Tolerating Uselessness

The article entitled "Useless" was posted last time. Its attempt was to prove the uselessness should not treated as a sin and it can actually be a virtue with reference to Taoist teaching. This is an emerging crisis labelling individuals to ostracise them with the useless label, which Prof. Yuval Harari has warned of in his book "21 lessons for the 21st century". Taoism is indeed innovative enough to appreciate the uselessness and the lack of the conformity required for industrial socioeconomic structures. This project is designed to be a salvation for individuals labelled as useless as well as non-conforming. 

The current socioeconomic structure has become more capital intensive than the past. Employees and clients tend to require individuals to be equipped with multiple high skill-sets demanding money and time as well as their talents including efforts, innate abilities, and fortune to be in a right environment to achieve it. It has become materially more convenient with remarkably rapid technological innovations deriving the microeconomic advantages for firms and fortunate talented individuals. By contrast, the rest majority individuals are less likely to enjoy their microeconomic advantages while losing the equality of the opportunity to increase their income, seek better employment, and drastically improve their lifestyle.

The emerging crisis of labelling individuals as useless does not only take place in Capitalism but also in Socialism which regards highly of bearing social responsibility for all individuals. As a matter of fact, Socialism insists on participating in increasing the productivity and individuals' conformity to achieve it more than Capitalism because its productivity is demanded for deserving the whole society. Therefore, the problem of the social exclusion can be intensive in Socialism where none can be free to isolate themselves from conforming to their society. 

Almost all the political and moral philosophies having existed in the world regard of uselessness as the negative characteristic of individuals. They also insist that individuals should bear their responsibility for being non-conformists themselves without seeking supports from other individuals and society. These philosophies affirm there is a socioeconomic model with its standard which individuals are ought to comply with to achieve what they regard highly of. 

By contrast, Taoism is extremely unique as a political and moral philosophy adapting a tolerant perspective in its political and moral philosophy. The element of these academic subjects is intensively the Yang 陽 (light) kind claming for consistency, good-will, order, and perfection. When individuals and their society too much cling to accomplishing what these academic subjects insist on, it disturbs the balanced harmony of the natural world because the Yang 陽 element becomes excess. In order to maintain the balance, it requires to accept the Ying 陰 (shadow) element representing ambiguity, necessary-evil, passiveness, and, most importantly, tolerance. 

Perhaps, the socioeconomics had better focus more than usefulness for achieving their material prosperity and the philosophical and moral perfection. It had better re-evaluating the importance of slowing down the unbalanced growth among individuals and their living environments as well as tolerating the imperfection of how individuals and their society shape themselves. Instead of expecting all individuals to comply with their standard, the socioeconomic should rather take account of the factor that there are individuals unable to either be useful for the society standard or conforming to the social structure. 

All individuals are endowed with something necessary to be born in this terrestrial world by birth although nobody can be sure what it really is. It is extremely arrogant to judge an individual as no worth to live in the world as though someone were pretending to be the creator often called God pleaching. Uselessness in the terrestrial world has the use which is unable to be known by means of the mainstream terrestrial human standard. There are still several matters in this terrestrial world nature which human individuals do not yet know. 

On the other hand, there is an advantage for individuals to be useless. It means that they are less likely to be exploited than those who are treated as useful. Taoism refers to a tree with a distorted shape having survived without being chipped off as a resource. The existence of a tree is already helping to supply oxygen by its photosynthesis and taking a part of the dynamic natural environment. Furthermore, as explained in Taoism, this distorted shape can be comfortable to lean onto to be relaxed with. Judging from this story, an individual labelled as useless and/or non-conforming should be proud of her/himself instead of feeling miserable or giving up her/his life.

Having considered these matters, the tolerance seems to be the key to accept individuals labelled as useless. Instead of either abandoning them being excluded from the society mainstream or forcing them to conform to the socioeconomic standard, it might be feasible not to artificially fix the problem so promptly. As Taoism teaches, individuals had better lean how to be passive to the freely flowing spontaneous natural flow of how their surrounding environment changes. Moreover, everyone should be proud of themselves without being either arrogant or miserable. All in all, useless is just one shape existing in the natural world so that it has its own freedom to exist.