VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 3

VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 3

That Clean Machine Was Bound by a Lock, but It Is Not Evil, It Is a Mechanism

The last section set the true nature of this machine of politics upright, that it was only ever meant to be a clean administrative machine the people hired, to protect the people, to serve the people, that it ought not even to have that set of coercion of a law-enforcement apparatus. But there is surely a question pent up in your heart. If the true nature is this clean, then in reality, how did that machine come to stand high above you, to torment you, to take heavy taxes and levy fines, to drive people into taking it lying down? This section takes you, from a height, to see the thing that bound it crooked, a lock, the collusion of officials and business. But let me stop you first. To look at it is not so you can recognize a villain and go bring someone down. Just the opposite. It is to have you see clearly that this is not, at bottom, an evil done by a few villains, it is a mechanism that turns of itself.

There is surely a question pent up in your heart. If the true nature is this clean, how is it that the machine in reality is not this shape at all? The machine in reality plainly stands high above you, plainly torments you, plainly takes heavy taxes and levies fines, plainly drives people into taking it lying down. How did it turn so crooked?

Somewhere in the middle of this, there must be a thing that pulled that machine, which ought to be clean, crooked off its true nature. The true nature is one thing, and the reality is another, and the gap in between did not come from nowhere. There is a thing that, hard and forcibly, bent it out of true. If you do not find that thing out, you can only stare and fume at that crooked machine in reality, without knowing where to aim your anger, where to put your strength. So this section takes you, from a height, to drag that thing that bent the machine crooked out into the open, and see it clearly.

This section takes you, from a height, to see the thing that bound it crooked. That thing is a lock. Let me point this lock out to you first. It has a name, one you hear every day, hear until your ears have grown calluses. The collusion of officials and business.

Let me break it open for you, how this lock got clasped onto that machine. Look back at the last section. In that machine there is a hand, the official, holding power, whose calling is to manage matters on behalf of the public, to protect the people. In the third chapter, there was another hand told of, business, holding capital, whose instinct is to chase profit, to make the pie big, and which may also be driven by that lock of earn-nothing-and-be-wiped-out to go wringing people.

These two hands, what relation were they meant to have? By rights, that hand of the official is the one that should, on behalf of the public, watch business, manage business, and if business wrings people, harms people, that hand of the official blocks it, manages it, protects the people. This is the official's calling, joining what the sixth section of the third chapter pointed at, that the strand of politics is to bend the official back to the position of managing business for the public. One watching, one being watched, well water not crossing river water, and the machine is clean.

But once these two hands clasp together, business feeds the money to the official, and the official takes his power and uses it to shield business. That hand which was meant to manage business on behalf of the public turns around instead and props up the business that wrings people.

With this one clasping, the machine is bound. The official who was meant to protect the people becomes one who protects the business that wrings people. The business that was meant to be managed, with an official behind it, has nothing left it dares not do. Why does the front line torment you so unafraid? Why are the heavy taxes and harsh levies collected so out in the open? Because that hand which was meant to manage all this, to protect you, has already clasped together with the one wringing you. It not only fails to protect you, it turns around and props up the one wringing you.

Look back at that relation of boss and hired hand from the last section, and you understand better still how bad this clasping is. By rights, the government, this hired hand, was hired by the boss to mind the shop, to protect the boss. Business is one who comes into the shop to do trade. This hired hand's calling is to watch business for the boss, to keep business from cheating the boss. But now this hired hand has, the other way around, taken business's benefit, and pulled on the same pair of trousers as business. Business comes to cheat the boss, and this hired hand not only does not block it, he helps business cheat along. You, this boss, hired a hand to protect yourself, and the result is that this hand colludes with the outsider and, the other way around, the two of them dig into your pocket together. This is the worst, the most people-wounding thing about the collusion of officials and business, it turns the one you paid to hire to protect you into one who harms you.

You see, this is that lock, the collusion of officials and business. It is like a lock that clasps the official's power and business's money dead tight together. Clasped, that clean machine which was meant to protect the people is bound crooked by it, and turns its head to come down on the very people it was meant to protect.

This lock, does it look familiar? Look back at the third chapter. In the third chapter there was that hand clutching the mountain of gold, with a lock on its head of earn-nothing-and-be-wiped-out. At that time a line was buried and never told in detail, that the reason that hand could wring so unafraid was that behind it, it was clasped to a hand that propped it up.

That propping hand is the official spoken of here. That lock which let business be so unafraid is the collusion of officials and business spoken of here. So this lock in this section is joined to that lock in the third chapter, they are two faces of the same game. The third chapter looked from business's end and saw a hand locked by earn-nothing-and-be-wiped-out. This section looks from the official's end and sees that behind that hand, there is clasped a lock of collusion of officials and business, propping it up. Two locks, clasped together, are what let that machine turn so deeply crooked, so unafraid.

With this lock pointed out, let me stop you a moment, stop that thought just rising up in your heart. You have made out this lock of the collusion of officials and business, and what is that thought in your heart? Most likely, how detestable, these colluding officials, these bribing businessmen, are bad people, villains, vermin, they should be dragged out, brought down, dealt with harshly. That fire in your heart, up it flares, all at once.

Let me ask you to press this fire down first. It is not that the fire is without reason. It is that the moment this fire rises, you can no longer see that lock clearly. Your eyes will slide off that lock and onto those few detestable people. You will fix your whole mind on how to bring those few people down, and forget the lock. And here I mean to tell you, the real thing is that lock, not those few people.

So let me set up a line for you, one that grates on the ear, and that chills you the moment you think it through. The collusion of officials and business, do not rush to curse it as evil. It is not an evil deed. It is a mechanism.

What is a mechanism? Let me break it open for you. Look at that businessman, why does he go feeding the official money? It is not because he is born bad, born wanting to bribe. It is because, in feeding this money, this is a means, that can be exchanged for the official's cover, exchanged for the business going through, exchanged for earning more, and this is the end he means to reach. He feeds the money to reach his end.

Look again at that official, why does he take business's money, prop business up? It is not because he is born a vermin either. It is because, using that bit of power in his hand to do business a favor, this is a means, that can be exchanged for money, for benefit, for climbing up himself, and this is the end he means to reach. He uses his power to reach his end.

Do you see it now, business, using money as a means, to reach the end of earning more. The official, using power as a means, to reach the end of getting benefit. Two people, each holding the thing in his own hand, one money, one power, as a means, to trade for the thing in the other's hand, each reaching his own end.

Is this an evil deed? It is not. It is a transaction, a mechanism. You use yours to reach yours, I use mine to reach mine, the two hit it off at once, and it turns of itself. It is like water flowing to the low place. Water flows to the low place, and would you curse the water as evil? You would not. Water flowing to the low place is the way it flows of itself, a natural, self-turning thing. This lock of the collusion of officials and business is just such a thing. So long as one side has power and one side has money, so long as the road of trading power for money, each reaching his end, is open, it turns of itself, naturally.

Do not think small of this water-flowing-to-the-low-place comparison. What it says is that this thing does not rest on anyone scheming it, organizing it, leading it. It happens of itself. So long as that condition sits there, one side clutching power, one side clutching money, and the two able to trade benefit, then this collusion, like water meeting the low place, flows over of itself, clasps together of itself. You dam this pool of water today, clear out these few colluding people, but that low place is still there, that condition that lets them trade benefit is still there, and the water flows over again from somewhere else, and new people clasp together. This is why it is said to be a mechanism, not an evil. Because an evil is a bad heart some one person raised, and you deal with that one person and it is done. A mechanism is that condition working of itself, and unless you change that condition, deal with however many people and it is no use.

Let me give it a name, using means to reach ends. Business takes money as a means, to reach the end of cover. The official takes power as a means, to reach the end of benefit. This whole collusion of officials and business is just such a mechanism of using means to reach ends, turning of itself.

Then you say, in speaking of this, is it to make excuses for those colluding people? Is it to say, oh, it is a mechanism, so being corrupt is no matter, colluding is understandable? It is not. Let me speak plainly, so you do not hear it crooked. To see that it is a mechanism is not to excuse it, to indulge it. Just the opposite. It is so that it can truly be solved.

Think, if you take it for an evil done by a few villains, what will you do? You will go drag those few people out, bring those few people down. But that mechanism is still there. You bring this one down, and so long as there is still someone with power, someone with money, and still that open channel of trading power for money and each reaching his end, that mechanism turns of itself again at once, swaps in another batch, and goes on clasping. You bring a hundred down, and that mechanism has not moved an inch, and the hundred and first batch clasps together just the same. Fix your eyes on the people and strike, and you can strike a whole lifetime and never be done, because it is a mechanism that turns of itself, the people are replaced batch after batch, and the mechanism turns just the same.

So let me have you take your eyes off those few detestable people, and move them onto that mechanism that turns of itself. To curse those few people as evil, drag them out, strike them, does not solve it. Because the problem is not in those few people, they too were drawn into this mechanism, each reaching his own end. The problem is in that mechanism where, so long as there is power and there is money to trade, each can reach his end. To solve it, you have to go undo that mechanism, not go strike those few people. How to undo that mechanism, that is the business of the later sections of this chapter. This section only needs you to press that fire that wants to strike people down first, and see clearly, this is a mechanism that turns of itself, not the evil of a few people. See this clearly, and you will not go rushing headlong down that dead road of bringing down bad people.

You may feel that to press the fire down, not to go cursing those few detestable people, leaves you pent up, ungratified. This anger, I understand it. But you have to see that venting your anger and solving the thing are two different matters. Curse a round, bring a few down, and your anger is vented, yes, but that mechanism is still there, and in a while it clasps up again, and you have vented for nothing, and the thing has not gotten one bit better. What is wanted here is not to let you vent a moment's anger. It is to truly undo that lock that thousands of years never undid, so that you, and millions upon millions of people, are no longer bitten by it going forward. So this anger, hold it a while, press it a while, and fix your eyes on that lock that truly ought to be undone. The next section takes you to see how big this mechanism has spread.

Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.