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

[Michael J. Wilson]

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. 

>>>>>I know Bhutan has a King (who likes to play basketball) but there is nothing wrong with building on existing traditions to solve existing problems without grafting foreign models.  The so called "democratic" system in the US and later GB came not from ancient Greece but from the Confederacy of the Six Nations - an indigenous form of government.  Whatever good social values the Bhutanese have should be used to built on, not deconstruct.<<<<<<<

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complexities, but for today will prove terribly outdated. 

>>>>I think what Sivaraksa is doing is advocating for a preservation of values, ethics, and traditional ways of knowing.  He is not "yearning for a conservative regime".  He is a self confessed "red tory".  He is yearning for authenticity, integrity, and anything that is not artifice.<<<<<<<

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. T

<<<<<Sulak's reaction to "modernization" is kind of the same as George Oshawa, the inventor of the "Macrobiotic" diet.  He was literally sick of the impact of "modernization and science" on Japanese culture.  People were getting sick because of the foods they werer eating.  They had forgotten that the healthiest diets were found in the mountains eaten by monks - rice, vegetables - you see what I mean, not the junk being packaged by globalized corporations.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<


Stefan

2006/8/30, Michael J. Wilson :
>
> 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

 		
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