Sunday, February 13, 2011

Tao te Ching: 58

When the government is non-discriminative and dull,
The people are contented and generous.
When the government is searching and discriminative,
The people are disappointed and contentious.
Calamity is that which upon happiness depends;
Happiness is that in which calamity is latent.
Who knows when the limit will be reached?
There is no correctness? (used to govern the world)
Then the correct becomes the perverse
And the good will again become evil.
The people have been deluded for a long time.
Therefore the sage is as pointed as a square but does not pierce.
He is as acute as a knife but does not cut.
He is as straight as an unbent line but does not extend.
He is as bright as light but does not dazzle.

Which would make you feel better? Let's say that your office has a troubled person in it. Someone who is disruptive, abrasive, and doesn't do their work. It's starting to become a problem. Now, your managers have to act. They need to change this person's behavior. They try and they fail, so they find a way to get rid of him.

So far, so good. Now, if they keep operating in this high security, questioning and doubting fashion afterward, do you feel better? It was necessary to solve the problem of the troublemaker. But now that everyone else is fine, the behavior seems scary and invasive and that doesn't help anyone.

That's sort of what Lao Tzu is saying with the beginning, though honestly, the true Taoistic way to handle it would be to continue to do nothing and manage that person as best you can until it's time to renew their contract. Then exercise wu-wei by simply not doing that

Also, reversion makes an appearance here once again. I like the question about correctness. Having an ideology with a fixed good and bad simply means that those who disagree with your ideology have an easy list of things that they can, in turn, label bad. Look at the Democrats and the Republicans in US politics. Perfect example.

Don't rule with ideology. Rule with hsüan-te.

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