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Taoism and Anarchy
Column by Mark Gillespie, posted on
From: http://www.strike-the-root.com/3/gillespie/gillespie1.html
I have studied many religions in my
search for truth. In my searches, I embraced a few. I was a nominal Christian
for many years and converted to Islam about six years ago. Of course, I have
left all of those religions behind, in my never-ending quest for truth. However,
there is one "religion" that I studied that seemed to contain more
truth than any other. That way is Taoism.
Now, I won't go deep into the
history of Taoism, as that would take too much time. However, a brief summary
of Taoist History can be found here. According to history, a man named Lao Tzu,
who lived around 600 BCE, founded Taoism. He is the author of a treatise called
Tao Te Ching (Daodejing). This
translates roughly into English as, "The Book of The Natural Way and of
Natural Virtues." Anyone who reads this text will find it to be shockingly
forward and uncompromising. Lao Tzu treats the subject with the levity and
seriousness it deserves.
I will attempt to show how
philosophical Taoism (as opposed to religious Taoism) jibes with Anarchism. I
also encourage you to study Taoism in greater detail for yourselves, in
accordance with the caveat, "The Way that you attempt to describe isn't
the
To begin with, Anarchy and Taoism
share a central premise. This premise is that only natural, uncoerced
and voluntary action is acceptable. Both Anarchy and Taoism realize that any
restriction to this process creates the seeds for disorder and chaos. As
anarchists, we struggle every day against the idea that "Might makes Right."
Whenever force is involved, that force carries with it the
seeds of its own destruction.
This idea is integral to our
understanding of how Anarchy can come about. It cannot come about by being
elected to public office and ordering everyone to be free,
and it cannot come about by violent revolution. The Tao says about this subject:
Weapons are meant for destruction,
and thus
are avoided by the wise. Only as a last resort will a wise person use a deadly
weapon. If peace is the true objective how can one rejoice in the victory of
war? Those who rejoice in victory take pleasure in murder. Those who resort to
violence
will never
bring peace to the world.
We know that initiating violence
only increases it, and increasing peace increases peace. However, Lao Tzu
wasn't foolish. It is natural for any animal in nature to seek to protect its
own life. A squirrel is harmless, until you attempt to capture or corner it. Then
it will lash out with claw and teeth, in an attempt to be free. This brings us
to the second premise that Anarchy and Taoism shares.
The second premise is that everyone
has a right to defend their ability to live. Taoism equates natural and
voluntary action with the best life. One has life, only to the degree that they
may freely act. Putting liberty and life together has been a cornerstone of "liberationists"
of every stripe. One is only alive when one is free. The Tao says:
The more prohibitions there are,
the poorer
everyone will be. The more weapons are used, the greater the chaos will be in
society. The more that people seek "knowledge" for its own sake, the
stranger the world will become. The more laws that are made,
the
greater the number of criminals.
It also gives us the cure for all
of these ailments in the next verse.
Therefore the wise person says:
I do nothing, and people become
good by themselves. I seek peace, and people take care of their own problems. I
do not meddle in their personal lives, and the people become prosperous. I let
go of all my desire to control them,
and the
people return to their natural ways.
The Tao Te Ching
is very much based in observable reality. Lao Tzu observed his society and
noticed different things that caused troubles. He mentioned that,
The highest good is not to seek to
do good,
but to
allow yourself to become good. The ordinary person seeks to do good things,
and finds
that they cannot do them continually.
The wise person does not force
virtue on others,
and thus
is able to accomplish their task. The ordinary person who uses force,
will find
that they accomplish nothing.
The kind person acts from the
heart,
and
accomplishes a multitude of things. The righteous person acts out of pity, yet
leaves many things undone. The moral person will act out of duty, and when no
one will respond
will roll
up his sleeves and uses force.
When people cease acting in a
natural way, they create "righteousness."
When righteousness is forgotten,
they create morality. When morality is forgotten, they create laws. The law is
the husk of faith,
and trust
is the beginning of chaos.
Our basic understandings are not
from the
because
they come from the depths of our misunderstanding that way. The wise person
abides in the fruit and not in the husk. They live in a natural way, and not
behind the things that hide it.
This is how one becomes wiser.
This is the third premise that
Taoism and Anarchism share. The premise that all of the
states' constructs are shoddy replacements for what would occur if we were free
to act. We cannot be charitable when the state takes our "surplus."
We cannot share when the state steals from us to give to someone else. We
cannot be peaceable when the state prevents us from protecting our own lives. We
cannot learn how to interact with each other when the "law" gets in
the way. In short, the state and any other force wielding organization cannot
deliver what they promise. This much should be obvious to all. We can be more
generous, sharing, and caring by being allowed to do so. Until everyone
realizes that, we will never have the prosperity, peace and freedom that we
could have.
By focusing upon total liberty,
protection of life and free association, Anarchy is unique among all political
philosophies. As a matter of fact, I would posit that politics is unnatural. So,
Anarchism stands tall as the natural, non-political way to freedom and abundant
life.
In conclusion, if there ever were a
philosophy that shared so much with our anarchist worldview, that philosophy
would be Taoism. As a matter of fact, I would go as far as to say that Taoism
and Anarchy are nearly the same, in their basic essentials. Yes, due to
differences in translation, anyone could utilize the Tao Te Ching
to support everything from Anarchism to Statism. But
that is the beauty of the text. It encourages one to seek to understand the
truth for himself, and that is anarchy in action, is it not? So, the next time
you see a copy of the Tao Te Ching on the internet or
at the bookstore, take a closer look and know that you haven't been the only
one to "get it." Lao Tzu got it a long time ago.