The broken air conditioner
Universe or failed machinery, there are things the politician cannot fix
An astute officeholder — a farmer, lawyer, or dentist — would refrain from trying to fix the air conditioner cooling his office. He doesn’t know all the parts. He might identify the compressor, fan, or wiring, but he’s at a loss how to diagnose what’s working and what’s not.
The same person, however, has no compunction about diagnosing what ails humanity, even though his understanding of the universe is rudimentary at best. Not knowing the origins of everything, he doesn’t understand what his tinkering my achieve or hurt.
So he fills his senses with information. He writes legislation, attends meetings, reads reports, gives speeches, negotiates compromises, votes on this and that.
The more he does, the less he accomplishes. The more he accomplishes nothing, the busier he becomes — further out of touch with the origin of everything — insisting he can still affect repairs to the natural order.
If he applied this thinking to the items around him, eventually he would be sitting in front of his office air conditioner, panels torn off, parts strewn about. The problem persists, and his tampering has only added to the mess —all because he knows less about running the world than he does about fixing the machine.
Lao Tzu saw the same folly:
The beginning of the universe
Is the mother of all things.
Knowing the mother, one also knows the sons.
Knowing the sons, yet remaining in touch with the mother,
Brings freedom from the fear of death.Keep your mouth shut,
Guard the senses,
And life is ever full.
Open your mouth,
Always be busy,
And life is beyond hope.Seeing the small is insight;
Yielding to force is strength.
Using the outer light, return to insight,
And in this way be saved from harm.
This is learning constancy.— Chapter 52, Tao Te Ching (trans. Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English)
The politician fails to see the small — the subtle origins of everything — and yields to no force but his own. He opens his mouth, stays busy, and breaks what was never his to fix.
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