niomi

I am communicating with someone from Singapore (hi!). Who was (in English) discussing masculine & feminine energies as characteristics of a nation. I commented on the gendered-ness of this, and shared some thoughts on imperialism. They told me that English falls short of describing Taoism and ying & yang. The gendered terms are an incomplete approximation to English.

Ah, English... my cradle, and my foe. Insert Oedipal metaphors here.

I have read the Tao te Ching, it's pretty short, and meditative. As a teen, I read Tao of Pooh; based on my recollection, I'd still recommend it. I often return to Tao te Ching. It takes like 45 minutes for me to read the whole thing. It's poetic, and beautiful. Everyone should read it. To recommend a single one, Usula de Guin has a great translation and commentary.

There's a wonderful website that compares 5 translations simultaineously. I love it because I'm obsessed with adaptations and translations. Through this site, I found getting right with Tao. It seems mostly faithful, insightful, but also snarky and edgy. my favorite mood:

Don't spend too much time thinking about stupid shit. Why should you care if people agree or disagree with you? Why should you care if others find you attractive or not? Why should you care about things that worry others? Call bullshit on all that.

In a lot of media, like Star Trek with the character of Spock, a conflict of emotions and logic presents. But I've always felt like this is a false conundrum. Both, if they are even separate, can and should point in the same direction. I believe Tao te Ching describes that.

Can you wait for that kind of openness and clarity before you try to understand the world?

Can you hold still until events have unfolded before you do the right thing?

When you act without expectations, you can accomplish great things.

If one aligns their actions and values: Discouragement and insecurities about reaching goals and “win conditions” isn't as draining. Discipline is easier. Not absolutely easy, but that alignment is the source of energy within to persist. If unaligned, if people pleasing, if competing for possession, or to defeat rivals, that person becomes exhausted. They'll grind themselves to death, or worse. The internal conflict might look different between individuals. Emotions vs logic dichotomy is only one of many faces it may have.

Which brings me to... dialectal materialism. A Marxist buzzword we tend to throw around to impress others, or reduce or point. But it's difficult to define. I don't try to define it in words. But I'm always visualizing this:

...and in these discussions, dropping ☯️ reactions/emojis to undermine pedants and grandstanding. Perhaps I am appropriating. but I think it's a very good illustration of what Marxists should be doing with dialectics: Examining the contradiction in one side. Seeing its similarities in the apparent opposite, reconciling the whole. Extracting the grain of truth in the lies, reflecting it with greater clarity. Conveying how material incentives shape ideology, and then this ideology moves labor creating the materials. The loop, the pattern, the self-reinforcing system, creates and destroys all things.

In Chinese thought (and generally apart from greek/western dialectics & it's Marxist forms) I haven't expanded my knowledge of Taoism past Tao te Ching. And I don't recall any discussion of what Yin and Yang is, from that text specifically. There's a lot more to Taoism than the te Ching, though, so I went to Qwen to parse our discussions & further reading. It claims gendered framing of Yin & Yang cements for Han dynasty, about 200 years “before common era.” If so, gender binary has been a part yin/yang concept for awhile...but not always.

But even so, even the most gendered perspective demands of individuals (and states & nations): we must contain both. Something I refer to often not as yin & yang or dialectics but “Goldilocks theory”. Even business bros reflect on the vagueness of this. I recall a meme that says, roughly: “in a meeting, if you aren't paying attention: advocate for a correct balance. everyone will agree.”

But Tao te Ching, albeit poetic, is more substantive than most appearances of Goldilocks theory. Although it doesn't refer to the concept by name, it seems most reverent toward symbols that are generally thought of as yin-like. The world's stream, the valley, receptivity, humility, stillness. Perhaps there was too much weight on yang-ness at that time. As I would imagine there is also today. If not in specific places, globally.

Anyway... a comrade of mine, in an “eastern” country (which we, as westerners, should not be lumping together... but I am doing it, hoping to maintain their privacy.) is working on a Marxist theory of reproductive labor. I would like to work on disseminating for my USian comrades... I have been saving papers from them for a long time. One of the many things on my to-do list.

Also looking into, theorying: becoming-animal. Seems like the direction for this in my postmodern bullshit is Derrida. but also various feminist vegetarians.