[Buddha-l] a question

[Jim Peavler]

You have apparently been reading an entirely different Whitman from the 
one I know and love.
I have never considered him a "patriot" although he did love Lincoln 
very much. He abhorred war and the suffering it caused.

He apparently believed in the unity of all things and the unity of man. 
He had a great dream for the US of A, considering it at last an 
opportunity for civilization, but was deeply disappointed by the 
boosterism and crassness and cruelty that arose instead.

Oh well.

On May 3, 2005, at 9:20 AM, Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> On Tue, 2005-05-03 at 02:41 -0400, Dante Rosati wrote:
>
>> what would the Buddha say to Walt Whitman?
>
> Gotama would start with something like this: "Don't write any more
> disgraceful propaganda rationalizing the unjustifiable American
> aggression against Mexico, and stop referring to Mexicans as
> uncultivated savages."
>
> Of course that was 160 years ago. If Whitman were alive today he would
> be trying to justify the illegal invasion of Iraq in about the same
> terms he once tried to justify the illegal invasion of Mexico. And
> Gotama (my Gotama, at any rate) would still be remonstrating with him
> about being such a knee-jerk patriot. I can't imagine Gotama having any
> sympathy at all with any kind of patriotism, especially the totally
> diseased sort of blind patriotism that has conquered the American mind.
>
> -- 
> Richard Hayes
> Department of Philosophy
> University of New Mexico
>
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