I would be interested in a discussion on the role of Govenrment from the Tao perspective.

What do you all think an enlightened Government in harmony with the Tao would look like.

What is your feeling about our government in realtionship to Tao. China's government in realtionship to Tao.

Which government on Earth do you think is most in harmony with Tao?

namaste

What's that Lao Tzu quote... governing is like cooking a fish... too much poking ruins it.

This is a quick reply, I'll elaborate later (for some reason I used to find the subject fascinating and spent a lot of time researching)...

An enlightened, Tao - harmonious government is almost an oxymoron...

I think government would be minimal - no centralised leadership, but a cellular system of small, self-governing groups... very,very simple - it's almost like a tribal system... it would work harmoniously if there is general abundance and only after our mamalian hoarding impulses colapse (which is happening slowly as the over complex capitalist systems self destruct)... I think the complex, capitalist phase is a necessary phase of development - just like 'the terrible twos'.

After the fiasco that just went down here in Michigan (Government needing to shut down, emergency tax hikes up the roof to balance the budget) the government needs to take a long hard look at the Tao and get some enlightenment!

What would an enlightened government look like? What does an enlightened individual look like? We need to start simple. An enlightened governement can only come from an enlightened society. An enlightened society would have very little, if any, need of being externally governed.
What does China's governement look like from the perspective of the Dao? I can't speak for the Dao, but from my perspective they look like shit. There is none much worse on earth if you take into consideration human rights, corruption, and environmental exploitation (not that the USA is that much better IMO).
In my limited experience, the government of Bhutan is most in accordance with the Dao. Some of the northern Europeans would be a far second (ie Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark)

everything would be perfect. perhaps it already is?

I think a Taoist government would recognize and work in accordance with the true nature of humans and natural process of the environment. And far from being passive - the government would be very scientific in studying the operating principles of Nature so they can best be worked with.

In human relations, it would recognize and understand natural Darwinian diversity. The novel concept that people are not all born "tabula rasa" clones - but come pre-packaged with various innate strengths and tendencies through the process of evolution. And there is nothing wrong with this - so it does not need to be fixed! Unlevelling the playing field to enforce some idealistic "unfair equality" is actually wrong. People are combinations of Nature and nurture...not just nurture. Therefore, ignoring the Nature part is a fundamental error that can only result in a similarly-flawed outcome. Which is why PUAs have reverted to an evo-psych-based methodology now - because the new feminist-approved codes were only heavily backfiring!

Ecologically, all construction projects would be built carefully in accordance with the environment (feng shui). The city of New Orleans and its complex levee system would NEVER HAVE BEEN BUILT where it was at...due to its natural vulnerability to catastrophic flooding. Crops would not be genetically modified and superbugs wouldn't be bred due to overusage of antibiotics. Etc, etc. Always better to work with Nature than against it... Man playing God is like a baby playing doctor and that's usually not a good thing...

Despite the fact that I have very limited experience in political philosophy, I think that there isn't really any current system of government that would actually fit into the category of "Taoist". Most people, unfortunately, are not willing to accept any form of government that doesn't already exist, and thus we are stuck in our current position. I think a Taoist government is a nonexistent one. Perhaps certain forms of government could eventually lead to a Taoist government, but most of them would have to dissolve to be at all effective.

-Flynn