S2. Chapter 17: On Refusing Orders

Lloyd Dobler explores what the Tao Te Ching says about leadership, obedience, and the quiet mechanics of power. Prompted by a real-world controversy over unlawful military orders (and still recovering from a humiliating road-rage incident covered in Chapter 16) Lloyd asks a harder question than who should lead us: who’s actually driving when no one’s in charge?

A blend of Taoist wisdom, political commentary, and self-implicating humor, this episode argues that real authority doesn’t bark orders, real leadership often goes unnoticed, and real refusal starts closer to home than we’d like to admit.