Agreed, Amos. Ah, yes...when will TERROR give in, and come crawling forth from the shadows and surrender? LOL! What a sad situation it is. Can we yet expect an official "War Against Evil"? Boy, that one could just go on forever and ever...being the snake that attempts to devour its own tail.

Anyway, Hurrah for Lao-Tse! (or Lao Tzu) He remains profoundly on the mark. Taoism is the healthiest and sanest philosophy out there, in my opinion.]

The "left" as Lao Tse says, by the way, has fairly little to do with present political notions of Left and Right. It is the female aspect in Nature...that is, it is the quality of flexibility and yielding, as opposed to rigidity and resisting. It flows like water. The "right" resists like rock. Water will always conquer rock in time, and can easily flow around it. The rock wears away. The water endures. The water conquers by not resisting, but by simply flowing in ease along the most harmonious path.

Another example: A tree which appears very strong and rigid (the way of the "right") will break in a huge windstorm. A tree which is flexible and giving will bend, but not break. It will survive the storm. The flexible tree is of the "left". The rigid tree is of the "right". Masculine archetype tends toward "right", feminine toward "left", but you can always have cases of a woman who is typically "right" in her nature or a man who is "left" in his nature, so it is not necessarily determined by a person's gender at all.

Those statements are allegorical, and can be applied to any human situation if you understand how to apply them.

Or...they're completely meaningless...if you don't. ;-)

Find anything inflexible in yourself, and you will find that which will eventually cause you (and others?) pain and loss in life. Flexibility of both body and mind is most desirable and healthful. Flexibility also is indicative of a peaceful mind. Rigidity is indicative of a fearful mind. The fearful go to war frequently, because their fear drives them to. The peaceful fight only when they must.