Tao Te Ching 59

For governing a country well there is nothing better than moderation. The mark of a moderate man is freedom from his own ideas. Nothing is impossible for him. Because he has let go, he can care for the people’s welfare as a mother cares for her child.
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“Moderation in all things” includes moderation in governing – what a concept that is. I wonder if it’s possible in the U.S. Can Americans and the politicians we elect ever find freedom from our own ideas?

The statement that moderation means being free from the grip of our own ideas, concepts and opinions is a profound teaching. It does not mean that we don’t have ideas; it means that we’re not so attached to them that we can’t hear and understand the ideas of others. It means that we’re willing and able to bring our ideas to the marketplace of ideas and exchange them, trade and barter with them, until we find a middle ground – a moderate position – that allows us to govern our country well and care for the people’s welfare.

We have become so polarized in our country that no one can any longer claim that we govern well. Partisan politicians are held in low regard, with the president and the Congress having the lowest approval ratings in history. One party-line vote after another in Congress ensures a perpetual gridlock that prevents any meaningful progress on issues that bear on the welfare of millions of people in our country. Our national debate has gone beyond being polemic; it’s become paralytic. There is no freedom in paralysis.

We are governed poorly because we are governed by the immoderate. Far too many of us are held captive by our own ideas. We are so sure of their rightness. We believe that opposing ideas are not just wrong, but so deeply flawed as to be untenable. At our worst, we believe that our ideas aren’t actually our ideas – we believe they are the ideas of God, which ensures not just a dogmatic adherence to them but a death-grip hold on them. There is no freedom associated with the chains of dogmatic adherence or a death-grip hold.

I’ve mentioned previously the power of being able to say, “I don’t know.” There is even more power in being able to say, “I may be wrong.” There is freedom in being able to envision our ever-present potential for being something other than right.