[Buddha-l] Re: . Sangha model for running a country? Possible?

[Stefan Detrez]

Dear Michael,

I won't be so sure about the actual benefits of a political structure built
on the model of the sangha. Its original form had much of a monarchy, maybe
even quite ironically, a despotic one.Maybe it will present itself as a
theocracy, just like Tibet's religious identity. One single person, some
sort of obligatory sarvajnanin, deciding on a multitude of social, economic
and cultural issues seems not to be a sufficiently powerful source for
political stability.
It's curious that Sivaraksa should yearn for a conservative regime like that
of Bhutan's, which, maybe 100 years ago could handle its world's
complexities, but for today will prove terribly outdated. The story doesn't
also explain why he prefers it. In fact, he's making an ignoratio elenchi,
claiming one thing and proving another: '100-year-ago Bhutan stands as model
for good politics, because the Western political system are corrupt.' It's
SO easy to be critical of the West, an upcoming synonym for americanism, as
if it were a trend worldwide, yet those same people would be amazed how life
would look like without the accomplishments of the West. Those very same
accomplishments which will help preserve the customs and traditions ... in
digital format.

Stefan

2006/8/30, Michael J. Wilson <michaeljameswilson at yahoo.com>:
>
> This is the "red tory" Sulak Sivaraksa view exactly.  MJW
>
> - He said that the sangha model was used to run Bhutan some 100 years ago
> and could still be referred to pull out positive aspects so Bhutan could
> itself become a model for rest of the world. "With the western democracy you
> cannot stop corruption," he said. "That is evident in the British and
> American elections which are filled with it."The advent of western
> modernisation in Thailand started a century ago before it came to Bhutan,
> and he said that his country adopted western democracy at the expense of
> Buddhism.
> "That's where we went wrong as our elites embraced modernisation at the
> cost of our own tradition and culture," Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa told Kuensel.
> "Now our invaluable tradition and culture lives only in the form of dance
> and music and not as a way of life." -
>
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-- 
Born, never asked.

- Laurie Anderson
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