The following is an except from a book written over 2500 years ago by Lao Tzu called The Tao Te Ching. It’s from Chapter 22:
Yield and overcome
Bend and be straight
Empty and be full
Wear out and be new
Have little and gain
Have much and be confused
I began thinking about this chapter quite a bit the other day especially as I hear more and more people say things like “we need to simplify our message” or “we need short catchy slogans in order to win elections”. It seems these days the truth just takes too much effort.
In this country the vast majority of people do not take to scholarship for learning. Instead they learn by experience. This does not necessarily mean the vast majority of people are stupid. I have known plenty of intelligent people in my life time who could not add 2+2 but could rebuild an engine like no one’s business. I’ve known people who could barely read yet get them into a machine shop and they could turn out precision parts from raw lumps of metal within thousandths of an inch.
Thanks to the degradation of our public school system (done on purpose by our corporate overlords in order to turn us into good consumers) our society has plunged even further into ignorance with a seeming inability to grasp complex thought. Conservatives, Tea Baggers, Fox, and Republicans prey on this ignorance with their election sloganeering. They are able to convince Americans to vote against their best interest with well crafted propaganda and simple messages like “tax cuts”.
This got me thinking. Since the only way the vast majority of people in this country learns is by experience it’s going to take a massive painful long term experience in order to teach Americans the hard lesson they are so desperately in need of learning.
The last time in recent history Americans learned the hard lesson was the Great Depression. It’s not necessarily that Americans were smarter back then or more aware although perhaps that argument could be made. But it’s more that the vast majority of Americans experienced severe economic trauma and pain through no fault of their own. By experience they learned the dangers of capitalism and fascism. They learned about how the wealthy elite in this country need to be kept in check and watched carefully.
Out of this experience Americans grew to appreciate labor. We also had a 91% top tax rate on the wealthy elite. 40% of tax revenue came from corporations. We had tariffs in place in order to protect American manufacturing. War profiteering was illegal.
And there’s this (from wikipedia): “In April 1944, four months into a nationwide strike by the company’s 12,000 workers, U.S. Army troops seized the Chicago offices of Montgomery Ward & Co. – Montgomery Ward refused to comply with a War Labor Board order to recognize the unions and institute the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. Eight months later, with Montgomery Ward continuing to refuse to recognize the unions, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order seizing all of Montgomery Ward’s property nationwide, citing the War Labor Disputes Act as well as his power under the Constitution as Commander in Chief.”
All this value we once had for American Labor was born out of a learning experience by those who lived through the Great Depression. It was not taught by scholarship. It was not brought about by intelligent discourse, high minded debate, or deliberating on facts. Politically much was brought about by FDR but only because the vast majority of Americans had his back.
My point is that I recently reached the conclusion that in order for America to move forward I fear we once again need to learn this hard lesson. What we had learned by experience through the Great Depression has passed out of collective memory. No amount of scholarship, debate, or dialog is going to convince the majority of Americans of this lesson. Only experience can reach them – and some men you just can’t reach.
So, to that end my suggestion is that we begin pushing for even more tax cuts. In fact, why have any taxes at all? Why have any regulations at all? Why even have a government? Why shouldn’t each State just be its own country? Why should the government provide any services? People should learn to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and stand on their own two feet as Conservatives are so fond of saying.
My point is that perhaps it is time for us to employ some Aikido and use the momentum garnered by the Tea Bagger movement against them. They say they want lower taxes – I say let’s have no taxes. They say they want smaller government – I say why have a government at all. They say they want State’s Rights – I say why not let States be their own countries.
Now you and I know what the end result of all this would be. There would be a huge crash in our economy and a devolution of our society. The experience would spread to everyone from the most high minded intellectual to the most ignorant Tea Bagger among us. But eventually those hard lessons will once again be learned by everyone and then perhaps we can start to rebuild our country from the smoldering ashes Tea Bagger style corporatism will surely leave behind.
