My Tao - To the Abyss and Back

A Tao master positions himself with a keen eye for risk and reward. Even when 100% sure of himself, he's never all in. He knows his limits. He knows that he may be wrong, and he knows the consequences of being wrong. Not only does he know these things, he acts on this knowledge. A Tao master will never throw caution to the wind and go all in just because he feels lucky. It's therefore extremely rare for a Tao master to find himself broke, or in other ways defeated.

However, we're not all Tao masters, and even Tao masters may find themselves defeated at some point. What then? Is this the end of the road? Staring into the abyss of failure, is it time to jump?

It's easy to think that all is lost when disaster strikes, especially if it's due to greedy or irresponsible behavior on our part. A 20 year old day-trader found himself suddenly short some 700,000 dollars. He responded by taking his own life. It was the only way out, he thought. The alternative would be a life as a slave for his creditors.

But bankruptcy is not the end of the line, even if it's permanent. I know, because I'm bankrupt myself. I have no official income or wealth, but I still owe the Norwegian taxman some 50,000 dollars. Few people are as relentless in their pursuit of money as the taxman, so there's no hope that I'll ever get off the hook. Yet I'm living a more fulfilling life now than I ever did.

As it turns out, there's a whole world out there that's free of taxmen and bank clerks, and its a far better world than the one we're supposed to live in. Once we leave the system behind, no-one cares what sort of debt we may have with a bank clerk or taxman. We get your pay outside the system.

We all have friends and family that may find our skills useful. They can either provide some work directly, or act as proxies. I pay all my bills through my wife and children. They also help direct money to me for my investments and labor. In this parallel economy, I'm quite wealthy. I have gold and a fixed income. With no taxes, bank fees, or erosion of saving through inflation, I'm doing very well on a very meager income.

This is not to say that bankruptcy is a smart first move towards personal liberation. It's not. The first move should always be to get into the parallel economy. Its only when all is clear that we can rationally choose to leave the taxman short changed. I went bankrupt after I was well established in the parallel economy. I nevertheless had a moment when I was staring into the abyss, and I very much advise against going that far. It's better to play things safe than to risk suicidal anxiety attacks. But a bit of risk taking is sometimes just the thing to do to regain some sense of autonomy. By facing the taxman head on in a position of safety, I quickly recovered from my depression.

All is not lost, even if things unfold in a chaotic and detrimental way. The door is always open to a better and simpler way of life where debt to banks and taxmen are irrelevant. There is plenty of folk tales about this. If we're truly down and out, we find a king for whom we take up service. If we're escaping the system with booty of our own, we establish ourselves as kings. Either way, there's the dynamic in which the king and the servant enter into mutually benefiting arrangements. The good servant may even become prince and king as the story unfolds.

There's a semi-magical world out there where life is both simpler and more honest. As the current system becomes evermore unlivable, this alternative will rise to dominance. Taking up service for a king is not the end of the line, but the beginning of an adventure. Luckily for us, it may even become the norm in a not too distant future.

By Michael Gredenberg - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link