Yes, we’re on a Taoist roll here at The Useless Tree this week – and maybe next week as well.  That’s what a tutorial will do to you: close reading of the text brings out lots of possibilities for blogging.

     Today, on the front page of the NYT, we find a Taoist lament: "Less is More, but in Idaho, Not for Long."  Seems that old fashioned "small government" conservatives in Idaho are frustrated that they are losing the battle against bureaucratic growth.  Economic development – or as the story puts it a shift from "bait-and-bullet to New West boutique" – has brought with it all sorts of new social demands, which, in turn, require more regulation and government oversight.  It is a fairly familiar pattern of modernization.

    But old school Idahoans do not like it.  Here’s a great quip:

“You know what lobbyists are?” said Russell Westerberg, a lobbyist from
Soda Springs who came to Boise as a state representative in 1975.
“They’re the people that the people have to pay to protect them from
the people that they elected.” He added, “It’s still Idaho; the
government that governs least, governs best.”

     And that last line is very Taoist.  You probably associate the sentiment – the government that governs best governs least – with Jean Jacques Rousseau by way of Thomas Jefferson.  But let’s not forget passage 80 from the Tao Te Ching:

You want a small state with a minimal population.

Have ready to hand weaponry for a sufficient number of military units
Yet have no recourse to use them.

Make sure that the common people take dying seriously
So that they have no taste for venturing far from home.

Though you have ships and chariots enough
Have no reason to man them;
Though you have armor and weapons enough
Have no reason to parade them.

Bring the common people back to keeping their records with knotted string,
To relish their food,
To finding beauty in their garments,
To enjoying their customs,
And finding security in their homes.

Although your neighboring states are within eyesight
And the sounds of their dogs and cocks are within earshot,
Your people will grow old and die without having anything to do with them.

(Ames translation)

     Small-scale simplicity with little need for government: that is what they – or at least some of them – want in Idaho.  The resonance between Taoism and libertarianism is clear, although the ancient thinking is probably more utopian in its desire for simplicity than more modern libertarians.  But the Cato Institute would probably like the Taoist preference for low taxes!

     Of course, the big question is: are they doomed?  Are the small government Idahoans putting up a rearguard battle against the inevitable effects of modernizing world markets?  Will they have to follow the example of the mythic Lao Tzu and just give it up and retreat to the hills?