Originally Posted By: Streamer
In Buddhism in the Tao Te Ching they have the concept of wu wei. It's usually translated as action-inacton or effortless action. It's when your action/non-action and intentions flow effortlessly in natural order, overcoming suffering and obtaining enlightenment. This idea should have been applied to covid as well. The evidence shows it would have done the same or less harm, while avoiding the unintended consequences in the economy, peoples mental health, and academic achievement with children.


Wu wei can mean those things, it is also translated as "not doing anything", "not forcing", "not acting" , "creating nothingness", "acting spontaneously", "flowing with the moment" and my personal favorite "going with the flow." Acting out of wu wei brings you out of balance with the tao or out of harmony with natural order. It cetainly is relevant here, however might be too much to expect from this crowd.

Overcoming suffering and achieving enlightenment are higher order self actualization/transcendence levels of being at the pinnacle of Maslow's hierarchy of needs where Salmo, the bureaucrats and the rest of the Covid crowd are down on the bottom tier of physiological/safety.