Tao Te Ching 3

If you over-esteem great men, people become powerless.
If you overvalue possessions, people begin to steal.
_____________________________________________

This is another manifestation of dualistic thinking. Once we create “powerful” people, then at the same moment we create “powerless” people. We can’t have one without the other.

There are hundreds of examples of our society over-esteeming “great” men and women – in politics, religion, sports, big business, literature, education, music and the arts, and the entertainment industry. When we look at the highly esteemed and we experience envy, coveting, or merely a subtle desire to be more like them, and thus less like ourselves, we experience the absence of power.

We can only be healthy and stable, whether as a country, a society, a community, a married couple, or a family, when power is balanced.

Once we declare that the possession of property is not only “good” and “valuable” but is also a primary source of power, then at the same moment the absence of possessions becomes “bad” and those who don’t possess property become “valueless” and “powerless”. At the same moment, the inherent need for balance in the universe results in “bad” people stealing, in one form or another, in order to obtain power and reestablish balance. The greater the number of dispossessed and “powerless” people then the greater the number of people who steal in order to dispossess someone else.

We purport to cherish equality in America but, given our inclination to over-esteem and overvalue, too often we settle for the illusion of equality.