from Verse Twenty-TwoIf laws are set up and a system of rewards established, and yet this cannot influence customs or change morals, this means the embrace of the sincere heart is lacking...Therefore great rulers exercise spiritual influence, those next best make it impossible to do wrong. The lesser ones reward the good and punish the violent.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
At first blush, the last sentence of the passage above sounds cockeyed! Isn't rewarding the good and punishing the bad the right way to order our society? It would make even less sense if we did it the other way around!!
But, as Lao Tzu has pointed out in the Tao Te Ching, Hua Hu Ching and in this current book, reward and punishment leads to many problems, all having to do with our egos. When some people are rewarded, others will feel resentment and envy. The folks being rewarded may feel self-important and become pompous. On the other side of the ledger, when people are punished, they are apt to carry a grudge and may seek revenge. Others in the community may look down on them.
All of these various emotional responses cause problems of their own. So, it seems the medicine is as bad as the disease!
The method that Lao Tzu suggests is for the leaders to model the type of actions and behaviors that benefit the society as a whole. When the leaders exemplify sincerity, humility and virtue, most of the people will follow suit.
I'm certainly not going to advance the notion that EVERYBODY would jump on board, but I do think the majority would. If nothing else, it would be the grandest of experiments -- a nation in which the elected leaders governed in a transparent, just and virtuous manner.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
But, as Lao Tzu has pointed out in the Tao Te Ching, Hua Hu Ching and in this current book, reward and punishment leads to many problems, all having to do with our egos. When some people are rewarded, others will feel resentment and envy. The folks being rewarded may feel self-important and become pompous. On the other side of the ledger, when people are punished, they are apt to carry a grudge and may seek revenge. Others in the community may look down on them.
All of these various emotional responses cause problems of their own. So, it seems the medicine is as bad as the disease!
The method that Lao Tzu suggests is for the leaders to model the type of actions and behaviors that benefit the society as a whole. When the leaders exemplify sincerity, humility and virtue, most of the people will follow suit.
I'm certainly not going to advance the notion that EVERYBODY would jump on board, but I do think the majority would. If nothing else, it would be the grandest of experiments -- a nation in which the elected leaders governed in a transparent, just and virtuous manner.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
I have on certain days, and even once tried and failed to post about it, said that; It maybe that leaders know full well the wisdom of the TTC and deliberately work it to it's antithesis to form a corrupt society, have all the power up top, keep themselves in jobs and money - rather than have is all nice as the TTC intends.
ReplyDeletewhich brings us to the next problem; it takes one to elect one, and we haven't got many.
ReplyDeleteGoing through a painful exercise of these reward-punishment things as my office is in the midst of its mid-year evaluation/reviews demanded by management science, but mostly to justify who gets bonuses--in this case, management! Needless to say, management (who don't really DO anything) has documented every trivial "mistake" made by the employees for the past 9 months...with no view to the actual results and condition of things as they are now.
ReplyDeleteMy own "wu-wei" management style is unfortunately not an advantage. I've wanted to post about this on my own site, but probably not a good idea.
The cycle of management:
middle>meddle>muddle>puddle>paddle>piddle!
Tao,
ReplyDeleteMaybe now's the time for you to write that post! :)
DQ,
Excellent point!! I covered it in the post that follows this one and gave you some props for pointing it out.
Baroness,
You could post on this topic here. Heck, you could even do it under an assumed name. We don't want to get you in any trouble with the big bosses. ;)