S2. Chapter 13: The Slow-Drip Seepage of Fascism
Lloyd Dobler uses the Tao Te Ching to make sense of a National Guard shooting in Washington DC and the political weaponization that followed. What begins as a meditation on tragedy and the dangerous rhetoric surrounding Afghan refugees becomes a Taoist deep-dive into the instability of success, the hollowness of fear, and the ways authoritarianism creeps in when a nation forgets how to see itself clearly. A darkly funny, spiritually sideways guided meditation for anyone trying to stay human in a country running on 3% battery and bad decisions.
Chapter 13 of the Tao of Lloyd is inspired by chapter 13 of the Tao Te Ching (translated by Stephen Mitchell):
Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.
What does it mean that success is as dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
your position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.
What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?
See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.