from Verse One Hundred Seventy-FourWhen the rulers are wise, they guide and judge fairly; wise and good people are in office, skilled and capable people are at work. Wealth is distributed downward, and all the people are aware of their blessings. When they degenerate, cliques and factions each promote their cronies, discarding public interest for private.~ Wen-tzu: Understanding the Mysteries ~
Here in America, the two major political parties -- the Democrats and Republicans -- spend most of their time casting aspersions at each other as well as trying to convince the voting public that the OTHER party is to blame for the mess we find ourselves in. However, as a popular saying goes: It takes two to tango. Both parties often are guilty of the same shenanigans!
A grand example of these shenanigans is through a process called gerrymandering. As the population changes each decade with the census, representative districts are redrawn to better reflect the shifts in population. Whichever party holds the majority in Congress tries to pull out all the stops to insure said lines are drawn so that their candidates benefit the most.
It's quite interesting to watch this spectacle. The minority party jumps around hooting and hollering. They complain far and wide that the game is rigged and that our democratic way of life will be forever tarnished. They decry the backroom deals and underhanded manipulation. They swear that, if they were in the majority, they would not take such unfair advantage of the situation.
Of course, when the minority party becomes the majority party, all bets are off and they behave in the exact same manner they earlier decried!! Since the two parties go back and forth between the roles of majority and minority, each party continually tries to stick it to the other.
Both would do well to heed Lao Tzu's words, but I ain't gonna hold my breath.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
A grand example of these shenanigans is through a process called gerrymandering. As the population changes each decade with the census, representative districts are redrawn to better reflect the shifts in population. Whichever party holds the majority in Congress tries to pull out all the stops to insure said lines are drawn so that their candidates benefit the most.
It's quite interesting to watch this spectacle. The minority party jumps around hooting and hollering. They complain far and wide that the game is rigged and that our democratic way of life will be forever tarnished. They decry the backroom deals and underhanded manipulation. They swear that, if they were in the majority, they would not take such unfair advantage of the situation.
Of course, when the minority party becomes the majority party, all bets are off and they behave in the exact same manner they earlier decried!! Since the two parties go back and forth between the roles of majority and minority, each party continually tries to stick it to the other.
Both would do well to heed Lao Tzu's words, but I ain't gonna hold my breath.
This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.
Dear Rambling Taoist,
ReplyDeleteI've read a great deal of your ramblings since having discovered them on Sunday. I must say, your work here could be described as a sort of positive Americanization of the Taoist philosophies, a postmodern translation for the layman, and poisonally speaking, I profoundly enjoy it. This sounds pejorative, I realize, but I don't intend it to. The public needs this sort of discourse, needs at least the dissemination of knowledges neglected by mainstream media sources, knowledge such as that of Tao.
To see how many practitioners of Tao appreciate Alan Watts and how many disparage him also interests me. I feel he largely based his career on writing American translations of Eastern mysticism, too, and certainly, he has been thoroughly castigated for this, but again I find myself favoring this sort of rudimentary tutelage.
Have you explored Ken Wilber? He's perhaps a rung or two towards collegiate reading from Watts, but his concepts elucidate Tao to the Western mind very well -- or at least I think so -- and I recommend his book of essential essays as excellent summer reading. I find much Taoism in R. Buckminster Fuller, too, but we're definitely far from the source by the time we get to him.
Anyhow, the upshoot of all this is that I like it here. You're doing sound, solid work, and it's very pleasurable and helpful reading. I think about so much useful philosophy while researching for my own work at "In a Real World..." that I practice the good stuff far too infrequently. Your site, here, provides a healthy shot in the arm when one should need it.
I should indeed let my brain do more thinking for me. I could use a permanent break from the incessant, unnecessary spinning of ancillary wheels in my mind.
Yours Truly,
-BothEyesShut
I love Watts myself!! He makes me ponder like no other.
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with Wilbur, but will check to see if anything is available from the local library.