Becoming A Prince
Make bushels and buckets
to measure
and by bushels and buckets
people will steal.
Make agreements and seals
and by agreements and seals
people will steal.
Make benevolence and righteousness
to inculcate what is right
and by benevolence and righteousness
people will be taught to steal.
How do I know this?
One steals a hook – he is put to death.
Another steals a state – he becomes a prince.
Zhuangzi by Zhuang Zhou trans. by Hyun Hochmann, Yang Guorong, Breaking Open Trunks
The more things change, the more things remain the same.
I am willing to entertain this maxim on a superficial level, that is, I am Ok that horses are not pulling wagons in the street to transport people and goods. “Transportation is the same but better,” is my usual interpretation of the paradox featured in the old saying…
However there’s something deeper, and more terrifying that is unmasked by this quotation from the Zhuangzi and the modern equivalent saying.
The working class immigrant, living peacably, and working for years, even raising a family – if apprehended is summarily exiled to an impoverished country that may incarcerate him or allow him to starve on the street. All because his papers are not in order. The one who is in charge of deportation policy by contrast, — is the man responsible for murdering over 80 in small boat strikes off the coast of Venezuela.
He lives in the White House.
