Flow, don’t force
Those who would take over the world and manage it,
I see that they cannot grasp it;
for the world is a spiritual [神 shén] vessel
and cannot be forced.
Whoever forces it spoils it.
Whoever grasps it loses it. —Lao Tzu, 29
Oops, once again this is analogous to Kropotkin’s anarchy. If each thing follows its own nature (理 lǐ) it will harmonize with all other things following theirs, not by reason of rule imposed from above but by their mutual resonance (應 yīng) and interdependence.
Thus wu-wei (无为 wúwéi) as “not forcing” is what we mean by going with the grain, rolling with the punch, swimming with the current, trimming sails to the wind, taking the tide at its flood, and stooping to conquer. It is perhaps best exemplified in the Japanese arts of judo and aikido where an opponent is defeated by the force of his own attack, and the latter art reaches such heights of skill that I have seen an attacker thrown to the floor without even being touched. —Alan Watts, Tao: The Watercourse Way
无为而无不为。(《道德经》)
wúwéi ér wúbùwéi. ( «Dàodéjīng»)
Do nothing and everything is done.
(Or rather, do nothing and let things take their own course. Perhaps the closest translation is no unnatural, forceful action instead of no action at all.)
Ursula K. Le Guin’s note for 17 in the Tao Te Ching:
Again, it’s a matter of “doing without doing”: uncompetitive, unworried, trustful accomplishment, power that is not force. An example or analogy might be a very good teacher, or the truest voice in a group of singers.
- see also: noticing the block means you’re ready to do the work — I think this happens large scale and small, individually and collectively (indeed, the individual is inseparable from the collective)
- previously: the most hideous ideologies are the ones we believe without realizing it — even forcing the “best” ideas on someone else is tyranny
- related: the three lies of power, one of which is that ideas must be spread by force
- see also: nature is emergent and adaptive
- see also: it happens when it’s time