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Interestingly enough ancient Chinese texts like the Tao Te Ching emphasize that the best ruler is one who doesn't seem to exist. Similarly with free markets and
by dlwdlw 9y ago
Interestingly enough ancient Chinese texts like the Tao Te Ching emphasize that the best ruler is one who doesn't seem to exist. Similarly with free markets and letting people do there thing in peace an invisible quality emerges. The Emergence of quality from frictionless interaction is a very interesting thing. Ants seem to have agency. Our brains seem to create consciousness. Markets seem to have an invisible hand.
Hubris creating actions that seek to understand what can't be understood that destroy these sources of quality is a common trope that happens in history.
- adamsea 9y agoIt does say that but that’s not quite it. I actually just read a translation with some really cool annotations and explanatory text. That said, I’m no expert, etc. But .... ... basically what this author was saying was that in the context of Taoism “do nothing” kinda means to do what is natural - as you say, ants just do ants. To do “something” would be to go against the nature of what being an ant is. This is also true for badgers, bears, flowers, people, etc - everything has its “way.” So, the “way” of being a person could, say, involve taking compassionate action to help a fellow human beings, if the way/nature of humanity is to help others, say. I dunno about the Tao of free markets. If anything you could argue for a harmonious balance of unregulated and regulated. Not sure what “free” means for the consumer if they face a monopoly or a syndicate or shit wages or dangerously defective products or tons of pollution.