Sarah Palin, Taoist Sage, Again

The abrupt and bizarre resignation of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, has befuddled many political commentators.  Why did she do it?  What is she thinking?  Is it a shrewd political move or a delusional political suicide?  She seems to have stumped the best journalists of the day...

But not me.  I understand Sarah Palin.  She is a Taoist politician, best described, a la passage 20 of the Daodejing as: "muddled," "inept," "a simpleton."  Thus her incoherent resignation statement makes perfect sense.  She said, essentially, that if she stayed in her job she would be a "quitter."  It was only by quitting that she would not be a quitter.  And no one understood this.  But it is clear (to me at least) that she is making a sly reference to passage 38 of the Daodejing, which begins:

High Integrity never has Integrity and so is indeed Integrity. 

Low Integrity never loses Integrity and so is not at all Integrity.

In other words, a really steadfast person (i.e. a non-quitter) is like the person of "High Integrity" in the quote above.  It is only because the steadfast person never has to live up to the artificial standards of "steadfastness" created by the mainstream media and established political leaders that she attains a genuine steadfastness.  Conversely, a quitter (i.e. a person of "Low Integrity") always publicly declares affinity to conventional standards of steadfastness and, thus, is not at all steadfast, a real quitter.  

Got it?

For those of you out there who are hoping that this is truly the end of Palin's political career, I can point out that, in the contemporary US, those who attempt to use a Taoist approach to gain power and influence, are not generally successful.  Save, of course, George W. Bush.

Comments

[Ahistoricality]

This is the most coherent nice statement I've seen about Palin's announcement (I've seen nicer, but they didn't make any sense, and I've seen more sensible, but they weren't nice). I think you've done as well as humanly possible.

[gmoke]

"...the only thing that goes with the flow is a dead fish..." Sarah Palin

A dead fish dreaming it is a Governor or a Governor dreaming she is a dead fish?

[Vincent]

Well, this is nice and its wonderful that Palin has found such a wise admirer. But is George W Bush the user of a successful Taoist approach? What a lovely positive way to look at the world. I want to join!

[mark pribble]

Sarha Palin giving china advise on money matters would be like Rush Limbaugh giving Lance Armstrong advive on how to win a cycling race.