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If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:
     I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
     I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
     I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
     I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.

Tao Te Ching by Lao-tsu, trans. by Stephen Mitchell

These ideas strike a note, are compelling me. I agree, in general, from the smallest creature, an amoeba for example, to our planetary system there an an organizational pattern. Systems reach equilibrium, find a synchronous way of arrangement. This appears to be built in, a feature of internal relationships, as well as the boundary relationship(s) with external objects, forces, and with time. But wait, perhaps the boundary, the division between internal and external is a linguistic convenience. A feature necessary to minds, if I am to communicate with you, mind to mind, and even with myself. In the Taoist view the principle non-interference, of wushi is engagement by being non-interfering.

Well and good. I am an American however, and in the first quarter of the 21st century American society has been molded by large scale, persistent interference. Programs are deeply rooted, as if our entire society is composed of layered dependencies. The nagging conundrum comes down to “what now?” What if any measures can be taken, given that a society, country or community is some distance down the road of state-interference? Social Security is an obvious example. What could an alternative be?

Perhaps more to the root philosophy of government, what manner of non-interference would be functional to stitch together communities of varied traditions, separated also by distance, by dramatically different natural surroundings? Compare living in Yuma Arizona, with living in St. Charles, Illinois. Difference is difference. Yet by hook or crook this composite of Taoist ideas bears consideration, if a future is to be fabricated that is habitable for us.

I think that capitalism as we know it is overripe, meriting major revision. A humane society seems impossible when wealth is celebrated as a “summum bonum,” the highest good.

Also, the ancient sky-god religions merit labeling as “myth” on par with modern secular myths. A myth shapes life-ways, acceptable behavior, etc.. Handed-down stories shape homo sapiens mammals in subtle ways, but none is endorsed from “on high”, privileged.

And a concluding speculation: imagine a society that aims to make well-being as common as grass abiding a general condition of “armed to the teeth!”

Enough said for today.