The ancient establishment of rulers was not for the service of their desires; and when sages lived in lowly positions it was not for the purpose of taking things easy.If we replace the words ruler and rulership with government, then this passage can speak to us today.
Rulership was set up because the strong oppressed the weak, the many did violence to the few, the cunning fooled the simple, the bold attacked the timid, people kept knowledge to themselves and did not teach, people accumulated wealth and did not share it. So the institution of rulership was set up to equalize and unify them.
~ a passage from The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
It has been suggested by many that, if the ancient Taoist sages walked the earth today in the US, they would align themselves with the Libertarian Party. The Libertarians -- like the Tea Party -- favor limited government and believe the venerable market will even things out for the vast majority.
If we lived in a perfect world, I might be a Libertarian. We don't live in that kind of world, though, and that's why I am not a Libertarian. As the Chinese Masters noted, government exists to serve and protect the vast majority from the rich and powerful.
Since the rich are getting richer and the powerful are becoming ever more powerful, this is not the time to shrink government. In fact, we should be expanding government because more and more of the 99 percent need service and protection from the oligarchs.
To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.
But the problem is government itself is USED to increase the power and wealthy of the 1%. Government is exacerbating the very problem you note.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point and one I certainly wouldn't disagree with. So, I suppose the nut turns on what KIND of government we're talking about. More of the kind of government we face now renders about the same effect of little government. What we need is more government in the sense of what the Chinese Masters referred to.
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