A Comment About “The Way” and “The River of Life”

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. –Lao Tzu

A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, “We did it ourselves.” –Lao Tzu

The truth (social) is a paradox. –Lao Tzu

We discovered many things while writing this book. The most shocking is murder, war, and genocide have the same statistics as earthquakes. As we will get to in Volume II, these statistics strongly suggest countries, bureaucracies and businesses are self-organized. Managing units can be thought of as vortices in a turbulent river or interacting sandpiles on a desert dune. Unfortunately, this implies individuals can change the course of human history, but they can’t change the statistics. These statistics predict 2 to 3 billion people will die from war in the 21st century.

When we first told our wife about our prediction, she looked at us first in disbelief and then frustration. We said, “Don’t blame the messenger.” She asked, “What are you going to do about it?”

We sat there quietly as our multiple personalities began arguing inside our head. One argument was, “Do you know how many people die in superhero movies? The last thing humanity needs is a superhero. Maybe we could give a speech on the floor of the UN. Wait, that’s not going to work either. Most leaders are egomaniacs. Appealing to reason amongst a group of egomaniacs is a fool’s mission.”

Another argument went, “Stopping war will require the greatest con of all time. We have about a 0.01% chance of pulling that off. Good news is those odds are better than winning the lottery. Besides, politicians pull off cons all the time. For example, they run the lottery. Maybe there is hope for a lowly peace loving grifter after all. Also, we are the son of the Wizard of Oz. He was one of the greatest grifters of all time. He kept scaring the munchkins to maintain the peace. Maybe there is an outside chance we can pull this off.”

Breaking our long silence, we said to our wife, “Exactly what do you want us to do?” Her frustration turned to mild annoyance. We understood exactly what the other was feeling. Unfortunately, there was nothing to say. We sat there quietly through the rest of dinner.

So, what are we going to do about it? First, we are going to tell a story to gain some perspective. The three great Asian spiritual leaders, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao Tzu meet in a temple. There is a bowl with vinegar. Confucius tastes the vinegar and finds it sour, much like he found the world full of degenerate people. Buddha tastes it and he too finds it bitter, much like he found the world to be full of suffering. But Lao Tzu tastes the vinegar and finds it sweet, like he found the world sweet.

Next, for some historical perspective. One of the bloodiest conflicts in human history was the “Three Kingdoms War”. Over 20 million people died in East and South East Asia during the 3rd century AD. Or roughly 10% to 20% of the world’s population during that period. That’s a sadly ridiculous number, especially given guns, bombs, and nuclear weapons didn’t exist yet.

Lao Tzu lived before the “Three Kingdoms War”. But his teachings did not gain popularity until after that war. His teachings in the “Tao Te Ching”, also known as “The Book of the Way”, have a very different vibe compared to Confucious and Buddha. Lao Tzu has a much lesser opinion of emperors, lawyers, bureaucrats, and scholars. In our opinion, the “Tao” is written from the village perspective. Therefore, “the Tao” has little use for those in power and those seeking power. That is why leaders will never embrace his teachings, and his teachings will never form a large organized religion.

We were born and raised in Kansas. Growing up as a Westerner, this book is written from a Western perspective and based primarily on a Christian belief system. However, there is a lot to learn from Eastern philosophy. We’ve read that a Taoist has never started a war. A Taoist accepts that people are different, have different cultures, and will lead different lives. We believe an updated version of Taoism, mixed with the best of Christianity, provides an off-ramp for the human war and genocide dilemma.

The takeaway is battles fought by bureaucrats and politicians are nastier than those fought by soldiers and generals because they attack not the body but the soul. For society to move forward we need to embrace the good turbulence of life and let the bad turbulence dissipate away. This will all make sense by the end of Volume III.

Footnote: Regarding Western and Eastern thought, Western thought embraces conflict. Everyone wants to control change. Taoism believes change is natural. Life comes in cycles. The seasons, fortune, misfortune, life, and death are a journey. Understanding is a journey. The only way we are going to pull off the greatest con of all time is to first build an army of Lighthearted Academic Weapons. Read this book and welcome to the team. Let the con begin.