Tao te Ching: 65

In ancient times those who practiced Tao well
Did not seek to enlighten the people, but to make them ignorant.
People are difficlt to govern because they have too much knowledge.
Therefore he who rules the state through knowledge is a robber of the state;
He who rules a state not through knowledge is a blessing to the state.
One who knows these two things also (knows) the standard.
Always to know the standard is called profound and secret virtue.
Virtue becomes deep and far-reaching,
And with it all things return to their original natural state.
Then complete harmony will be reached.

We live in an infocracy these days. It has become our life's blood. More information, better information, and get it to me faster. 24 hour news channels, internet feeds, alerts to your cell phone, videos posted almost the moment they happen. Media is enormous and it does make people difficult to govern because it factionalizes and polarizes the population.

Is information bad? No. Is a glut of information bad? Potentially. Lao Tzu thought it was a bad practice. Too much talk destroys truth, after all.

So why would he think it was a bad practice? Unless it is a holiday, no one wants to cook when my family gets together for the weekend. Instead, everyone agrees that they would like to eat out. But then they cannot decide whether they should pick it up and we can eat at the table or if we ought to just go out to the restaurant. And then comes the debate about where to go. But the debat is never a debate of strong opinions; rather, they have so many choices that none particularly appeal. The solution to this problem (and take note of it if you have the same problem with loved ones) is to sharply curtail the options and make them pick from those. Mexican or Chinese? Ok, Mexican food it is.

The same is true for two party governments versus coalition governments from what I can tell. One might align with this block or that block in a coalition government, and you could be torn between two choices if one appeals to your job and the other appeals to your ethnicity. And then you have a predominantly two party government such as in the United Satates, and the parties are heavily polarized.

In all cases, decision making, progress, and happiness are curtailed by the wealth of choices. Reducing the number of choices increases the response to the remaining options. That isn't always desirable, by the way.

Instead, Lao Tzu advocates following the middle road, Tao, and keeping to the profound and secret virtue (hsüan-te) of ruling without mastering.