecrated and blessings were sought.

The article gets a sound bite from Charles Taylor who wrote The Ethics of Authenticity. Since I didn't like the sound-bite, but did like his book, here is a sound-bite about his book by another great thinker, Richard Rorty.

London Review of Books : The great merit of Taylor's brief, non-technical, powerful book...is the vigor with which he restates the point which Hegel (and later Dewey) urged against Rousseau and Kant: that we are only individuals in so far as we are social...Being authentic, being faithful to ourselves, is being faithful to something which was produced in collaboration with a lot of other people...The core of Taylor's argument is a vigorous and entirely successful criticism of two intertwined bad ideas: that you are wonderful just because you are you, and that 'respect for difference' requires you to respect every human being, and every human culture--no matter how vicious or stupid.
--Richard Rorty