Raw Silk and Uncut Wood

 

  Raw silk and uncut wood

From Ursula K. LeGuin's translation of the Tao Te Ching

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Stop being holy, forget being prudent,
it’ll be a hundred times better for everyone.
Stop being altruistic, forget being righteous,
people will remember what family feeling is.
Stop planning, forget making a profit,
there won’t be any thieves and robbers.

But even these three rules needn’t be followed;

what works reliably
is to know the raw silk,
hold the uncut wood.
Need little,
want less.
Forget the rules.
Be untroubled.

19

Abandon wisdom, discard knowledge,
And people will benefit a hundredfold.
Abandon benevolence, discard duty,
And people will return to the family ties.
Abandon cleverness, discard profit,
And thieves and robbers will disappear.

These three, though, are superficial, and not enough.
Let this be what to rely on:

Behave simply and hold on to purity.
Lessen selfishness and restrain desires.
Abandon knowledge and your worries are over.

The sad part is that, in the NeoLiberal system of greed and acquisitiveness, such things are not possible.  The elites will never, even for a moment, consider such a thing.  The elites are easy to understand.  The deserve everything that they took.  The methods they used were virtuous.  Simply put, they are better.

I think that we have a chance ratcheting back for the range of the 50th percentile through the 90th percentile.  But the 10%, they would rather die than give up anything.  The bottom 50th percentile is actively regressing, so pissing on them further is just a display of poor taste.

Everyone knows what have to be done.  We have to stop buying so much shit and driving around everywhere like a bunch of idiots.  But it appears that even accomplishing such simple things is beyond us.

The status classification system here in the good old USA is quite simple.  The richer you are, the better you are.  The Democrats once represented the working class, but that fuckhead Bubba Clinton and the folks following him as Democratic nominees put paid to that nonsense and paid homage to the All Powerful Pelosi, dispenser of funds.

Look, we can get past all this, but the bottom 90% have to get over the Stockholm Syndrome that grips the country.  Rich people aren't our friends, educated people aren't our friends, the education/health complex aren't our friends, and for absolutely certain the corporations aren't our friends.

Just remember, and for absolutely certain, those are the people who fucked you, stop thinking that somehow if you work hard you can join them.