Due to my frustration at not having my blog available today, I’ve created a new blogspot blog today, Tao Politics. First post is cross-posted here as well:
Political Change and the Tao Te Ching
This blog will discuss political change in light of the Tao Te Ching. If you want to look at other postings I’ve done on the Tao, politics, and many other subjects, my usual blog is at Changing Places.
I’ve started this blog today for several reasons. First, to discuss politics in the light of the Tao Te Ching, the way things work. I don’t believe political change in America today is possible unless we actually understand and use methods that work. The Tao is often taken as “Eastern” philosophy, but it is not. It is simply a description of how things work, a compilation of wise writings by one or perhaps many writers, it is not really known. It is attributed to Lao Tsu, but no one knows if such a person ever actually existed or not. This doesn’t matter, just as it doesn’t matter who I am, really, or where I’m from. What matters is what I say and do, and if those things fit with the Tao, they will be effective and work, and if not, the things I say and do will disappear in time and not matter.
The other reason is frustration with something not working, namely my regular blog. I don’t like it when things don’t work; it makes me search for other ways to make things happen. This is as it should be. Tao often comments on water, saying we ought to flow as water flows. As I write this, water is flowing behind me, into a carboy as my husband prepares to make beer today. Water is very useful, and very important. It is the most important thing on earth, as we will begin to find out in just a few brief years now. Water will become the biggest political issue on the planet, overtaking the importance of oil. Seems hard to believe, but it will happen.
For now though, politics is about oil. It is the number one reason for the current political orientation and effects in the world. This is because politics is always about resources, and the most important resource, after water, is energy. Energy is needed to produce food. With land, water and energy, anything is possible. Empires are fought for, created, built and destroyed over these three things for the most part. The land may contain resources, be used to produce food, or simply be living space. The water is essential to life itself. The energy is needed to create anything else from the available resources on the land.
I won’t just have my own thought here; I’ll often include or link to those of others. This is important because I am a collector and distributor of information and ideas far more than a creator of them. My own words and actions usually pale compared to those of others, but my skills at integration are quite good. But, I’m a selfish person, so those ideas are not always shared as well as they could be, or distributed as widely as they could be. The internet lets me get them out there where perhaps, in this vast mish mash of ideas, people, and the wonders of search engines, they can be found and used.
If not, that’s fine as well. The Tao has been around for thousands of years, and is usually ignored. But it still works, whether you know it or not.
The Tao says those who know, do not say. This is often misunderstood to mean that words are not important, or are wrong. The reality is words are important, but what is said is never the reality. Tao is the reality. That is the point of the expression. Knowing reality, knowing Tao, is more important than whatever is said. People are easily manipulated by words, but those words may or may not be true. Tao is always true. And false. Full, and empty. It contains all dualities, because it contains everything. And nothing.
If you do not understand, keep reading. If you do understand, my words are not needed.
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