Balance of Power

I've been thinking long and hard about my beliefs. Constantly challenging and reexamining. A thought a few snags I would share with you to see what your imput is.

Anything in it's extreme is bad. A long held Taoist principal is that excess and extremes are bad. Take for example power.
Lets take a current example with President Bush. He may in fact be a god-loving christian... but power has far greater a corrupting effect then most people realize. Most presidents don't have a lock-grip on congress like he does currently and therefore have a diminished power base. To make matters worse our country was attacked giving him free reign to seize even more power. An excess of power can destroy anyone, even a good hearted christian. The ideal solution is to balance power with power. In my own life I have to learn how to balance my own power with the power of others. Too much and I become a tyrant... too little and I become a slave.

I struggle because like all people I want control of my life. I want to say that certain things are under my control. Perhaps this is a way of psychologically asserting control over a situation which honestly can never be fully controlled. Yet then again too little control and I drift around like floatsam on the swells of the ocean. If I go to battle of course I want to control my enemies actions and movements... of course I want to do what is needed to attain victory...

Control is a great comfort; it really is. Yet control is empty... it is not dynamic and it does not give rise to creativity and spontanaity. The trick is as always in my philosophical school of thought in balance. Sometimes a momentary excess is needed to lift yourself to another plane or to experience something new and euphoric. Perhaps if I become a political agent or military commander I need to control people... but in life that sort of control is wrong and many levels. It's danger is plainly clear, tyrants live in fear and deprave themselves of the basic human need of trust. I would rather discard the need for control and opt for cooperation.. for true leadership. A true leader does not make his followers believe what he believes... he reflects what they believe. He does not order them; instead he vocalizes the words that stir within their hearts they cannot put name to.

All things I quietly reflect on this night. Perhaps someday I find realize my ideal of a world without excesses of power. But I am consoled in knowing that another taoist law works against those evil tyrants... the law that nothing on this earth is immortal or eternal. They suffer from decay, loss of control and power. disinterest and boredom. Strain. They are replaced by those they have oppresed and those people in turn are corrupted by that power until they to are overthrown. Evil is not an absolute, but like all energy it is dynamic and constantly changing.