Hey. It’s me — Lloyd Dobler.
Welcome back for Chapter Two — entry two of Season 2.

Each episode I share a chapter of the Tao Te Ching, sandwiched around my thoughts about how the Overton window accepts American fascism but rejects Medicare for All… or trying to meditate like Ram Dass taught me while still catching myself refreshing the feed to see if Dianne ever opened that last voicemail… or how Gen X learned to surf apocalypse waves on broken furniture.

Why do I do this?

I mean, does that sound like a podcast with a wide audience? 

I have no idea.

What I do know is that we in the United States need to drive Trump out of office — not with elections (voting for “better Democrats” for the last fifty years is what got us here), not with guns or violence, and not with another online petition — but with a massive, non-violent revolution built on spiritual wisdom.

Am I a master? Spiritually wise? A guru?
Not really.

I’m a fictional character from a 1980s movie who grew up and started duct-taping Zen Molotov cocktails to your doom-scroll.

But are there any wise spiritual sages calling for this revolution? Not that I’m aware of.

So let’s roll up our sleeves, crack open this ancient text, and figure this shit out together.
Are you with me, or are you with me?

If you were here last time, you remember:
“The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.”
Which is a hell of a line to kick off a podcast about the Tao.
But that’s how this works —

The words aren’t the thing.
They’re the feedback between what is and what’s falling apart.
And make no mistake — it’s falling apart.

We’re living in the remix of the end of an empire.
Where you look through the Overton window and somehow can’t see Medicare for All —
but you can see fifty-grand signing bonuses to join ICE.

America didn’t suddenly turn into a fascist state —
it just finally stopped hiding the bassline.
Went back into the studio for a remix
and cranked that bass all the way up to Primus.
So now they are all but saying the crazy shit out loud. Because we al know, and now even the MAGA crowd is advancing polices that equate to “make America great again” really meaning white again, straight again, scared again.

For all of my life, the USA has been exporting coups like Operation Ajax, and branding it democracy—selling regime change like Girl Scout cookies for the military-industrial complex.
Now the imperial feedback loop came home,
roosting like one of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s chickens,
blasting through your feed like a patriotic dubstep drop.
So now we’ve got a bunch of Pete Hegseth wannabees invading our cities and neighborhoods.

(breathes, then softens)

But the Tao says — stop shouting at the river.
It’s still gonna flow.
All this grasping, naming, defending the illusion — that’s the noise we mistake for rhythm.
Trying to be authentic is the fastest way to fake it.
You don’t need to try to be natural.
Trying is the opposite of natural.

Lao Tzu’s whole thing?
He’s not giving us a self-help manual.
He’s giving us the instruction sheet for uninstalling the ego.

When he talks about the Master, I don’t picture a man in robes on a mountain.
I picture someone who’s finally stopped pretending to steer the river.
Someone who lets the Tao move through them —
no agenda, no merch table, no campaign slogan.

That’s mastery.
Letting go of control because you finally realize there was never any control to begin with.
And in dropping that illusion, something wild happens.
You stop performing power and start radiating ease.
You get effortless cool.
Effortless authenticity.
You become the flow.

(Bell chime — the inhale before the reading begins.)

And now for the reading. This is Chapter 2 of the Tao Te Ching.

When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created.
When people see things as good, evil is created.
Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess,
acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.

(Bell chime.)

All right.
So Lao Tzu basically just subtweeted the entire internet.
The secret is non-doing.
Wu wei again — the art of letting go before your hand even clenches.

So today, I’m trying a little non-doing.
You can try it with me if you want.
Sit.
Unclench your jaw again — it’s still clenched.
Breathe in through the nose… hold for five.
Out through the nose… hold for five.

Notice what your brain does when I say:
“Don’t think about Trump.”
Exactly.
There he is, big mac in one hand, grabbing a pussy with the other, his limp red tie swinging in his crotch. 
Duality in action.
The mind rebels against negation, so the Tao tells us to quit naming things altogether.
The minute you name it, you trap it in polarity — like catching a butterfly and complaining it won’t fly.

Lao Tzu says:
The Master acts without doing anything and teaches without saying anything.
That line haunts me.
Because, hello, I literally teach by saying things.
And podcasting? It’s weaponized saying things.

Charlie Kirk was a bully with a microphone who weaponized hate, wrapped it around a crucifix, and tried to fuck us all into white Christian nationalism — and it made him rich. His influence on national politics is even stronger now that he’s food for worms.

Prove me wrong.

(He laughs quietly.)

Dianne used to tell me my problem was I wanted credit for being humble.
She wasn’t wrong.
So yeah — working on that.

What if we stopped trying to fix the world and started witnessing it?
Not passive — present.
Like the Tao says:
Things arise, she lets them come;
things disappear, she lets them go.
That’s wu wei.
That’s grace.
That’s the opposite of cable news.

(Soft music fades in — lo-fi, analog warmth.)

So here’s your guided non-meditation:
When the world screams “pick a side,”
try standing still.
And maybe you’ll see a side you couldn’t see while you were busy picking one.
And maybe that side is not MSNBC and it’s not FOX News — maybe, just maybe, it’s a new revolutionary path forward.

I’m on that path. Or looking for it.

(small beat)
You coming?

That’s Chapter 2.
One paradox closer to peace.
If this helped you unclench something — your jaw, your politics, your plan to fix everyone — you can help support this project with a monthly contribution at Patreon.com/TaoOfLloyd.

I’ll see you next time for Chapter 3.

From the edge of empire and the center of self —
this is The Tao of Lloyd.