Laozi, Utopia, and the Double Donkey Salute

What would a Daoist utopia actually look like? A perfect society? A better political system? A sacred rulebook everyone finally agrees to follow? Not exactly. In this free episode of Living the Tao (1-187), Master Mikel Steenrod and Morgan explore the Daoist view of utopia, and why Taoism begins with personal liberation rather than social control. The conversation moves through the Tao Te Ching, Confucianism, Laozi as the fed-up scholar leaving society behind, and the uncomfortable truth that humans may be building machines faster than they are developing wisdom. Along the way, the episode asks a sharper question: What if the reason humanity cannot build a perfect world is that humans have not yet developed enough to imagine one? This is a talk about Taoism, technology, failed ideologies, personal freedom, and the double donkey salute of Laozi riding out of a broken system. In this episode: Why the Tao Te Ching did not create Taoism The difference between personal liberation and social rule-making Why Daoism is not apolitical, but anti-political How technology can outpace human development Why old “isms” keep failing What a Taoist utopia might actually require   Watch the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/6H5JFASQ10Q 🎧 Listen to more Living the Tao Shorts & full episodes: https://podcast.the-taoism-for-modern-world.com The supercast version of this episode has extensive commentary: https://living-the-tao.supercast.com Intro music: “Finding Movement” by Kevin MacLeod — licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Source: incompetech.com