Here’s a really disturbing passage: “The wise soul governing people would empty their minds, fill their bellies, weaken their wishes, strengthen their bones, keep people unknowing, unwanting, keep the ones who do know from doing anything.”
When I first read this, I thought Lao Tzu wanted the government to keep people fat, happy and brainwashed. But that didn’t quite seem to fit with the rest of what I knew about him. For Lao Tzu, doing too much is a bad thing. It upsets the balance of nature. People who have a whole lot of acquired knowledge crowding their minds are more likely to act rashly (in his opinion) and are therefore dangerous to the world. Those who have learned wisdom by subtraction (emptying their minds of facts and biases) are more likely to be in tune with nature and will therefore know better than to act. Nature knows what’s best. “When you do not-doing, nothing’s out of order.”
