Lao Zi Philosophy of Liberal Government

“Lao Zi Philosophy of Liberal Government” is a book written for the people and their government. Although Tao Te Jing is an ancient philosophical work, and the world has become much more liberal compared to the past centuries, its philosophical values to build and govern a country are still relevant and important for the people and their leaders to understand. Tao Te Jing was written in an ancient poetic form which was very different from the modern Chinese language. This book is a translation and commentary from the perspective of the original intention of Tao Te Jing. However, since Lao Zi advocated harmonizing with the Great Nature, there are unlimited concepts that we can learn from it and apply it in everything we do. After all, we do need to govern our body, family, organization, if not the country. The author uses insights learned from his engineering background to interpret how different things affect our world and what we should do based on the philosophy of Lao Zi. The author tries to extract the fundamental principles of the philosophy and make them easier to understand and apply, as opposed to other interpretations in history and direct translations to other languages which have a strong inclination towards literary form. In particular, it demonstrates the needs to learn from the One Law of Nature, or Tao, to justify the validity and survivability of those principles of which the Great Nature has walked the walk and proven to us through its longevity. The Great Nature does not need to talk. It leads by examples and it gains our trust through its deeds. The natural order of the Great Nature is one which favors free-market systems but does not confine to economics aspect. Freedom is the most precious to everybody. One who lives without freedom, including freedom of the mind, does not really have a life. We have been educated to obey the norms, to believe in what the State want us to believe since they control our education system, making our minds fixated with bias views and see reality as being divided in the preference of certain groups. It produces individuals who are addicted to power, money, fame, drugs, gambling, racing, and all sorts of things which lead to chaos and unsatisfied lives. And addicts have different tastes and views about their lives and of others. We have to change our mindset. But, if the mind is set, how can it be changed? After a biscuit is baked, how can we reshape it? The answer is: we must crush it; add in some water and baking powder, make it into any shape we want; and then bake it again. It is commonsense. The same answer applies to changing mindset. The mind must first be made flexible and be free to accept new ideas; be convinced of the real truth; and embrace it as a new way of life. The first step of becoming flexible and free is vital. The rise of Japan started with a near-total discard of their tradition during the Meiji Revolution. Another feature of this book is that it is based on the original Tao Te Jing from archeological discoveries out of ancient tombs in 1973 and 1993. It explains the philosophy of Lao Zi based on the fundamental principles of Lao Zi. It is unlike other interpretations in history which are based on the common version widely available that has more than 140 errors compared to the original literature. The errors were knowingly made by pseudo-intellects and scholars in history with fixated minds of Confucius teachings. They were not able to understand some of the extraordinary concepts of Lao Zi and they took the liberty to change the original text into the sentences that they can then explain with their logic. Non-intervention and Righteousness advocated by Lao Zi have been used as the guiding principles of the Chinese Emperors in governing the Middle Kingdom during the glorious periods. Non- intervention doesn’t mean one doesn’t care. It is like parents watching their adult children but do nothing, absolutely nothing, unless there is something to do. Have faith in them and give them total freedom to make good decisions as well as bad ones. Just because we have a just cause doesn’t mean we have the rights and responsibilities to impose our desires on our children. We must not try to be clever and assume we know which way to go because there is a chance we may be pushing them in the wrong direction but we are overconfident to overlook the obvious. Step aside and trust in nature, life will find a way. True love is manifested in wanting our love ones to have total freedom. Independence is freedom. But independence literally means depending on no one. So, one is free when one is self-reliant. The independence of a country is truly attained when the people need not depend on the government to take care of their economic and social needs; and the government can manage its country without colonial rule. The people will protect their country, for their self interest, and not relying on the government to do the job. They must instead remind themselves not to let the dangerous government machinery be abused by corrupted officers and destroy the country. Unity leads to stupidity; diversity and freedom lead to innovation. Many problems are created due to human desires for control or to do some ambitious things. The world will be a better place when a sustainable mutual understanding is developed between the people and the government. The understanding is: the people do not like to be interfered, whether the intervention is benevolence or otherwise; and the government does not like to intervene. The mandate of the government is: to control the legalized forces in protecting the lives and properties of the people; and to manage the assets of the country. Therefore, this book is a reference for both the people and the government to facilitate this mutual understanding so that no people will ask for more and no politicians will do more than required. No politicians can get away with exploiting the weakness of some voters by offering pretentious generosity and filthy lucre bait, out of national resources and debt, to fish for votes and take advantage over rival parties. The governments are responsible for the current social and economic problems in the world due to their unwarranted use of “cleverness” or pseudo-intellectual to intervene in almost everything. But they arrogantly represent themselves as the cure. And the people believe it and want the interventions. That makes the people guilty of collective conspiracy and rightly to share some responsibilities. There is no hope until the psychology of the average people change.