[Buddha-l] What's wrong with a little Dharma?

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Tue, 2005-08-30 at 15:36 -0400, Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> This degree of organization, ubiquity, and successfully executed planning
> hardly merits the diminuitive label "cult-like." There is hardly an sphere
> of public devoid of this "cult's" influence, and in many spheres increasing
> control: Federal, State and Local governments; the military; health care;
> the judiciary; the media (popular and news); entertainment industry; etc.

The local cable television server, Comcast, has recently re-organized
its listings to make them more "convenient to viewers." The result is
that all the "news" networks are clustered together, with Fox "news"
right in the middle with its fair and balanced reporting. Fox used to be
much more difficult to find. In fact, I had no idea where it was until
about a month ago when seeing the flick "Outfoxed" aroused my morbid
curiosity. But now if anyone flips through the news channels they're
bound to pass through Fox. And right next to the news networks are about
a dozen Christian networks all lined up in a neat row, so you can go
right from the news to the propaganda to the NASCAR races with a few
easy clicks. Isn't that convenient? (Of course if you're interested in
seeing Jewish or Buddhist programming, forget it.) 

> (let's face it, Fox News is the most popular source of News in this
> country, with growing influence overseas -- it tells its viewers not only
> what to think, but how to out argue anyone with a divergent view

Does saying "Shut up!" and "Cut his mike!" qualify as an argument?

> What's a Buddhist to do? Chanting Om won't be any more effective against
> this growing scourge than it's been chasing the Chinese out of Lhasa.

How quickly you forget, Dan! Let me remind you that the FBI managed to
destabilize the Koresh cult in Waco by blasting recordings of Tibetan
chanting at them at high volumes around the clock. I reckon if we all
turned our sound systems way up and bathed them in the sound of 1000
Burmese monks chanting "Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasambuddhassa",
we could win this holy war, even if the Christians resorted to using
Brooks and Dunn. (Of course if they use the ultimate weapon, Celine
Dion, we're finished. But they wouldn't dare. Would they?)

-- 
Richard Hayes