[Buddha-l] Re: Can an Air Force cadet have Buddha nature?

[Dan Lusthaus]

> > > people can see that not all
> > > Buddhists are quietists, not all Christians are fundamentalists, not
all
> > > Jews are Zionists, not all Muslims are terrorists, not all Jains are
> > > self-starving nudists and so forth.

> Time to learn to read more carefully, my friend. [...] All I said is that
not all Jews are Zionists.
> And that I know for a fact is true. I think if you'll read the full
> context of what I wrote you'll see that my point was that all religious
> groups tend to be stereotyped by outsiders.

I can read well enough to see that the list of qualities is far from a
neutral list of stereotyped metonymies. The subgroups are all "negative"
images. In a discussion of how Buddhists can become more prominently engaged
AS Buddhists in political causes, "quietists" would be deadweight. Recent
posts make clear what you think of Christian fundamentalists. "Terrorists"
speaks for itself. Nude starvationists strikes nonJains as abhorrent,
whatever the karmic justification.

So that just leaves "Zionists."

Or turn it around. Should MORE Buddhists be quietists? More Muslims
terrorists? More Jains starvationists?

Apparently you are implying something negative would be the case if more
Jews were Zionists, further implying that the non-objectionable type of Jew
would be a non-Zionist.

"Stereotypes?" You may be able to dazzle your undergrads with these sorts of
rhetorical tricks; to the rest of us they are transparent. If you say it, at
least own up to it... Right Speech and all that....

cheers,
Dan