samim

“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” - Lao Tzu

"Given the origins of anarchism, it is important to recognize that claiming the political philosophy of the Laozias a form of anarchism requires placing a Chinese world-view into a Western framework that postdates it by over two thousand years and is understood vis-à-vis a particular Western concept (i.e., the modern state). This alone should raise initial skepticism about the anarchist conclusion regarding the Laozi. Beyond Daoism’s historical past, there are three theoretical reasons for skepticism: (1) the fact that the Laozi is clearly a political treatise addressed to the ruler and providing him with a philosophy of governance; (2) the Chinese conception of personhood, which creates aproblem for traditional anarchist arguments that utilize a notion of the atomistic individual;and, (3) the fact that the skepticism of the Laozi is aimed at a different target than that of anarchism."

"Common to both individualist and social anarchists alike, however, is a perceived tension between individual liberty and the collective will. In Daoism and in Chinese political thought generally, this tension does not exist”(Ames 1983: 32). This lack of tension results from the Daoist, and more generally Chinese, conception of the person. Rather than conceiving the self as autonomous and discrete, Daoists understand the self as interdependent and contextualized."