[Buddha-l] Re: Greetings from Oviedo

[Joy Vriens]

Dan Lusthaus wrote:

> all Muslims did
> was foment the resentment of the underprivileged toward their "oppressors,"
> promising that in Islam -- unlike Buddhism -- everyone is equal. Then those
> soon-to-Muslims-but-not-Muslims-yet-how-convenient did all the revolting and
> killing. The eerie similarity between this and the European myth of "Jewish
> capitalists" shouldn't escape the observant. The results were also similar.

Thanks for the historic summary.

Very eerie indeed. The instrumentalisation of populations, groups of 
population, classes etc. doing the dirty work has a long history of 
which we haven't seen the end (Reform, French & Russian Revolution, 
Vichy spring to mind, but there are of course many other exemples).

> As modern Buddhists see themselves as less and less amenable to becoming
> clerics (who can leave dealing with the power structure to the higher ups
> and people with that special calling - and monastic Buddhism is nothing
> without patronage, which is already a very ethically compromising
> situation), and lay citizens cannot remain responsible citizens without
> community and political involvement, then the ability to cultivate the
> skills necessary to do so effectively should become a priority.

Exit renunciation, a pretty substantial part of Buddhism. How Buddhist 
will Buddhism be without it?

> I mentioned
> in a previous message: "The left has fallen into mindless, ineffective
> demonization prattle, while the right has
> fallen into clever, effective demonization prattle." Recently the effective
> way the conservatives have undermined Bush's own Supreme Court nominee -- 
> mobilizing a variety of venues and effective arguments, has put her
> confirmation in doubt. The anti-Bushites could only dream of being so
> effective. A perhaps even more potent example can be found in today's New
> York Times: Liberals are flumoxed that all the opportunities opened by
> Katarina for turning the national debate in their favor have already been
> hijacked very effectively by the conservatives:

I am absolutely astonished by the absence of opposition (or efficient 
opposition as you seem to suggest) in the US (judging by the media, 
which is all I can judge it by), especially since Bush didn't have that 
big a victory and his aproval rates are dropping. Oh dear I mentioned 
the B-word.

Joy