Sep. 20th, 2002 01:10 pm
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muckefuckOne of my favourite parables stems from the Legalist school of ancient China. In some ways, the Legalists anticipated Machiavelli by almost two milennia. They had little patience for the idealism of Confucianism, with its hearkening back to the enlightened emperors of China's mythological past. Here's how Han Feizi, their chief theorist, put it:
Today, I feel a bit like a farmer of Song. I had intended to leave after my morning meeting, but I was worried that we might get some student candidates for our open positions. They tend to come in a flood at the beginning of the school year and then dry up; if they don't flee when they hear what the job consists of, we pretty much hire them on the spot. If we don't, they'll interview with someone else who will most likely do the same. Usually, there's someone else here to back me up, but he took the day off and my boss has no time for interviews this afternoon.
In any case, I had just about decided that, damn the hires, I was going to leave at one when I got a call from Personnel. The student had no obvious flaws and I snapped him up. Part of me says, "Well done! Now you can leave with a sense of satisfaction!" But I still have one more slot to fill and I half expect another rabbit to come bounding through my field.
There was a farmer of Song who tilled the land, and in his field was a stump. One day a rabbit, racing across the field, bumped into the stump, broke its neck, and died. Thereupon the farmer laid aside his plow and took up watch beside the stump, hoping that he would get another rabbit in the same way. But he got no more rabbits, and instead became the laughing stock of Song. Those who think they can take the ways of the ancient kings and use them to govern the people of today [e.g., the Confucians] all belong in the category of stump-watchers! (Trans. by Burton Watson.)
Today, I feel a bit like a farmer of Song. I had intended to leave after my morning meeting, but I was worried that we might get some student candidates for our open positions. They tend to come in a flood at the beginning of the school year and then dry up; if they don't flee when they hear what the job consists of, we pretty much hire them on the spot. If we don't, they'll interview with someone else who will most likely do the same. Usually, there's someone else here to back me up, but he took the day off and my boss has no time for interviews this afternoon.
In any case, I had just about decided that, damn the hires, I was going to leave at one when I got a call from Personnel. The student had no obvious flaws and I snapped him up. Part of me says, "Well done! Now you can leave with a sense of satisfaction!" But I still have one more slot to fill and I half expect another rabbit to come bounding through my field.