[Buddha-l] RE: Buddhism and Politics - Buddhism and fascism

[Leigh Goldstein (d)]

It seems from my little knowledge of history that during WWII, some
supporting fascism saw a world conflict between a new capitalism/consumerism
based on greed and materialism, and communism also based on souless
materialism, and a traditional way of life based on
being/soul/spirituality/honor or higher values. Aside from the major Zen
master Yasutani Roshi, there is Heidegger in Europe as another example. Jews
were implicated by the fascists in capitalist commercialism (and also blamed
for communism/bolshevism). 
 
It is easy to see Buddhism, part of traditional feudal Japanese life,
opposed to Western political/religious systems (democracy, capitalism,
Christianity) that appeared to be threatening the Japanese way of life.
Buddhism doesn't appear to be inherently oriented toward democracy as a
political system any more than Christianity or Islam.
 
One of the impressive things about the historical Buddha was his relative
liberalism, at the dawn of history. Yet a supposedly deeply realized master
like Yasutani did not have enough political insight to see through fascist
propaganda (and as I understand it never acknowleged, recanted or apologized
for his anti-semitic fascism). 
 
In any case, this supports RH contention that institutional Buddhism tends
to the political right.
 
-Leigh
 
 
 
 
 
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/private/buddha-l/attachments/20050727/5d571ac0/attachment-0001.html