[Buddha-l] Getting real about Buddhism and capitalism

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

jkirk schreef:

> Lately some of us have been finding opportunities to critique current 
> national affairs
> via a Buddhist critique as well as a Marxist or some other critique. 
> That being the case, it is time, IMHO, to get real about what it is 
> that is corrupting and terrorizing the ordinary peoples of the entire 
> world and ruining their habitats and means of survival:
> the arms industry and trade. With that in mind, here are some 
> pertinent data, and I do not want to hear back the NRA argument that 
> weapons don't kill, people do.
> Joanna
>
You're right of course , Joanna. People kill... with weapons. If 
everything would depend on people, there would be no reason to prohibit 
any drug or poison. Since Marx philosophers have discovered the power 
things have on us, see Marshal McLUhan, Foucault, Heidegger, Latour and 
Baudrillard. Capitalism depends on greed. This is clear from The Wealth 
of the Nations by Asam Smith, who took the idea probably from the Fable 
of the Bees from Bernard de Mandeville. Mandeville argues that the 
economy thrives on wickedness and I think he is right. What strikes and 
annoys me is that some (mostly Tibetan) big shots of the sangha claim 
that their financial succes is a consequence of their holyness.


-- 

Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms