Daodejing, Verse 61

Daodejing - Other Voices

In “Thoughts from the Tao-te Ching,” Lao-Tzu describes the ideal manner in which a ruler should govern his country in accordance with the Tao, or the proper and natural “Way” of life. Lao-Tzu emphasizes that a nation’s government should have minimal involvement in the lives of its people, because virtues will come to people naturally when they abandon their efforts to formally seek these values as well as their desires. He also advises that a ruler be tolerant and humble by caring for the people’s needs and focusing on his home rather than interfering with other countries. Finally, the Tao-te Ching conveys the idea that the ruler should avoid war.

Lao-Tzu’s concept of minimal government is reasonable to an extent. His statement in verse 17 -- “If you don’t trust the people,/ you make them untrustworthy” -- exemplifies the labeling theory. When people are labeled as deviant by society following their primary offense, they become more likely to conform to this role and commit secondary acts of deviance. This occurs because options for a more virtuous life are taken from them. For example, people with one criminal infraction on their record are required to include that in a résumé and thus it becomes more difficult for them to procure legitimate employment. The label evolves into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The individual who is labeled adopts the behaviors that coincide with that label, thus making the label true whether or not it was accurately applied in the first place. In government, if a ruler constantly suspects a rebellion is brewing, he may remove his subjects’ right to peacefully petition the government. His actions indirectly label the people as disloyal and unruly. Without the option of legitimate means to express their concerns, the people will be more likely to subsequently riot or rebel even though they may have been content before. Therefore, when a Master does not trust his people and implicitly labels them as untrustworthy, he or she leads the people to actually become untrustworthy.

Conversely, Lao-Tzu’s proclamations that people will naturally come into the positive aspects of life, such as happiness and wisdom, if they stop striving for their desires are impractical. This is a wishful thinking fallacy. People cannot be this passive in their approach to life; they need desires to motivate them to actively pursue virtues. Two types of motivation described in psychology are intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are intangible and generally provide a sense of satisfaction in simply accomplishing a task, while extrinsic rewards provide external validation through materials or other people.

Lao-Tzu mainly emphasizes losing extrinsic desires, such as for material possessions, power, and people’s approval. However, he also occasionally advocates abandoning intrinsic desires for self-improvement as well, such as in this statement: “when the body’s intelligence declines,/ cleverness and knowledge step forth.” This quote suggests that if people abandon their desire to become more knowledgeable and stop striving to learn and understand, then they will naturally become clever. Abandoning all desires and personal attempts to improve while simply relying on fate would never work. People would better realize the virtues of life if they abandoned their extrinsic desires, but kept their intrinsic desires as a source of motivation.

Finally, Lao-Tzu’s writing is still extremely relevant to today’s society. In verse 61 he wrote that in accordance with the Tao, “a nation nourishes its own people/ and doesn’t meddle in the affairs of others.” Currently, a major criticism of the United States is that the government excessively intervenes in other countries’ problems when it should be more concerned with America’s own troubles.

This became especially apparent after Hurricane Katrina. With 40 percent of Mississipi’s National Guard in Iraq along with 3,000 members of Louisiana’s National Guard in Baghdad, some were concerned about the number of troops available for aid in the hurricane relief effort. Even if the troops were sufficient, they were lacking much of the important emergency equipment and high water vehicles designed for this type of natural disaster because they were in Iraq. (The links in the text above are to articles with additional information.) Lao-Tzu would have advised that the United States never become involved in foreign nations’ issues in the first place to ensure the well-being of its own people and avoid situations like this.

Lao-Tzu’s Tao-te Ching provides a fascinating perspective on the best method of governing. He makes some valuable points about minimal government involvement, tolerance, and avoiding war. Although his ideas date back more than 2500 years, they remain applicable to the present, including U.S. foreign policy.
~ from Blog of Ideas, author Kristin, original post date: 1/22/06 ~

This post is part of a series. For an introduction, go here.