“If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.
The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.
Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become more honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become more prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become more serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.”
– Lao-tzu translated by Stephen Mitchell
“Let go of fixed plans and concepts and the world will govern itself”
The roots of libertarianism are traced back through classical liberalism from a few hundred years ago, but here is the “Tao Te Ching” with what looks to be the libertarian argument more than 2000 years ago (When Lao-Tzu wrote the “Tao Te Ching” is unknown, but it is believed to be at least B.C.E.). The argument is that the world is governed by the Tao (the way), or the laws of nature. Nature is orderly by it’s very nature. What economists would call emergent order, Lao-Tzu would call Tao.
There is a natural order in the world and it is not up to any individual to dictate that the order ought to be one way or the other, it doesn’t and never will work. Trying to change the order of society is like standing in a stream and trying to damn the water with your body. You can distort it, make it change in different directions, maybe slow in down for a period of time, but you can never change to fundamental direction. You can see the failed intent with government policies all around the world. The war on drugs didn’t stop drugs, but legalization results in less drug use. The war on Terror, ostensibly trying to stop terrorism is creating more of it. From another chapter of the Stephen Mitchell translation, it is summed up “When the will to power is in charge, the higher the ideals, the lower the results.” The more a government denies human nature, the nature of the world, or the Tao, the worse the results.
The Libertarian argument is sometimes equated to other political arguments. That it is a different option on the spectrum. That libertarians want other people to be libertarians just like socialists want other people to be socialists, or conservatives want other people to be conservatives. But there is a fundamental difference. The conservative to socialist political spectrum is an argument about how people ought to be governed. It ignores the reality that people cannot be governed over the long-term. That through policy and force you can never get the results that you intended. Libertarianism is about “follow[ing] the Tao” letting go of concepts of governing others “and [letting] the world govern itself”.
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