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

[jkirk]

Pol Pot actually didn't try to go back to the "pure past." He tried to 
eliminate the past, getting rid of monks and monasteries, civil 
organizations, etc. He was into radical communism, forcing everybody to work 
in the fields and only for the state, klling everybody who disagreed with 
his policies or who were of the social classes he wished to eliminate. Much 
scarier than a return to the past, surely. Sivaraksa, whatever his failings 
might be, wouldn't approve of such a regime.
But as I wrote earlier on this article: where is the evidence that allowing 
"the sangha" to run a country would be any better than what the Thais have 
now?
Joanna
==========================
jehms wrote:
This scares me. It could have been written by Poll Pot. Going back to
the pure past by keeping the strangers out. I know his reputation as the
uncrowned king of engaged Buddhism, but here he shows a very naïve
view on the possibilities of social enginering. It's very modern, He doesn't
seem to understand that history is not under control.


Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
weblog http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950

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