[Buddha-l] Marx and Buddhism

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

jkirk schreef:

> Marx was unable to foresee the national/international development of 
> the arms industries. Because of these, instablity and mass destruction 
> are far worse than what he foresaw, as the world-wide arms trade 
> facilitates black governments and black economies.
> I haven't been able to discover what he thought of Buddhism as yet. If 
> he had a view, probably he found it to be unpolitical and perhaps even 
> supportive mainly of elites. Perhaps someone here knows what he 
> actually thought about it.
> Joanna

A very important issue for Marx is the premacy of the material world over thoughts i.e. the way you earn your money determines the way you think. And this holds for a group or a class as well. I wonder if the Buddha would approve of this alternative the karma theory. Marx thought about the equal distribution of power, i.e. means of production, not about nirvaa.na. But the first one is very usefull for the last one, so they're not totally unrelated. 
Marx is still interesting because he explains much of the influence things have on us. This is why more recent philosophers, like Baudrillard and Bourdieu still are inspired by his writings. Off course he's right in many things, but most conservatives didn't read his writings because they took him to be their personal ennemy (they have plenty of personal ennemies). Both he and Adam Smith are right in some way, why not learn from both? Marx was a bit to much influenced by Hegel and that's why he thought his theory to be a science, but he's not guilty of Poll Pot or Castro.   

Erik


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