THERE IS NO CONCEPT MORE alien to our hyperactive western minds than that of wu wei or non-action. A cornerstone of the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism, wu wei – which might also be translated as "creative quietude", "effortlessness" or "the ar
t of letting be" – means allowing things to take their natural course rather than bending them to our wills. For all its connotations of slovenliness and neglect, this is actually far more testing than it looks. Is it not easier to bludgeon one's way through life than to be calmly, sanely, contentedly aware; more gratifying to the ego to rant and rave than to accept whatever's happening? But most importantly of all, as those mountain-dwelling sages knew, the cultivation of wu wei is the master key to life's sweetest joys.
Tom Hodgkinson's ongoing "Idler" project, which has so far encompassed two truly subversive books as well as the eponymous magazine, is essentially the application of sound wu wei principles to the soulless merry-go-round of modern life. The very fact that "idling" has such negative associations shows how in thrall we remain to the bleak Protestant work ethic, with its glorification of perpetual busy-ness and the hard-won acquisition of wealth and possessions (but how smart of Hodgkinson to use it, rather than some other, more high-sounding term – by appealing to people's laziness rather than their spiritual aspirations, he draws a far broader audience).
We are all free, the Idler ethic argues, to unshackle our happiness from both our spending power and the technology that isolates and hypnotises us. This, surely, is the liberating message no-one in politics or big business wants you to hear.
Since small children are natural idlers, fun-loving anarchists with a genius for play, it seems right that Hodgkinson has now turned his attention to the neurotic world of "parenting" (a word whose very existence, as he points out, implies an inability to be relaxed and happy with our kids). The idle/wu wei approach to raising children boils down to one simple maxim, as proposed by DH Lawrence in his 1918 essay Education of the People: "Leave the child alone." That this sounds irresponsible to modern ears, if not downright heretical, indicates just how hemmed-in and over- monitored childhood has become.
We cosset, serve, entertain and control our children and then lose our tempers when they emit the long whine of the pampered and powerless (just like dogs, the only whining members of the animal kingdom). "Hands-on" parenting has so much to answer for.
The excellence of the idle/wu wei attitude to parenthood is that everyone benefits, more relaxed parents leading to more relaxed children and vice versa. Freed from the tyranny of constant adult supervision and worthy, essentially hateful activities such as music lessons and organised sports, the child's wild spirit and imagination can flourish in peace. Meanwhile, the parents, no longer crazed by the need to be "well-organised automatons", are lighter of heart and able actually to enjoy rather than merely fund and ferry around their children. "Remember that the more idle the parent," Hodgkinson writes, "the happier the child, because the idle parent is spontaneous: joyful, free of resentment and therefore better company."
And children who do not have everything done for them can develop their considerable self- sufficiency rather than lose it altogether (the inevitable fate of the over-mothered). Add liberal doses of music, jovial company and deep woods for play – central to the idle, not to say Taoist, life – and you have a recipe for bright, happy people with need of neither television nor shrink. Who could ask for more?
