Friday, November 18, 2011

Huainanzi - Entry 21

Trey Smith

Governing a country is like weeding a garden; just get rid of the sprouts of harmful plants -- that's all.
~ a passage from
The Book of Leadership and Strategy by Thomas Cleary ~
The notion from this passage is not only good advice in regards to governing a country, it's also excellent advice for how each of us could better live our lives.

As any gardener knows, the best time to weed is BEFORE your garden gets overrun. If you wait until your flowers, vegetables and fruits are being choked by those vile invaders, you stand a good chance of digging up and/or injuring your prized plants in the form of unintended collateral damage.

To ward off this sorry state of affairs, you need to focus on doing a lot of weeding at the outset of the season. It is when we nip potential problems in the bud that we rob them of their potential to become major catastrophes.

To read the introduction to this ongoing series, go here.

6 comments:

  1. Though I like the sound of this line and know it to not be taken as extremely as the scenario below...

    Do you take this as far as say:

    Metaphorically: You'd support a system where you could, at soil level, find the elements which will grow to become weeds and remove even the possibility of the weed ever growing?

    Real World: You'd support a system where foetuses could be scanned for signs they will grow to become criminals and then aborted if so?

    Eeek!

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  2. We don't know what the "signs" are re criminality (or pedophilia, for another example) in young children, let alone a fetus. So, I don't view your query as a viable question.

    I do think I understand your point, though, and it can be a hard question to answer in certain circumstances.

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  3. Haha :D ok, foetus was an extreme example (for now in 2011 at least) but my point is do we move towards a system where we arrest before the crime is committed?

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  4. No, because it is next too impossible to predict intent.

    However, utilizing the issue of criminality, if we see individuals engaging in certain behaviors or living in an environment that often leads to a life of crime, society has a responsibility to try to ameliorate such situations.

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  5. I am sure there is lots of DNA work being done to look for criminal genes that could be modified. Creepy but true. We already can select for sex; why not select against (or correct) criminality.

    Just saying.

    Yesterday I was speaking to a professor of criminal justice who was telling me about a program her class came up with: "Hug a Thug." Rather than throw the guy in the can, you send him home and smother him with love. (Not that simple, but you get the drift.)

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  6. First of all I want to say that I agree with you Trey. There are many situations where I did not deal with things at the forefront and they grew out of control to the point that they became uncontrollable. And Lao Tzu agrees with you too when he said;

    Confront the difficult
    while it is still easy;
    accomplish the great task
    by a series of small acts

    Another subject came up during these blog comments of interest. Have you ever heard of the Eugenics movement? It is apart of our history that is rarely in history books. A hidden secret of our past shame that no one talks about. You can check this out at;
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

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