The first Taoists were individualists who abandoned society as hopelessly lost. They viewed social life as burdensome, weighing people down with duties and obligations to family and others. These cause more unhappiness than happiness. They saw the Tao as the way of nature, uncorrupted by human culture. Hence they took to living as self-sufficient hermits in the woods, seeking their own happiness, freedom, and peace by living alone in harmony with nature.
What do you think? Is society good or bad for the individual? Are the duties and conventions of Confucianism a help or hindrance to people? Why?