Tao Te Ching (44-66)

I wonder how different from our countries today might a country being ruled with the Tao be. I am curious of this, because it was many times, within the pages that I read today, where the text mentioned how is it that a country should be ruled. I automatically compared these to reality, and did find many differences.

Ruling a country is like cooking a small fish.
(62)

I’ve just want to dedicate some of my thinking towards this line. I tried to look at the similarities between the two showed ‘things’, the relationship that there can be among them. Cooking is easy, that’s what we think, but then again, there is a difference between something that is cooked professionally, and something that isn’t. It’s cooking a small fish, because, though it may seem vulnerable and easy, it’s not. I’d say that some rulers and presidents today think that ruling a country is, easy, not because it really is, but rather because they may be filled with self-confidence, that is remembering them that I am capable of doing this, I chose to do it in the 1st place.

A country with troubles is considered vulnerable, miserable—a small…fish. A fish is usually cooked, as a country is usually ruled over, and I may add, that there is a difference between something done good, and something that isn’t.

A great country is like low land.
It is the meeting ground of the universe,
The mother of the universe.
(63)

A country is the mother of everything within it. Its geography allows there to be only one specified kind of products, allows for people to life only in specified areas. Its location influences tourism, as its climate influences culture, and customs (way of dressing). So it is considered the mother of its own ‘world’, culture.

When the country is ruled with a light hand
The people are simple.
When the country is ruled with severity,
The people are cunning.
(58)

The way in which a country is ruled influences the people. The people will tend to feel more trapped, when there is a lot of pressure on them, therefore making them rebellious, making them have a desire to be ‘more free’. When there is almost no obligations, and the environment and government is relaxed for the people, they will tend to act freshly, feeling they have enough space and freedom, and are in a good humour to do the little that is asked of them.

A perfect example of this is drugs. I believe, and others do too, that the restrictions of drugs in some countries, oblige the drug dealers to commit more crimes to get drugs. Perhaps, in a country were drugs were allowed, there wouldn’t be as much drug dealers, because now the drugs would be legal, making them a ‘normal thing’.

The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men’s weapons,
The more trouble in the land
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.
(57)

I think that this citation just above is my favourite in the whole text. Because, it’s certainly nothing new said to me; I know this, I think all of us do…the difference is that we are not AWARE of it.

I’ve heard many times that the only way to stop fighting is to stop yourself first. If a country suffers an attack, for today’s society it is logical to attack back, but much more ‘harder’, bigger, in a way to make more suffering, to make that country understand how dangerous it was for them to threaten ‘us’ in the first place. But, what will this country do? Attack, yet again. And the ‘power’ of the attacks shall increase each time, as so will the intention grow with hatred, and hate.

So, it will never stop. Only will it increase, will it become each time a more violent war. And what the countries in this conflict are trying to do, is to make the other stop, they don’t realize that first they have to stop themselves, which might sound easier, but it is
indeed harder, cause for them, it will sound as giving up—the truth is that they will be giving up something: war and violence.

You wouldn’t think it is bad for men to become intelligent, but we have to accept, that it is true, that when there are more brains thinking, there is a higher chance for more hypothesis, guesses, and opinions to confuse us all. It happens, sometimes, that there are so many theories, about something, that we (society) are never sure who or what to trust.

The last bit of this citation links to one of my above explanations, of people tending to act more ‘cool’ when the environment in which they life in is ‘cool’ too.

In contrast to the world today, a country based on the Tao would indeed differ. Not much would be asked of the people, they wouldn’t have many restrictions either.