thatsandwizard t1_ix77fco wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in The famous Butterfly Dream of Taoist Philosophy and how it recommends a radical openness to judging right from wrong by CaptainOfTheKeys
He lived in the warring states era, in which a very strong hitler analogue was active. For context, general Bai Qi and the great Qin he served were about equal to Nazi brutality. The Confucian school of thought was decimated, the books burnt and scholars slaughtered, every other nation eventually fell to their expansion. “Ren Tu” (Human Butcher) was the name given to Bai Qi after he killed more than a million people during the warring states period, most of whom were non-combatants and surrendered enemies if my memory serves.
In other words - Chaung-Tzu absolutely had an example of the worst we can imagine, and still held these beliefs
corpdorp t1_ix7n6bo wrote
Dan Carlin talks about how Ghengis Khan was also very Nazi like and makes direct comparisons to Hitler. His point was that though they were evil at the time they still had massive impact and historians study their impact.
Is that maybe like Chaung-Tzu talking about the mushroom not knowing the seasons? That we cannot judge the right and wrongness as maybe these events and people led to a greater good? Or greater evil?
Reminds me of a Taoist story:
There is a story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.
“Maybe,” the farmer replied.
The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.
“Maybe,” replied the old man.
The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy for what they called his “misfortune.”
“Maybe,” answered the farmer.
The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.
“Maybe,” said the farmer.
[deleted] t1_ix77k9c wrote
Excellent argument. I can only hypothesize on what they’d say if they could see how the Information Age is taking shape though.
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