< On Leadership: the Tragedy of the Tao / >

21 men and one woman stand around a Zen garden. They call themselves the G8 leaders; perhaps they think that the garden setting will make them seem wise. But this is the wrong setting. They should be in a Tao garden instead.

The Tao asks: If a platoon of soldiers disappears into a forest, what has happened to them?

The Tao answers: Nothing. They are not there.

The G8 "leaders" ask: If global climate crisis demands our immediate leadership and unwavering resolve, what will happen to us?

The G8 "leaders" answer: Nothing. We are incapable of leading and have no resolve.

The G8 "leaders" exit their meeting calling for a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, when they will all be dead. They do not specify what the baseline measurement for this reduction is. They make the reductions voluntary, not mandatory. They offer no guidance for how to make the reductions. They do not care if the living will all die with them.

The "leader" of the United States returns from the G8 meeting and orders his administration to freeze in a permanent state of inaction. The next president will take care of it.

The Tao asks: If a boulder falls into a stream and blocks the water's path, what happens?

The Tao answers: Nothing. Water moves around the rock. And eventually, the rock will be worn away by the water.

The G8 "leaders" think that they are the water, moving around the rock. But they are wrong. They are the rock.

And we must become the water now.

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