Subject: Equal Treatment & Judge and Jury
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 11:32:07 +0000
From: Alisa Joaquin
To: [UUCF Chat]
Natural law is blind, its justice evenhanded. The consequences of one's behavior are inescapable. Being human is no excuse.
The wise leader does not try to protect people from themselves. The light of awareness shines equally on what is pleasant and on what is not pleasant.
People are not better than the rest of creation. The same principle which underlies human beings underlies everything equally.
Neither is one person or one people better than the rest of humanity. The same principle is everywhere. One person is as worthy as the next. Why play favorites?
Everything demonstrates the law. Just because the Tao is not a thing does not mean that the Tao is nothing. A little humility is in order.
Knowing this, the leader does not pretend to be special. The leader does not gossip about others or waste breath arguing the merits of competing theories.
Silence is a great source of strenth.
It is not the leader's role to play judge and jury, to punish people for 'bad' behavior. In the first place, punishment does not effectively control behavior.
But even if punishment did work, what leader would dare use fear as a teaching method?
The wise leader knows that there are natural consequences for every act. The task is to shed light on these natural consequences, not to attack the behavior itself.
If the leader tries to take the place of nature and act as judge and jury, the best you can expect is a crude imitation of a very subtle process.
At the very least, the leader will discover that the instrument of justice cuts both ways. Punishing others is punishing work.