Lao-Tzu the Libertarian, by Joel Bowman

Here’s a radical idea: why doesn’t everyone just mind their own business? From Joel Bowman at joelbowman.substack.com:

If government is muted and muffled
People are cool and refreshed.
If government investigates and intrudes
People are worn down and helpless.

~ From the Tao Te Ching, by Lao-Tzu (Poem 58)

Joel Bowman, with today’s Note From the End of the World…

Oh, to be wise like the sage! Able to leave well enough alone… to resist the urge to meddle and intrude… to be content improving one’s own lot, sweeping one’s own stoop, tending one’s own garden. 

For the ancient Chinese philosopher and proto-libertarian, Lao-Tzu, the individual’s happiness was the cornerstone of a healthy, vibrant society. The government, with “laws and regulations more numerous than the hairs of an ox,” was the enemy of the people, a ruthless oppressor to be “more feared than the fiercest tiger.”

That our modern world is a complex place, brimming with the inexplicable, the incomprehensible, the downright unfathomable, hardly needs mentioning. Indeed, one might think that, given the demonstrable limits of human knowledge, our collectivist conceits might be commensurately tempered. 

And yet, almost daily we read reports written by stupid people, proclaiming simple (and simple-minded) solutions to problems of impenetrable profundity. Indeed, it seems the more difficult the problem, the more convinced those offering the magic panacea are of their own unfailing ways and means.

Investigations… intrusions… a proliferation of laws and edicts that leave the people worn down and helpless…

Perhaps you have noticed such a trend in underserved confidence among our “political caste,” dear reader?

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