In Which we bring to light the period of Spring and Autumn

This text, that I wasn't planning but decided to do, is inspired in the video by Marco Batalha of the Youtube Channel "O Ambientalista Libertário" (The libertarian enviromentalist) and it talks about the ideas of the period of Spring and Autumn in the place we know as China, here's the specific video, which is an excellent one, that inspired this impromptu tale 

A antiga Tradição Libertária Chinesa

Once upon a time, in the area that we know today as China, there was a region governed by the Family of name Zhou. At the moment this small recollection takes place, its power was dwindling. Many feudal dukes competed for increasing its influence across the land, and this ended in much bloodshed many moments. In this era of violence and turmoil, though, was also a period of flourishing of philosophy. Those were the legalists, confucians and the Taoists. The Legalists weren't too shy in their heinous ideas of power to the central state. The Confucians, followers of that man they call Kong Fuzi, were more academic, and in their technocratic approach, they would preach for a "virtuous bureocratic class" familiarized in philosophy. At the end of the day, this was a fancy way of giving, again, power to the central state. The third one, however, goes the different direction.

Taoists, name given to those who follow the sage of name Lao Tze. Meanwhile Kong Fuzi would preach that a class of anointed intellectuals should rule over the land, Lao Tze was more interested in the smaller scale, on the happiness of the individual. That should be the main goal of life and of society as a whole. Lao Tze had a distaste for the central state, both coming from bureocrats, or from the hands of the ruler. "Laws and regulations, ever more numerous than the fur of the ox, were awful oppressors of the individual, and should be feared even more than the fierce tiger", that was what he used to say. So, if that's so, what should one do instead, as a ruler? Well, inaction, nothing. The less the state do, so much the better. Only by inaction can the state cause the land to prosper and submerge in happiness. The state was the bringer of turbulence and chaos. This man was the first one to pay closer attention to economics, specially the disastrous interventions of the state on its functioning. "The more taboos and artificial restrictions are imposed from above, the poorer the people will be, the more the laws and regulations, the number of thieves will also grow". The more the state intervene, worse the world around will be, and those of the most awful interventions are taxation and war. So he said "People starve because the bureocrats would steal from them with their abusive taxes, and after a great war, it is likely we'll live harsh years of starvation.". With that in mind, he would say "the sage would say: I won't do a thing and people around will thrive. I stay still and they will mend theie wrongs. I stay quiet and they'll prosper". This is a massive difference from the idea of its contemporaries.

Lao Tze, however, was very pessimistic, and would know his ideas wouldn't find much echo amongst other men. They would much rather listen to the ideas of Kong Fuzi, or the legalists, who were less abstract, even if were wrong and would lead to suffering and destruction. He'd then retreat to his own way of life, preaching moderation, seeing things from distance, and calmness. He'd find some followers, though, such as Chung Tze, that expanded on the study of the free market economics, and soon he was faced with the truth that anarchism was the only way towards a happy and prosperous land. He'd grow in popularity as a skilled writer, even calling the attention of the king of the land, who'd plead for him to come to his court and be his minister. Idea that he declined definitively. As a cow ready for be slaughtered, as much as well taken care of it could be, was in a worst position than that of a pig, who would live to see another day, such was the condition of the ministers of the king. With that action, he rejected the decadence of a public life for the peace of a private one, also showing his hatred towards the state and his preference towards the lassez faire. "Order rises in spontaneity. when things are left alone, people when left alone can meddle their affairs just fine, the state just being an agent of distortion. People have their own nature, they work, feed themselves and have joy, this is what we call "natural freedom". Just like that, they create their own order. When governants come with their laws to rule them, it's just like trying to alongate the feathers of a duck, or shortened the long legs of a heron." "The world does not need leaders, in fact, the world does not need to be led" "A pitful thief will go to jail, meanwhile the scoundrell usually will lead a kingdom". Those were his ideas. And even if not as influential as confucians, those ideas would keep being nurtured. Some sages would lament the current violence of its land in comparison to less violent past, even if this is romantic, it is true that China passed through huge turmoils as the centuries went by.

This intriguing individual, Lao Tze, was having a conversation on those ideas thousands of years before Henry David Thoreau, Ludwig Von Mises, Friederich Hayek, amongst other thinkers that would emphasize freedom and individualism. Not only him, but his follower, that we mentioned, was the first anarchist intellectual of history. His ideas did not inspire Proudhon or Hayek, two different philosophers, but they reached the same conclusions as they, thousands of years earlier. Chinese culture and philosophy today finds itself beaten, almost forgotten and destroyed. Even with this sorrow state, we should remember of those thinkers of the long past, and may their thoughts influence us as we try to survive the ever reaching poison of the state.