VOLUME VI, CHAPTER 4, SECTION 9
One Lock, No One System Can Undo It, It Takes Four Strengths at Once
The last section set up the first step, to save first the people inside the political system. This section tells what to save them with. Let me first say a plain thing to you. To save these locked people, to undo that lock, resting on politics alone will not undo it. That lock is power, money, rules, and the human heart, four strands twisted into one hard lump, and it takes culture, the economy, politics, and law, four systems, four strengths, brought at once. This time politics is the main force, and the other three come to help, so that the official caught in the lock cannot, does not want to, need not, and dares not, go on colluding. Cannot, do not want to, need not, dare not, these eight words are the frame of this section, hold them in your heart first, and going down, let me break them open, strand by strand.
Let me set a line before you first. To save these locked people, to undo that lock, resting on politics alone, will not undo it. You probably feel that the collusion of officials and business is a matter of politics, so should it not be managed, cured, by the methods of politics? Let me tell you, resting on politics alone will not cure it.
Why? Look back at the eleventh section of the third chapter, which told the same reasoning, that lock was never a simple iron chain, that one snip of the shears will break. It is several strands, twisted together, one hard lump.
This lock of the collusion of officials and business is the same. Take it apart and see which strands it is twisted of. The strand of power, that bit of power in the official's hand, is one end of this lock. The strand of money, those monies in business's pocket, is the other end. The strand of rules, that set of rules that makes collusion compliant, makes the private coffer lawful, lets procedural justice drive a person to death, the sections before spoke of it. And the strand of the human heart, that official drawn in, the thought in his heart of I too am doing it to rise, to keep my family, everyone does this, the reason he found himself, spoken of before. Power, money, rules, the human heart, this lock is these four, twisted together, into one hard lump.
Picture it as a thick rope twisted of four strands. One strand power, one money, one rules, one the human heart, four braided together into a rope thick and hard, binding fast that machine, and binding fast that official. To loosen this rope, undo only the strand of power, will that do? It will not. You loosen the strand of power, and the strands of money, rules, and the human heart are still braided tight, and the rope still binds, and the strand you loosened is soon drawn tight again by the other three. You have to undo the four strands at once, loosen this one, loosen that one, and that strangling rope comes loose as a whole. That lock of the collusion of officials and business is just such a rope of four strands.
Then take politics alone and go undo it, will that do? It will not. Politics, this one, can bend the strand of power, bend that hand of the official, from propping business up, back to managing business on behalf of the public. But you have only bent the power, and the strand of money is still colluding, the strand of rules still follows it, the strand of the human heart still thinks of skimming, and you have pressed the official's hand down on this side, and the other strands are still taut, and in a while that lock coils itself back. A lock of four twisted strands, undo only one strand, and it does not come undone.
Then what is to be done? It takes four things, brought at once. And this leads back to that most important great claim of this book, the systems of this world are not of one kind only, they are four, culture, the economy, politics, law. They are the five fingers on one hand, completing one another, propping one another, helping one another, and keeping one another in check. A lock of four twisted strands takes these four systems, four strengths, brought at once, before it can be undone.
Look back at the eleventh and twelfth sections of the third chapter, saving the economic kinds of people, undoing that lock of the third chapter, what was used was exactly these four strengths brought at once. Come to this chapter, saving the people inside the political system, undoing this lock of the collusion of officials and business, it is still these four strengths brought at once. Only, this time, the main force is changed. That lock of the third chapter, the strand of capital was thickest, so the economy, there being enough, was the main force. This lock of this chapter, the strand of power is thickest, it is the collusion of officials and business, coiled on this machine of politics, so this time politics is the main force, and the other three, culture, the economy, law, come to help, to lend a hand.
Let me tell you clearly how these four strands are used, one at a time. The first strand, politics, bends that hand back to its proper place. This is the main force. That official, that bit of power in his hand, what was it for in the first place? The first section set it up, to manage matters on behalf of the public, to protect the people. It is that lock, the collusion of officials and business, that bent this hand which was meant to manage business for the public crooked, bent it into a hand that props business up, wrings the people for business, works a private coffer for itself. What the strand of politics, the main force, means to do is to bend this hand, from the crooked place, back, back to the proper place of managing business for the public, protecting the people. How to bend it? That is the business to be told in detail in the next two sections, oversight, letting that hand be under the light, letting rising in office rest on being for the people and not on skimming. For this passage, hold this, the work of the strand of politics is to bend that hand, from propping business up, back to managing business for the public. Bend the hand back to its proper place, and the thickest strand of that lock, power, loosens. This is called making him cannot. Press him down, bend him back, so that he cannot, in that position, go on propping and wringing the people.
But bending the hand alone is not enough. Press the hand down, bend it back, and that official in his heart still wants to skim, that set of rules outside still follows the collusion, things are still not enough for him and he has to take more, and the moment you let go, that hand coils itself back. So it takes the other three strands, brought alongside.
The second strand, culture, warms that official's heart, so that he does not want to collude. That official drawn in, in his heart there is a thing missing, those reasons he found himself, I too am doing it to rise, to keep my family, everyone does this. What he is missing is that heart of I sit in this position to serve the people. What the strand of culture means to do is, with character education, that set from the second chapter, to patch this missing heart back on, warm it back, let him understand anew that he sits in this position to do the people's work, not to collude and skim, let him think back to that whole breast of a true heart for the people he had when he tested in. Warm this heart back, and he himself no longer wants to collude.
Do not think small of these two words, do not want to. It was said before, high pay cannot keep integrity, that one clutching a mountain of gold, with money more than several lifetimes could spend, still cannot stop. Greed is bottomless, money does not fill it. What can truly make a person not corrupt is not how much money you give him, it is that heart for the people in him. This heart, culture raises. So the strand of culture brings its strength from inside the heart, politics bending the hand presses his hand from outside, so that he cannot, culture warming the heart melts his heart from inside, so that he does not want to. The hand pressed down, in his heart he still wants to, and catching a chance he will collude. The heart warmed back, he himself does not want to collude, and this is, at the root, loosening the person.
The third strand, the economy, draws the firewood from under the pot, so that he need not collude. That official, why does he collude, why skim? At the root there is one thing, he fears things are not enough, he wants to save more, take more, to leave himself, his family, one more road out. This is the same instinct as an ordinary person wanting to save to protect his family, the third chapter spoke of it, no shame in it at bottom. But the third chapter set up that enormous thing, there is, for the first time, enough. Productive power has made the pie big, there is enough for everyone, and, the non-labor share returned to the public, every person has his share, will not starve, has a way to live, has a floor under living and working in peace. That official sees that things are enough, that his share, his family's share, all have a floor, and he need no longer, for things being not enough, to save more take more, run that risk, go colluding. The strand of the economy draws the firewood from under the pot, pulls away that cause forcing him to collude, things not enough, have to take more, from under the pot. The cause drawn away, and he need not collude. You see, culture makes him not want to, the heart warmed, no longer wanting, the economy makes him need not, things enough, no longer needing, one from the heart, one from the root, pressing in from both sides, and that thought of wanting to collude goes slack.
The fourth strand, law, lays that line plain, so that he dares not collude. Not wanting to, needing not, still lacks one thing. The human heart can turn back and forth, and what if one day that heart goes cold again, that bit of greed stirs again? There has to be a clear line, set there. What the strand of law means to do is to lay that people-protecting bottom line plain, clear, to tell that hand clear as day, this line protects the people, cross it and it is harming the people, and it will not do. Set the line plain, so everyone can see it, joining the fifth chapter, law lays the bottom line plain and leads every person to keep himself in check.
Set this plain line, and that official, even if a thought still stirs in him once in a while, dares not cross it, because the line is there, plainly, and to cross it is plainly, clearly, to harm the people. Put these four strands together and look, politics bends the hand, so he cannot, in that position, prop and wring the people. Culture warms the heart, so he does not want to collude. The economy draws the firewood from under the pot, so he need not collude. Law lays the line plain, so he dares not collude. Cannot, do not want to, need not, dare not, four strengths, pressing his hand from outside, warming his heart from inside, drawing away from the root the cause that forced him, and setting plain on the line the boundary that blocks him. These four brought at once, and that hard lump twisted of power, money, rules, and the human heart, loosens, strand by strand.
And look back at these four strands, not one of them goes to bring that official down. Politics bends his hand, bends it back to its proper place, does not hack it off. Culture warms his heart, does not curse him. The economy draws away the cause that forced him, does not seize from him. Law lays that line plain, does not forcibly hold him down. Four strands, all of it undoing the lock, saving the person, taking that official caught in the lock, his conscience being destroyed, with that calamity of all-is-finished-if-it-comes-out hanging over him, on edge, and undoing him from that lock, letting him out, letting him go back to being a clean person who does the people's work.
Savor these four strengths brought together, how thorough, how gentle. It does not rest on dragging someone out to be struggled against, does not rest on parading someone out for display, does not rest on a life-and-death chaos. It is simply four systems, each minding a patch, bringing their strength at once, to undo that strangled lump, gently, strand by strand. Culture warms his heart, politics bends his hand, the economy draws away his cause, law blocks his feet. Loosen it from four sides at once, and that lock comes open before anyone knows it, and that locked official, together with the people bitten by that lock under his hand, is all unbound. No fighting and killing, no wrong answered with wrong, and the deadlock, just so, is undone. This is what that use-the-pen-not-the-knife, undo-the-lock-and-save-people, told all along, looks like, come down onto this hardest lock of politics, in the concrete.
This, this is what this section sets up, save first the people inside the political system, the four systems saving together. The method of saving is these four strengths, cannot, do not want to, need not, dare not, brought at once, to undo the person from the lock, not to bring him down, but to save him. And this is again that great claim this book holds all through, that there is no hard problem to be undone by any one system alone, and no one system that can fight alone. Culture, the economy, politics, law, were always used together, matched together, completing one another, checking one another. But that biggest knot in your heart is still there, you save him, undo him from the lock, then what he was corrupt in the past, how is it handled? Undone out, is he to go on sitting in the position? This knot, the next section tells especially, to save is to save him from going on committing crimes, not to shelter him in his position to go on being corrupt, and, in the saving, there is a line you would never expect, an iron, hard, with not the least room for bargaining.
Credit to the ancestors; the mistakes are mine: Tiger Lyon.