Tyler invokes it ('as the Daoists say') for the balance between ruthlessly cutting people off and his own small-town over-loyalty: any quality taken too far is negative.
Where it appears 1
Connections
Mentioned alongside
- Small-town loyalty that slaughtered him
In a small community you can't cut anyone off; they'll be at your cousin's wedding and at school the next day. Tyler entered the wider world extremely loyal and sentimental, unwilling to…