[MD] So cometh MOQ, what next?

[Case]

[Case quoted] 
> Or as Lao Tzu says:
> "When a disciplinarian does something and no one
> responds He rolls up his sleeves in an attempt to
> enforce order.
> Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness.
> When goodness is lost, there is kindness.
> When kindness is lost, there is justice.
> When justice is lost, there is ritual.
> Now ritual is the husk of faith and loyalty, the
> beginning of confusion.
> Knowledge of the future is only a flowery trapping
> of the Tao. It is the beginning of folly."

[SA]
Are you reading this as a peeling of a banana? 
I am.  Therefore, when Tao is lost (peeled back and
discarded), then we will find goodness, but when
goodness is lost (peeled back and discarded), then
there is kindness, etc...  All the way to when justice
is peeled away and discarded we then find faith and
loyalty.  Lao Tzu then states that that is the
beginning of confusion.  By Knowledge of the future
trapping Tao, beginning of folly, I understand this as
conceptualizing Tao to be a dead end or beginning of
folly.  Thus, for us to know Tao in all of its'
transformative, changing ways, thinking we know how
the wind will blow in the coming moments is probable,
but not actually knowable until the wind does blow. 
Do you think that's correct?

[Case]
Only in the sense that the banana deteriorates as you peal it and when you
eat it is lost. I read this as a statement about the degeneration of and
eventual losing of The Way. I also read it as a roadmap of our times and
seems like we pasted justice a few miles back... When people become
distrustful of so essential a ritual as voting I begin to fear the end of
the road can't be too far ahead.

[Case continues]
> This suggests to me that if a society has to pass
> laws or use force to
> compel compliance then the battle for morality is
> already lost.

[SA]
This is how I view the girls I work with.  They
come to placement and we have to change their
behavior.  We use simple reward-consequence
conditioning, aside from some other methods (example: 
Time Out which uses this conditioning, but also
provides a moment of reflection).  These residents are
already in placement.  Society has institutionalized
programs to change negative behaviors.  Society
therefore knows and understands a need exists for
careers and placement institutions to be set-up ahead
of time, for the girls will be coming.  Trouble exists
in society.  The immoral behavior of spitting,
hitting, holding hostage via demands or else, thus,
verbally threatening physical hostile behaviors of
some residents, and others fearing something and
wanting to run away from it (thus run from home or
school [truancy].  These seeds have sprouted, society
knows it, and is trying to plug up the holes, and
concrete institutions arise.  The morality of society
already lost puts me into battle position.  I have to
at times face these residents with no pity, and if
they see terror as I come, then this is only due to
their already existing immoral behavior.  We are
trying to change something the residents have acquired
to be rewarding, useful, and 'the right way' to get
out of life what they deem necessary.  This negative
behavior has been reinforced, and we are trying to
change the direction of the tide.  The upswelling of
something goes astray, and society is not facing down
and ridding the origin of these upswellings.  We're
putting up dams and building bigger Titanics to
overcome these momentous, inertia bound, massive
waves. 

[Case]
Individuals in institutions are almost by definition those who have lost The
Way. But notice the language of your comments. You are describing the state
of affairs in behavioral terms: reinforcement, rewards, consequence and
conditioning. I am guessing these are the terms used in your work place. I
would recommend reading a bit of Skinner, Walden Two might be a good one. It
is an oversimplification of course but what motivates us all is fear of loss
and hope of gain. The trick for the behavioral therapist is to figure out
where the subject's hopes lie. It sounds like your charges are pretty messed
up. They also sound like they understand this principle pretty well and like
to jack you and your co-workers around with it. That seems typical. Have you
considered a career change?