Nobody loves a tyrant, but like moths to a flame, plenty are drawn to them. As with the moths, it rarely ends well.
For present purposes, let’s say tyranny is the unjust use of coercion, violence, fear, and/or manipulation to control people.
It’s probably uncontroversial to say tyranny is bad for people. It harms the psyche and the body, both individually and collectively. Which is a bummer, because it’s quite common. All political systems, ever, everywhere, have featured at least some tyranny. Many if not most are flat out built on it. Workplaces, religions, families, schoolyards–you often don’t have to look far to find it.
Our instinct is to fight tyranny (except when we are the tyrant, or on the tyrant’s team). But Christianity and Daoism seem to recommend a different path. Why?
“I advise thee to wear it as long as thou canst.”
–Attributed to George Fox, in answer to a question from William Penn about wearing his sword.
This story is like the story of Jesus telling a group of Pharisees “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Apocryphal, but too good a story to abandon. It suggests that conscience is a more formidable foe to tyranny than force is.
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.
–Matthew 5: 38-40, NIV
Yield and overcome
–Laozi, 22, translated by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English
Soft and weak overcome hard and strong.
Laozi, 36
A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.
Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life. . . .
The hard and strong will fall.
The soft and weak will overcome.
Laozi, 76
Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) tells a story in which a disciple of Confucius proposes to go advise a ruler who has gotten out of hand:
“Ah,” said Confucius, “you will probably go and get yourself executed, that’s all. The Way doesn’t want things mixed in with it. When it becomes a mixture, it becomes many ways; with many ways, there is a lot of bustle; and where there is a lot of bustle, there is trouble—trouble that has no remedy!”
–Zhuanzi, transl. Burton Watson
Questions:
- Do Daoism and Christianity really advise us against fighting tyranny?
- Or, are they suggesting that “yielding” and “turning the other cheek” are effective ways to fight tyranny?
- Are they crazy? Or, do they just want us to be ineffective?
- Or what. What’s going on here?
- What do you think our response to tyranny ought to be?