To: The Philosopher who wrote (12560 ) 7/21/2001 8:08:03 PM From: gao seng Read Replies (2) | Respond to A few weeks ago the History Channel ran the entire American Revolution series. In one episode, a British general said that the American was a new race of men. Country boys with rifles and beliefs. Unconquerable supermen. I believe Americans are still made up of the same stuff. This crap about conquering Nature or the opposite, reverence for all living creatures is not us, IMO. I am not a Taoist, because I think it is a philosophy. And as a philosophy, it is often pretty wise. I do not disagree with this: Taoism seeks accommodation with nature and is best encapsulated in the slogan 'harmony between the heavens and humankind'. I believe America is the great dream realized of the Tao. The second great philosophy of the classical age was Daoism (Taoism). The philosopher Laozi (Lao-tzu), who probably lived during the 6th century BC, is usually regarded as the founder of this school. Whereas Confucianism sought the full development of human beings through moral education and the establishment of an orderly hierarchical society, Daoism sought to preserve human life by following the Way of Nature (Dao, or Tao) and by reverting to primitive agrarian communities and a government that did not control or interfere with life. Daoism attempted to bring the individual into perfect harmony with nature through a mystical union with the Dao. This mysticism was carried still further by Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu), a Daoist philosopher of the late 4th century BC, who taught that through mystical union with the Dao the individual could transcend nature and even life and death. But here I think agrarian can be misunderstood. Not living like a hermit. But free as a hermit.
